Emails show EPA staff split over rule on asbestos use
WASHINGTON — Top officials at the Environmental Protection Agency pushed through a measure to review applications for using asbestos in consumer products, and did so over the objections of EPA’s in-house scientists and attorneys, internal agency emails show.
The clash over the proposal exposes the tensions within the EPA over the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back environmental rules and rewrite other regulations industries have long fought.
Asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral and known carcinogen, was once common in insulation and fireproofing materials, but most developed countries ban it today. The United States still allows limited use in products including gaskets, roofing materials and sealants.
The proposed new rule would create a new process for regulating uses of asbestos, something the EPA is obliged to do under a 2016 amendment to a toxic substances law.
The EPA says it is toughening oversight. However, the way its new rule is written has spawned a spirited debate over whether it will actually make it easier for asbestos to come back into more widespread use. Consumer groups say the agency should be looking for ways to prohibit asbestos entirely.
“The new approach raises significant concerns about the potential health impacts,” wrote Sharon Cooperstein, an EPA policy analyst, in one of the emails. She, along with a veteran EPA scientist and a longtime agency attorney, said the proposal as designed left open the possibility that businesses could start using asbestos in some cases without getting the government’s assessment, putting the public at risk.
The asbestos plan, which was introduced with little fanfare in June, stems from the EPA’s responsibility to regulate chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act and fulfill an Obama-era amendment that requires the agency to regularly re-evaluate the harmfulness of toxic materials. Asbestos is the most prominent of the current batch of substances the EPA is deciding how best to regulate in the future.
The Trump administration has made government deregulation — of environmental rules, banking guidelines and myriad other regulatory areas — a centerpiece of its policy agenda, and the EPA has been at the forefront of the effort. In recent weeks the agency detailed one of its most significant efforts, a major weakening of federal auto emissions regulations.
The United States tried to ban asbestos use in the 1970s, but that effort was overturned by the federal courts in 1991. However the ruling did retain a ban on new uses of asbestos. Because of that (and the potential legal liability), use of asbestos declined in the United States.
Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts is leading an effort among Democratic state attorneys to fight the asbestos plan, calling it a threat to human health. Exposure to asbestos has been linked to lung cancer, mesothelioma and other ailments.
“In recent years, tens of thousands have died from mesothelioma and other diseases caused by exposure to asbestos and other dangerous chemicals,” she said. “If the Trump administration’s erosion of federal chemical safety rules continues, it will endanger our communities and the health of all Americans.”
The United States no longer mines or manufactures asbestos. Until recently, Brazil had been the source of about 95 percent of all asbestos used in the U.S., according to the EPA, but last year that country banned its manufacture and sale. Since then, Russia has stepped in as a supplier.
The new EPA proposal is called a “significant new-use rule” that sets out the guidelines for what types of asbestos uses the federal government considers risky enough to evaluate and perhaps restrict or ban. The EPA intends to finalize the asbestos rule this year.