Asbestos ban
The asbestos ban refers to a series of regulatory measures implemented primarily in the United States to prohibit the use of asbestos, a known carcinogen, in various products and applications. Initially popular for its fire-resistant and insulating properties, asbestos was widely used in construction materials and consumer products until the 1970s, when scientific research established its link to serious health issues, including asbestosis and mesothelioma. Following increasing awareness of these dangers, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began to impose restrictions and bans on asbestos-containing materials, with significant actions taken in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Despite the EPA’s efforts to restrict the use of asbestos, legal challenges and enforcement issues have complicated the complete elimination of this substance. The Chemical Safety Act of 2016 mandated a further ban on chrysotile asbestos, with specific phaseouts scheduled for certain industries. Nonetheless, concerns persist regarding compliance with safety regulations, particularly in schools and federal buildings, where inspections have often fallen short. The ongoing challenges highlight the lasting impact of asbestos in the environment and public health, underscoring the need for continued vigilance and regulation.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Asbestos ban
The 1970s brought attention to the fact that asbestos is a cancer-causing agent that has no known safe level of exposure. At the time, it was used in a wide variety of applications that exposed humans to its ill effects.
Asbestos comes from a group of six mined silicate minerals that contain long, flexible fibers. The fibers are not affected by heat, electricity, friction, or most chemicals, making asbestos a useful material for insulation and fire retardation. Because of these properties, it was common practice prior to and during the 1970s to wrap pipes in steam-heating systems with asbestos and to cover ceilings in many public buildings with it. It was also used in roofing materials, flooring adhesive, vehicle brake shoes and clutch pads, cement, plastics, paint, and thousands of other products.
By 1971, scientific researchers had determined that the inhalation of asbestos fibers could cause a chronic lung disorder known as asbestosis and a unique form of cancer, mesothelioma, as well as contribute to other forms of lung cancer. These diseases can develop as long as fifty years after exposure to the material. However, no definite link to lung disease was then established with nonoccupational exposure of humans to the most commonly used form of asbestos, chrysotile (white asbestos). In 1971, health laws were established in the United States putting limits on the amount of allowable exposure to asbestos.
When the fledgling Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposed an outright asbestos ban in the early 1970s, many manufacturing companies that used asbestos in their products raised stiff opposition. In 1976, the US Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) mandating the EPA to monitor myriad industrial chemicals that posed environmental or human health hazards, including asbestos. Any chemicals found to pose an unreasonable risk could be banned by the EPA. Shortly thereafter, the EPA banned the use of most friable asbestos products and initiated a campaign to remove asbestos from schools. By the late 1970s, several major kinds of acoustical materials, spray-applied insulation, and fireproofing that contained asbestos had been banned by the EPA.
Subsequent Events
In 1989, the EPA extended the consequences of the TSCA by banning the vast majority of all asbestos applications, requiring that asbestos in consumer products be completely phased out by 1997. In October 1991, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned this ruling, deeming it “onerous,” and modified the ban to apply to a much smaller group of products that contain asbestos. As a result of the Chemical Safety Act of 2016, the EPA also banned the import and use of chrysotile asbestos in 2024, with phaseouts to be implemented in the automotive parts and chlor-alkali industries, where it was still in use.
Despite these efforts, however, compliance and enforcement remain issues. According to a Brookings Institution analysis in 2021, many US school districts had not adequately addressed their inspection, planning, prevention, and mitigation responsibilities under the 1986 Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), and the think tank recommended measures to increase transparency and accountability. Similarly, buildings managed by the federal General Services Administration are supposed to be inspected for asbestos every five years, but in 2024, more than 60 percent were beyond that threshold and more than half had not been inspected in over a decade.
Impact
The asbestos-ban program of the 1970s significantly reduced the number of products containing asbestos in the United States and drastically depressed the production of asbestos. It laid the groundwork for a twenty-first-century regulatory ban intended to eliminate asbestos completely from the marketplace as well as related legislation to protect workers and consumers. Asbestos nonetheless continues to pose significant problems, including residual effects from earlier production and the disposal of materials that contain asbestos.
Bibliography
Carroll, Stephen J. Asbestos Litigation Costs and Compensation. Rand Institute for Civil Justice, 2002.
Daly, Matthew. “EPA Bans Asbestos, Still in Use Decades after Partial Ban.” AP News, 18 Mar. 2024, apnews.com/article/epa-asbestos-cancer-brakes-biden-72b0fa8b36adedaff6000034d35c2acd. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.
Ghura, Alisa, and Camille Busette. “The Danger of America’s Forgotten Battle with Asbestos.” Brookings Institution, 26 Aug. 2021, www.brookings.edu/articles/the-danger-of-americas-forgotten-battle-with-asbestos/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.
Hernandez, Joe. “The U.S. Bans Most Common Form of Asbestos, after Decades of Pushback from Industry.” NPR, 18 Mar. 2024, www.npr.org/2024/03/18/1239299448/the-u-s-bans-most-common-form-of-asbestos-after-decades-of-pushback-from-industr. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.
Phillips, Anna. “U.S. Fully Bans Asbestos, Which Kills 40,000 a Year.” The Washington Post, 18 Mar. 2024, www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2024/03/18/chrysotile-asbestos-ban-epa/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.
Schneider, Andrew. An Air That Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana, Uncovered a National Scandal. Putnam, 2004.
Weisner, Molly. “Two-Thirds of Federal Buildings Miss Required Asbestos Checks.” Federal Times, Federal Times, 4 Mar. 2024, www.federaltimes.com/federal-oversight/watchdogs/2024/03/04/two-thirds-of-federal-buildings-miss-required-asbestos-checks/. Accessed 22 Mar. 2024.