The use of asbestos, a mineral fiber occurring in rock and soil, in building insulation was once commonplace in countries around the world, until its health risks as one of the most dangerous carcinogens ever used by the construction industry became widely known. For decades, its use has been banned in most countries, with the United States as one of the few developed nations in the world that has opted to put restrictions on the substance rather than ban its use entirely. 'New Uses' of Asbestos? Now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a framework that will create opportunities for "new uses" of asbestos. On June 1, the EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics announced plans for a "Significant New Use Rule" (SNUR) for the substance. SNURs are typically used to indicate the EPA's approval of a chemical being used in a significantly new way that "might create concerns," according to the government agency. While all currently banned uses of asbestos are expected to remain in place, the EPA has opted to create new avenues for asbestos use. The EPA said the proposal would affect a wide range of uses related to manufacturing that the EPA has identified as "no longer ongoing." Such uses would include "adhesive, sealants and roof and non-roof coatings; arc chutes; beater-add gaskets; extruded sealant tape and other tape; filler for acetylene cylinders; high-grade electrical paper; millboard; missile liner; pipeline wrap; reinforced plastics; roofing felt; separators in fuel cells and batteries; vinyl-asbestos floor type and any other building material (other than cement)," according to the EPA. If accepted, the proposal would mean that anyone seeking to use asbestos in the manufacturing of the above products would be required to notify the EPA at least 90 days before importing, processing or using the substance in manufacturing. "Manufacturing (including importing) and processing (including as part of an article) for the significant new use may not commence until EPA has conducted a review of the notice, made an appropriate determination on the notice and taken such actions as are required in association with that determination," according to the agency. Ignoring the Evidence? The recent proposal comes after the EPA published in May a document called the "Problem Formulation of the Risk Evaluation for Asbestos." The document lays out the EPA's planned approach for evaluating proposed "new uses" of asbestos. Interestingly, the agency's approach does not include consulting pre-existing information on the uses of asbestos, despite the fact that the health risks associated with such uses have been widely documented. 'Why Is It Dangerous?' According to Asbestos Nation, an organization that aims to raise awareness of the health risks of asbestos, as many as 12,000 to 15,000 people in the U.S. die as a result of exposure to the substance each year. The British government has warned on its Health and Safety Executive (HSE) website that asbestos, which it says "can be found in any building built before the year 2000," causes as many as "5,000 deaths every year" in the country. "Why is it dangerous?" the HSE website asks. "Asbestos still kills around 5,000 workers each year...more than the number of people killed on the road." It added that "around 20 tradesmen die each week as a result of past exposure." "When materials that contain asbestos are disturbed or damaged, fibers are released into the air...these fibers are inhaled," HSE explained on its website. "They can cause serious diseases. These diseases will not affect you immediately; they often take a long time to develop, but once diagnosed, it is often too late to do anything. This is why it is important to protect yourself now." The U.K. government website also warns of a number of "fatal and serious" diseases that can be caused by exposure to asbestos, including mesothelioma, a cancer that affects the lining of the lungs and the lining of the lower digestive tract, as well as asbestos-related lung cancer. Asbestosis, a "serious scarring condition of the lung," can cause "progressive shortness of breath and in severe cases can be fatal," the website warns. Pleural thickening, it adds, is also a problem that typically occurs after heavy asbestos exposure, with the lining of the lungs thickening and swelling, causing shortness of breath and discomfort. Related: Donald Trump called asbestos poisoning a mob-led conspiracy. Now his EPA won't evaluate asbestos already in homes By comparison, the EPA's website states that asbestos-related conditions "can be difficult to identify" but says that "three of the major health effects associated with asbestos exposure" are lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry warns that asbestos is a "dangerous substance" that "should be avoided," but it notes that "people who have contact with asbestos do not always develop health problems." The agency added that the risk of disease depends on "many factors," including how much asbestos is in the air, how long and how often exposure occurs and whether the person already has existing breathing conditions or smokes tobacco. Trump's Stance on Asbestos Before the Trump administration came into power, new uses of asbestos were banned as part of a widespread effort to phase out use of the substance. It is unclear how much Trump's personal stance on asbestos may have influenced his administration's decision. In his 1997 book, The Art of the Comeback, he claimed that the association of the substance with health risks was part of a "mob"-created conspiracy. "I believe that the movement against asbestos was led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal," Trump wrote in his book. "Great pressure was put on politicians, and as usual, the politicians relented." Last month, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization expressed concerns over Trump's "support of the asbestos industry." "Asbestos imports are on the rise, and our president has no plans to stop them," said Linda Reinstein, president and co-founder of ADAO, whose husband died in 2006 after developing mesothelioma, in a statement published online. She noted that according to the U.S. International Trade Commission the chemical industry had spent $500,000 importing nearly 260 tons of asbestos from Russia and Brazil from January to April of this year–a number that was four times greater than that brought in during the same period in 2017. Related: Trump's face stamped on Russian asbestos products tied to Putin Environmental Working Group President Ken Cook said in a statement online that "Vladimir Putin and Russia's asbestos industry stands to prosper mightily as a result of the Trump Administration's failure to ban asbestos in the U.S." He added, "Helping Putin and Russian oligarchs amass fortunes by selling a product that kills thousands each year should never be the role of a U.S. president or the EPA, but this is the Trump administration. Russia's interests are Trump's interests, and any clear-eyed American knows it." The accusation comes after Russian mining giant Uralasbest started stamping pallets of its asbestos product with seals of the U.S. president's face, along with the words "Approved by Donald Trump." The company shared images of the stamped products on Facebook. Reinstein said the ADAO has urged both Trump and Putin "to recognize the dangers of asbestos and end mining and use of this deadly carcinogen. "The time is now to put people before profits to end the deadly asbestos man-made disaster."<doc-sep>Despite decades-old research identifying asbestos as a dangerous carcinogen, the Environmental Protection Agency recently proposed a new framework that could allow new uses for the toxic chemical in manufacturing. The United States has imposed strict regulations on asbestos use rather than banning it altogether, unlike dozens of other developed nations. Asbestos was widely used in construction until the 1970s, when research linked the chemical to lung cancer and mesothelioma, among other diseases. The EPA released the new proposal, known as a "significant new use rule," in June, detailing how companies can find new ways to use asbestos that will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Some of the products that may now involve asbestos in the manufacturing process include adhesives, sealants, pipeline wrap, and several others. Trump’s EPA is bringing back asbestos, making cars less fuel efficient, and Trump himself just said a very weird and unscientific thing about CA wildfires. This the worst administration in modern history for our environment. We need a Dem Congress for the sake of the planet. — Brian Schatz (@brianschatz) August 7, 2018 In a statement sent to NBC News, EPA spokesman James Hewitt wrote that "the press reports on this issue are inaccurate. Without the proposed Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) EPA would not have a regulatory basis to restrict manufacturing and processing for the new asbestos uses covered by the rule. The EPA action would prohibit companies from manufacturing, importing, or processing for these new uses of asbestos unless they receive approval from the EPA." The EPA's report comes after the agency conducted its first review of 10 chemicals, as required by a 2016 Obama-era amendment to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act, which requires the agency to constantly reevaluate the harmfulness of toxic chemicals. But the way the EPA is approaching evaluating chemicals changed under the Trump administration and former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt. The agency now focuses on how chemicals potentially cause harm through direct contact in the workplace, not taking into account improper disposal or other means of contamination that could affect the public — a huge win for chemical industry lobbyists. While the proposal does not appear to roll back regulations that are already in place, it opens the door to new uses for asbestos as long as companies notify the EPA at least 90 days in advance and are approved. The proposal is open for comment until August 10. Asbestos was one of the first carcinogens regulated under the Clean Air Act in 1973 (Nixon was president) and then was largely banned in 1989 (George HW Bush was president). No amount of asbestos is safe. Yet, the Trump administration is #MAGA or making asbestos great again: https://t.co/J2JF5zjb1n — Chelsea Clinton (@ChelseaClinton) August 7, 2018 Asbestos-related disease advocacy groups have come out as strongly critical of the proposed rule, arguing that providing more ways for companies to use the chemical is undeniably dangerous. "I think that we need to look at an absolute ban," said Mary Hesdorffer, executive director of the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation. "We're supposed to be a leading nation, setting an example... We have really let down all of our partners by not banning this substance, there's just no excuse because there's no doubt — it's a known carcinogen." Workers set up vacuums to remove sand contaminated with asbestos dust in Washington Market Park, Sunday, Sept. 30, 2001 near ground zero in New York. The Environmental Protection Agency confirmed that tests of the playground sand contained asbestos dust from the Sept. 11 terrorist attack and subsequent collapse of the World Trade Center towers. SUZANNE PLUNKETT / AP Hesdorffer also noted that mesothelioma-related deaths have been on the rise for years. According to a 2017 Center for Disease Control report, this trend "suggests ongoing occupational and environmental exposures to asbestos fibers and other causative EMPs, despite regulatory actions by the Occupational Safety and health Administration (OSHA) and the Environmental Protection Agency aimed at limiting asbestos exposure." Hersdorffer added that "any fiber of asbestos can be deadly" and that this new framework would only add to the number of mesothelioma diagnoses in young people. "Most people only know about mesothelioma from the commercials," Hersdorffer said. "It's not the 70-year-old white guy with the oxygen tank any longer. The public has a skewed perception of who the mesothelioma patient is today. It could be your daughter, son, your niece or nephew. It's mind-boggling."<doc-sep>
Critics of the rule say it doesn't go far enough to ban the toxic material. The Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward on a proposal that would require companies to get EPA approval to manufacture and import asbestos, a move that officials say would "close the door" on uses for asbestos that could resume at any time under the current law. A rule proposed by the EPA says the agency has identified several areas where asbestos is no longer used, such as roofing materials, and would require that any company that wants to manufacture or import asbestos for that purpose has to notify the agency at least 90 days in advance. The uses for asbestos that the rule covers are not illegal. The EPA has banned some uses for asbestos, like spray-on insulation, but a ban on most products that contain asbestos proposed in 1989 was later overturned by a federal appeals court. Many companies voluntarily stopped using the products, but Nancy Beck, deputy assistant administrator in the EPA chemical safety office, said without the rule they could start using them again at any time. "We're really closing the door on those uses that are not happening now, but there's nothing preventing them from starting," Beck told ABC News. Beck said that even though asbestos is no longer used for things like floor tiles, wrapping pipe, or roofing materials there is nothing to stop companies from resuming using those materials that include asbestos at any time. "If somebody wanted to start doing it there's nothing preventing them. So we wanted to sort of look at the whole landscape and make sure that if anyone started a use we would be able to evaluate it," she said. But advocates say the rule still opens the door to give some companies that approval and that the EPA should ban asbestos completely because of the health risks. Breathing asbestos can increase the risk of lung cancer, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and people who work with asbestos are even more likely to develop lung problems. A campaign by the Environmental Working Group says that between 12,000 and 15,000 Americans die from asbestos-related illnesses every year. That group also pointed out last month that a Russian company that is one of the world's biggest asbestos producers stamped President Donald Trump's face on its palettes of asbestos and posted on Facebook thanking him and former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt for excluding some uses of asbestos from the agency's risk assessment. Melanie Benesh, legislative attorney for the Environmental Working Group, said the EPA is not considering the impact of exposure to asbestos from old buildings or health effects other than cancer in its analysis under the toxic chemicals law passed in 2016. She said the EPA is behind other developed countries by not banning asbestos and that its a "very big public health concern" if the agency is limiting the scope of its risk evaluation in a way that makes it more likely to find less risk associated with asbestos. "Asbestos is a carcinogen regardless of whether it's in building material that was installed 40 years ago or whether it's in a newly manufactured product," she said. "Cancer doesn't distinguish between these two uses so when EPA is evaluating asbestos we think they should take a comprehensive look." On Tuesday, Chelsea Clinton tweeted an article about the EPA proposal in The Architects Newspaper that reported the EPA rule allowed asbestos in construction materials, which EPA spokesman James Hewitt said was inaccurate, commenting that the Trump administration is "making asbestos great again." Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization President Linda Reinstein tweeted that the proposal was "shocking" and "disgusting" and said it would increase asbestos imports to the U.S. EPA officials pushed back on this criticism, saying that the chemical law passed in 2016 requires them to go through a risk evaluation process before they completely ban chemicals like asbestos. They said the rule does not encourage asbestos use at all but puts a rigorous review process in place where there previously wasn't any regulation. "The uses that are covered in the significant new use rule can come to market prior to the SNUR being proposed at any time with no knowledge, no evaluation," Charlotte Bertrand, acting principal assistant administrator in the EPA chemical office told ABC News.