Posted on January 30, 2018

Turn your anger into action and sign a petition to the U.S. EPA Now — We Need an Asbestos Ban Without Loopholes or Exemptions.

Thanks to you, there are over 11,000 signatures supporting the June 2017 Ban Asbestos in the US Now, Without Loopholes or Exceptions petition!

ADAO Presents US Senate EPW Ranking Member Carper with Over 11,000 Signatures Urging the “EPA to Ban Asbestos Without Loopholes or Exemptions”

ADAO has been a stakeholder in prevention and policy to ban asbestos to eliminate deadly diseases since its inception in 2004, but we aren’t alone. Standing by our side have been many public health environmental organizations including the American Public Health Association, Center for Asbestos Related Disease, Environmental Information Association, Environmental Working Group, Global Ban Asbestos Network, Less Cancer, Natural Resources Defense Council, Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, and Associação Brasileira dos Expostos ao Amianto.

Since we launched the petition, Sen. Jeff Merkley sponsored and introduced The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2017 (S.2072) with seven supportive cosponsors; Senators Booker (D-NJ), Durbin (D-IL), Feinstein (D-CA), Markey (D-MA), Sanders (I-VT), Tester (D-MT), and Whitehouse (D-RI).

These ten facts are irrefutable: 

  1. Asbestos kills 15,000 Americans each year.
  2. Asbestos has been known to cause deadly diseases for more than a century.
  3. There is no safe or controlled use of asbestos.
  4. During 1999–2015, the annual number of malignant mesothelioma deaths increased by 4.8 percent.
  5. Asbestos imports nearly doubled in 2016.
  6. The U.S. is the only industrialized Western nation to not yet ban asbestos.
  7. The American Chemistry Council (ACC) is lobbying the EPA for another exemption to import and use asbestos to manufacture chlorine and caustic soda.
  8. The EPA’s risk evaluation document will not ban asbestos and excludes legacy exposure and the Libby Amphibole.  
  9. The Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act of 2017 (S.2072) would expedite asbestos regulation to ban asbestos in 18 months, versus 5-7 years.
  10. The EPA has had numerous meetings with industry importers, users, and the American Chemistry Council (ACC).

It’s simple.

The EPA has put decades of time and dollars into researching asbestos — they have all the data they need to ban this killer completely — without any loopholes or exemptions that allow greedy corporations to keep using it. Sign the petition to tell the U.S. EPA Now — We Need an Asbestos Ban Without Loopholes or Exemptions.

Linda

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