Posted on January 25, 2022

ADAO’s Request for an Extension was Granted — The new EPA deadline is March 1, 2022

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) is pleased that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently took a critical step in fulfilling its long-delayed obligation to evaluate the risks of legacy asbestos under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). The Part 2 risk evaluation will finally provide a robust and comprehensive evaluation of legacy asbestos that can be found in millions of homes, schools, and workplaces. 

The Agency’s Part 1 Chrysotile Asbestos Risk Evaluation was riddled with dangerous gaps and omissions, and most importantly, excluded legacy uses and associated disposals. EPA’s commitment to finally conducting the Part 2 evaluation resulted from a suit filed by ADAO, several other public health organizations, and leading scientists. The parties agreed to settle this case with a consent decree that establishes an enforceable deadline of December 1, 2024 for EPA to complete the evaluation.

On December 29, 2021, EPA released its draft Part 2 scoping document. When finalized, this  document will provide a roadmap for how EPA will conduct the Part 2 evaluation by identifying the conditions of use and exposure and the risk pathways EPA plans to analyze, the information sources it intends to access, and the analytical tools it expects to apply. 

EPA has provided a 45-comment period so stakeholders like ADAO and our partner organizations have the opportunity to recommend improvements in the draft. The deadline for comments is now March 1, 2021. After reviewing the comments, EPA will issue a final scoping document. We need all organizations and experts familiar with the management and risks of legacy asbestos to submit data and recommendations by the deadline. EPA must receive the best information and advice because this evaluation will determine whether current modes of handling, maintaining, repairing and disposing of legacy asbestos in buildings, factories, products and articles present an unreasonable risk of injury to human health and the environment. 

If EPA determines that current use and handling of legacy asbestos presents an unreasonable risk, TSCA requires the Agency to impose requirements that manage or eliminate the risk. These requirements could be critical in reducing asbestos-related death and disease from legacy asbestos exposure. The last time EPA did a legacy study was nearly 40 years ago, in 1984. Now, we finally have the chance to go back and correct the decades-long man-made disaster that is legacy asbestos. 

Over 40,000 Americans die annually as a result of asbestos-caused diseases. Scientists and public health experts universally agree that there is no safe level of exposure to asbestos. Legacy asbestos is now subject to many federal, state and local laws that govern exposure in the workplace and schools, and seek to protect construction and maintenance workers, teachers and the general public from unsafe conditions — but the risk evaluation must take these laws into account and decide whether they effectively prevent asbestos-related deaths and disease. 

The scoping document indicates that the Part 2 evaluation will address chrysotile, crocidolite, amosite, anthophyllite, tremolite and actinolite forms of asbestos as well as winchite and richterite, which are known as Libby Amphibole Asbestos.

While we are pleased this scoping document is in the works, we call on  Congress to ban asbestos once and for all, and to join the nearly 70 industrialized countries that have already made this important change. Our lives depend on it.  

Linda Reinstein

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