The Environmental Protection Agency is reconsidering the former administration’s decision to ban the ongoing use of chrysotile asbestos. EPA officials asked an appeals court for a 30-month pause to evaluate whether it reverses the asbestos ban completely, parts of it or none of it.
Asbestos ban advocates, cancer survivors and the medical community say a potential reversal of the Biden administration’s 2024 ban of chrysotile asbestos is an outrageous decision that will put thousands of lives at risk to asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma and lung cancer.
“The EPA’s motion to delay and potentially reverse the 2024 Part 1 Chrysotile Asbestos Rule is deeply alarming. Every 13 minutes, someone in the U.S. dies from an asbestos-caused disease,” Linda Reinstein, president and co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, an advocacy nonprofit, told The Mesothelioma Center. “If this ban is reversed, more Americans will be exposed, more families will suffer, and more lives will be lost — all because of the ongoing legal challenge to the rule.”
