Medical and scientific experts are among the 17 new petitioners to join the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization’s push for judicial review of the EPA’s recent chrysolite asbestos ban. 

In a press release, Linda Reinstein, co-founder and President of ADAO, stated that although the ban is a significant step toward shielding Americans from exposure to the deadly material, “it falls short of providing the comprehensive protections we deserve.”

The new petitioners include 12 experts who have devoted their careers to researching the health effects of asbestos and treating patients with asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma. The experts are:

• Henry A. Anderson, MD 
• Brad Black, MD 
• Barry Castleman, ScD 
• Raja Flores, MD 
• Arthur Frank, MD, PhD 
• Phil Landrigan, MD, MSc
• Richard Lemen, PhD, MSPH
• Steven Markowitz, MD, DrPH
• Jacqueline Moline, MD, MSc 
• Celeste Monforton, DrPH, MPH 
• Christine Oliver, MD, MPH, MSc
• Andrea Wolf, MD, MPH

The other new petitioners include the American Public Health Association

 and Collegium Ramazzini, which have promoted public policy based on the best available science on asbestos’s harmful properties.

The rest are the FealGood Foundation, a tireless advocate for emergency responders, and the Vandenberg Professional Firefighters and Fort Myer Professional Firefighters. Both emergency responders and firefighters are at risk for asbestos exposure. 

Details of the EPA Asbestos Ban

The EPA announced on March 18 that it would start banning chrysolite, the final known type of asbestos still used in the United States. Chrysotile was imported into the U.S. as recently as 2022 to produce diaphragms for making sodium hydroxide and chlorine, commonly used to disinfect wastewater and drinking water.

Although the EPA action immediately banned the import of asbestos for use in the chlorine industry, it allowed six facilities to complete the switch to non-chrysolite diaphragms within five years. The agency gave a seventh plant eight years to transition, while another facility is allowed up to 12 years to make the switch. 

ADAO, Unions, and Others Want Stricter Asbestos Measures

In April, the ADAO and the United Steelworkers asked the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to review the EPA ban because they say it doesn’t protect workers handling existing chrysolite gaskets in refineries, chemical plants, and other facilities. 

The ban also doesn’t address exposure to legacy asbestos such as crocidolite (riebeckite), amosite (cummingtonite-grunerite), anthophyllite, tremolite and actinolite, plus richterite and winchite-asbestos. Tremolite and anthophyllite have been found in talcum powder consumer products.

In addition, chrysolite imported into the USA decades ago still exists in materials used to construct buildings from the 1930s through the 1970s, some of which are still standing today. 

Asbestos safety advocates aren’t the only ones who want a review of the EPA ban. The American Chemistry Council and its Georgia, Ohio, and Texas affiliates filed petitions to weaken the EPA’s rule. 

Last month, a judicial panel consolidated all the petitions and assigned them to the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana.