An asbestos warning signal is seen at Victoria Park in in Sydney, Australia on February 29, 2024.

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Jenny Evans/Getty Images

An asbestos warning signal is seen at Victoria Park in in Sydney, Australia on February 29, 2024.

Jenny Evans/Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency introduced Monday that it’s banning the most typical type of asbestos, a cancer-causing substance that is linked to the deaths of tens of hundreds of Americans yearly.

The U.S. is prohibiting the usage of chrysotile asbestos, becoming a member of greater than 50 different nations which have already outlawed the substance. The ban comes after many years of pushback from corporations which have used it in every part from shopper items to manufacturing processes.

“The science is clear – asbestos is a known carcinogen that has severe impacts on public health,” EPA administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. “This action is just the beginning as we work to protect all American families, workers, and communities from toxic chemicals.”

People who inhale the tiny fibrous strands that make up asbestos can develop a slew of illnesses, together with lung and ovarian most cancers, asbestosis and mesothelioma. More than 40,000 deaths within the U.S. annually are related to asbestos publicity.

Most shopper products that after contained the substance previously now not do, corresponding to constructing supplies and family home equipment.

But the EPA’s ban targets sure merchandise that also carry asbestos, together with some gaskets and aftermarket automotive merchandise. It additionally phases out the usage of asbestos diaphragms by the chlor-alkali business, which produces varied chemical substances.

Arthur Frank, a professor of environmental and occupational well being at Drexel University, mentioned the rule does not outlaw all types of asbestos, and the substance nonetheless lurks in lots of present buildings and merchandise throughout the nation.

“This is not a total ban by any means,” Frank mentioned. “It is a modest step that reduces future exposures.”

Why it is taken so lengthy for the EPA to outlaw asbestos

Federal regulators mentioned Monday that the ban was the primary rule to be finalized underneath the up to date Toxic Substances Control Act, the nationwide chemical security legislation that was overhauled in 2016.

Previous makes an attempt to ban the usage of asbestos fell flat.

The EPA tried to ban asbestos outright within the late Nineteen Eighties, however corporations fought again. When the company introduced its 1989 prohibition on the usage of asbestos, there was a carve-out for the chlorine business.

Then, two years later, a panel of federal judges deemed the rule too onerous and overturned it, scuttling for many years any extra makes an attempt by the EPA to ban asbestos and different harmful chemical substances.

“An immediate ban on the import of chrysotile asbestos for the chlor-alkali industry is a long overdue step forward for public health,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., mentioned in an announcement. “However, it cannot be the end of the road when it comes to phasing out other dangerous asbestos fibers, and Congress has a role to play here when it comes to providing stronger protections for our health.”

What this ban will do

Though the usage of asbestos within the U.S. has been on the wane, it hasn’t vanished altogether.

The chlor-alkali business makes use of massive filters containing asbestos known as diaphragms to make chemical substances corresponding to sodium hydroxide and chlorine, which can be utilized to disinfect consuming water and wastewater.

The EPA is instantly banning the import of chrysotile asbestos for the business and requiring the eight chlor-alkali crops within the U.S. nonetheless utilizing asbestos diaphragms to section out their use.

Asbestos is not required to provide chlorine, the company famous, and two-thirds of the chlorine made within the U.S. is completed so with out the usage of asbestos.

Producers can have 5 years to transition from utilizing asbestos diaphragms to ones that do not comprise the substance. Those that shift from asbestos diaphragms to non-asbestos membrane know-how can have 5 years to transform their first facility, eight years to transform their second and 12 years to transform their third.

The ban additionally prohibits the usage of asbestos in sure merchandise. Oilfield brake blocks, aftermarket automotive brakes and linings, and different automobile friction merchandise and gaskets will likely be barred from containing asbestos six months after the rule’s efficient date.

Sheet gaskets containing asbestos may also be outlawed two years after the efficient date of the rule, although there will likely be exceptions when it is used to make titanium dioxide or for the disposal of nuclear materials.