HealthDay Reporter
WEDNESDAY, April 6, 2022 (HealthDay Information) — A proposed rule to ban ongoing makes use of of the one recognized type of asbestos imported into the US has been launched by the U.S. Environmental Safety Company (EPA).
The ban would apply to chrysotile asbestos, which is thought to trigger most cancers and is present in merchandise like asbestos diaphragms, sheet gaskets, brake blocks, aftermarket automotive brakes/linings, different automobile friction merchandise, and different gaskets imported into the US
The proposed rule would rectify a 1991 court docket determination that largely overturned the EPA’s 1989 ban on asbestos and considerably weakened the company’s authority to cut back dangers to human well being from asbestos or different present chemical compounds, the EPA stated.
“At present, we’re taking an necessary step ahead to guard public well being and at last put an finish to the usage of harmful asbestos in the US,” EPA administrator Michael Regan stated in an company information launch. “This historic proposed ban would shield the American folks from publicity to chrysotile asbestos, a recognized carcinogen.”
Asbestos is banned in additional than 50 international locations and its use in the US has been declining for years. Most client merchandise that traditionally contained chrysotile asbestos have been discontinued in the US, and uncooked chrysotile asbestos at the moment imported into the US is used solely by the chlor-alkali chemical trade.
Chlor-alkali chemical compounds are utilized in a lot of sectors of the U.S. economic system and in ingesting water remedy, which makes use of chlorine manufactured by the chlor-alkali course of.
There are options to asbestos-containing diaphragms for chlor-alkali vegetation. The usage of options, particularly membrane cells, accounts for nearly half of the nation’s chlor-alkali manufacturing, in keeping with the EPA.
The company can also be evaluating different varieties and makes use of of asbestos, together with its use in talc and talc-containing merchandise.
Extra info
The U.S. Environmental Safety Company has far more on asbestos.
SOURCE: U.S. Environmental Safety Company, information launch, April 5, 2022
