Understanding How the EPA’s Latest Ruling Could Impact Regulations, Industries, and Public Health

When the Environmental Protection Agency banned asbestos in March 2024, bureaucrats probably didn’t fully understand the extensive use of asbestos and asbestos disposal issues. A recent evaluation tackles these issues.

According to the report, because of widespread legacy use and disposal issues, asbestos presents an unreasonable risk to public health, as that phrase is defined in the Toxic Substances Control Act. 

EPA Researchers determined that asbestos poses an unreasonable risk based on: 

(1) Cancer and non-cancer effects in workers, including ONUs and firefighters, from inhalation exposures; 

(2) Cancer and non-cancer effects in handlers and bystanders from inhalation exposures associated with handling of garments taken home from occupational exposure; 

(3) Cancer and non-cancer effects in consumers and bystanders from inhalation exposures; and 

(4) Cancer and non-cancer effects in the general population from inhalation exposures.

The finding that TSCA section 6(a) covers asbestos is significant. Asbestos industry lawyers used the section 6(a) loophole to gut the previous asbestos ban, which the EPA enacted in 1989.

Asbestos Use Dangers

Most people associate asbestos, a fireproof mineral, with attic insulation. But chrysotile (white) asbestos is probably in other parts of residential and commercial buildings, not just the attic.

Mineros

Exposure dangers began with mining, a practice that was legal in the United States until 2002. Asbestos is such a plentiful mineral that companies can charge very little for this substance. So, to make a profit, a volume business was necessary. Miners paid the heath and financial costs of this strategy.

Miners occasionally wore respirators to reduce the risk of inhaling fibers. But asbestos exposure causes many kinds of cancer, not just pleural mesothelioma (more on that below). That link could be direct or indirect.

Microscopic asbestos fibers may enter the body through any opening, not just the mouth or nose. Toxins, like asbestos, corrupt cellular DNA, causing cells to live longer than they should. As a result, dying cells clump together and form tumors. Many times, because asbestos’ toxicity level is so high, these tumors are not only malignant, but also lethal.

Asbestos can increase free radicals, increasing the risk of cancer and disease

Additionally, asbestos toxins affect the body’s free-radical particle level. Everyone has these particles in their bodies. As long as these particles die quickly, which is what normally happens, they aren’t dangerous. But when toxicity extends free-radical particle lifespan, bad things happen. Free radicals are connected with many kinds of cáncer. 

Intentional asbestos mining is now illegal. But asbestos mines aren’t legally off limits. Companies can still tap into these mines and extract other substances, like talc. Therefore, mining cross-contamination is still a danger.

Primary Asbestos Exposure

Once miners pulled asbestos out of the ground, they usually sold it to construction and shipbuilding companies. Both companies used asbestos for basically the same purposes.

As mentioned, asbestos is fireproof. It’s also soundproof and nonconductive. Therefore, construction and shipbuilding firms used asbestos in:

  • Aislamiento: 

Until about 1980, attic insulation was almost 100 percent asbestos. Safe alternatives, such as vermiculite, were available. But the alternatives were more costly. Similarly, until 1980, Navy shipbuilders lined boiler rooms, ammunition storage areas, and other high-risk fire areas with asbestos.

  • Pipes/Wires: 

Hot pipes are worse than hot attics because in-wall pips increase room temperatures, not building temperatures. Asbestos is also waterproof, so a small leak doesn’t ruin the insulation. Asbestos-wrapped wires almost never cause electrical fires, and as mentioned, the protection was incredibly cheap.

  • Construction Materials: 

Most people, including construction and shipbuilding executives, believe that more is always better. So these companies also used fireproof, soundproof, waterproof, and nonconductive asbestos in floor tiles, drywall, concrete, ceiling tiles, and the list goes on.

Asbestos is also very long-lasting, which is a desirable quality in almost everything except hazardous substances. Once asbestos is inside a building, it remains there forever, unless someone takes it out.

Exposición Secundaria al Asbesto

The workers who handled asbestos-laced products are at risk for mesothelioma and other kinds of cancer. People who associated with these workers, either professionally or personally, are likewise at risk.

Slightly-heavier-than-air asbestos fibers sometimes immediately rest upon surfaces. Other times, they float for seventy-two hours before they fall to earth. Frequently, the line is “somewhere in between.”

The asbestos fibers that float into parking lots, break rooms, cafeterias, and other common areas are every bit as dangerous as the fibers that direct exposure victims inhale. Inhaled fibers often cause tumors to form not in the lung itself, but in the mesothelium (layer of membranes that protects the lungs). 

Nearly-microscopic tumors are almost impossible to find, especially if they hide in the thick layers of the mesothelium. Even the most advanced diagnostic devices often cannot completely image these areas. Furthermore, if doctors look for lung cancer, they usually look for cancer in the lung, not near it.

The same risks apply to personal relationships. In fact, these risks may be even higher. According to the Centers for Disease Control, asbestos-exposure cancer among women, mostly housewives, has been severely undercounted over the years. Many female mesothelioma victims falsely believe bad luck, not asbestos exposure, caused their cancers. A wise Jedi master had something to say about luck.

Because mesothelioma is such a devastating disease, and because the industry hid the risk for so many years, an asbestos exposure lawyer can obtain substantial compensation in these matters.

Tertiary Asbestos Exposure

Asbestos is also a common ingredient in consumer products, and not just the ones that immediately come to mind, like auto parts, especially brake pads. Asbestos-laced talc is also in a wide range of consumer products, such as:

  • Talcum powder,
  • Pharmaceutical drugs,
  • Chewing gum,
  • Cosmetic products, and
  • Childrens’ toys.

In other words, asbestos was so deeply embedded in the supply chain that many people have asbestos-laced products in their homes and are thus at risk for one of the aforementioned illnesses.

This tertiary exposure issue goes back to the beginning of this list. What do you get when you combine magnesium, silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen? Depending on the proportion, and a few other factors, you might get talc or asbestos. 

As a result, asbestos/talc cross-contamination is very common. Asbestos companies didn’t do anything about asbestos poisoning for cost reasons, as mentioned above. Tacl companies didn’t do anything about cross-contamination for basically the same reasons. Many Johsnon & Johnson executives believed that sounding the alarm would undermine the company’s image as a family-friendly drug company.

Asbestos Removal and Disposal

Asbestos exposure dangers don’t end with initial exposure. In fact, in many ways the hazard is just beginning. Asbestos removal and disposal are among the most hazardous jobs in America.

That being said, these jobs aren’t nearly as dangerous as the aforementioned occupations. Since the health hazards of asbestos exposure are now widely known, professional contractors take special care to protect their workers.

We should say that reputable professional contractors take special care to protect their workers. In 2016, a removal contractor recruited workers at a homeless shelter and sent them, untrained and unprotected, to remove asbestos. 

Many of these individuals won’t feel the full impact of asbestos poisoning until at least mid-century. The latency period for mesothelioma and other asbestos exposure illnesses, such as asbestosis, is usually longer than cincuenta años.

New medical technologies and procedures may better detect and treat diseases like mesothelioma. These new technologies include liquid biopsy tests and genetic mutation therapy. Likewise, new industrial technologies might make asbestos disposal easier and less expensive. 

Since asbestos is fireproof, it cannot be incinerated, which is the preferred toxic waste destruction method. Emerging technologies may enable waste disposal companies to break down asbestos chemically, back into its components of magnesium, silicon, oxygen, and hydrogen.