Trump’s EPA is Keeping Asbestos Legal as Major Russian Supplier Thanks Him

As we've noted several times in recent weeks, Andrew Wheeler, the new head of our EPA, is picking up right where Scott Pruitt left off.  He works on behalf of private industry without regard for our environment or public health.  Wheeler, unlike Pruitt, will stay out of the headlines while destroying us.

Asbestos exposure is the only known cause of mesothelioma, a painful and deadly form of lung cancer. Asbestos exposure is also linked to other kinds of lung disease. A recent study found that asbestos could be responsible for nearly 40,000 deaths per year in the U.S.

....recent actions taken under the Toxic Substances Control Act, or TSCA, the country’s primary chemical law.  Asbestos is one of the first 10 substances the EPA is assessing for safety following TSCA’s overhaul in 2016.

Although the EPA has not yet made a decision on the safety of asbestos under the new law, recent actions lay the groundwork for the agency to find that asbestos is safe and should remain legal.

.... the Trump EPA is ignoring key exposures to asbestos in its safety assessment, likely in violation of the law.

There's misinformaiton over what these new actions by the EPA.  Wheeler says it's a tough new rule while EPA staff and other experts say the opposite is true and it's an end-around to allow asbestos.

Andrew R. Wheeler, E.P.A.’s acting administrator, said the E.P.A.’s plan would make it more difficult to use asbestos in products. The E.P.A., he wrote on Twitter, “is proposing a new rule that would allow for the restriction of asbestos manufacturing and processing of new uses of asbestos.”

However, the way its new rule is written has spawned a spirited debate over whether it will actually make it easier for asbestos to come back into more widespread use.  The proposed new rule would create a new process for regulating uses of asbestos.... and did so over the objections of E.P.A.’s in-house scientists and attorneys, internal agency emails show.

Not coincidentally, this action benefited a large company in Russia with ties to Trump's overlord Vladimir Putin.

A Russian asbestos company is lavishing praise on Trump and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.  “Donald is on our side,” says a post on the Facebook page of the company, Uralasbest, touting the EPA’s recent decision to “no longer deal with negative effects potentially derived from products containing asbestos.”

Uralabest – one of the largest asbestos producers in the world, with ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin – is even wrapping crates of asbestos in plastic emblazoned with Trump’s image.  

“In recent years, tens of thousands have died from mesothelioma and other diseases caused by exposure to asbestos and other dangerous chemicals,” said Attorney General Maura Healey of Massachusetts. “If the Trump administration’s erosion of federal chemical safety rules continues, it will endanger our communities and the health of all Americans.”

Sources: 

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/10/climate/epa-asbestos-rule.html

https://www.ewg.org/news-and-analysis/2018/07/how-trump-s-epa-keeping-asbestos-legal