In 2024, the Biden administration released a ban on the last type of asbestos still used in the United States for its links to cancer. The Trump administration is not so sure that we need to protect people from such things. Earlier this week, the New York Times reported That Trump’s environmental protection agency will delay the ban on the material and reconsider the rule altogether. Because, hey, when a little cancer ever hurt someone?
The material at the core of this rear and pushing is an emergency asbestos, otherwise known as “white asbestos.” While it has been on the way for a while, it is far from removed. White asbestos are still used in some roof materials, textiles, cement and are found in brake pads and other car parts. It is also sometimes used to make chlorine. Its usage continues despite the fact that the material has been linked to lung cancer, ovarian cancer, laryngeal cancer and mesotellioma, which is cancer in the linings of the lungs, abdomen, heart or testicles. The EPA Estimates This exposure to asbestos is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the United States.
For these reasons, more than 50 countries have already banned the use of the material. The United States joined their ranks in 2024, when the Biden administration announced a ban on it last year, although even that had a very long time before it actually came into force. Under the rule introduced by the EPA under Biden, the White Ably ban had a 12-year phase period, meaning it would not really be banned until 2036.
But how supposed to work a manufacturer of chemicals with more than a decade of heads? It’s just too much to ask. Could also simply kill the rule. The Times Reported That the Trump administration is considering rewriting the rule to raise the ban on the import and use of asbestos in the production of chlorine and the use of leafy castings that contain asbestos in chemical factory facilities.
If you are curious why the Trump administration would support this rule, which seems like a fairly obvious non-brain, especially for the management, which claims it wants to make America healthy again, is a relatively simple answer available: the lobbyists hold the show. According to the times, the EPA court indicating that it reconsiders the rule was signed by Lynn Decleva. Prior to joining the administration, Delva was an official for the US Chemistry Council, where she was lobbying to block regulations on the carcinogenic formaldehyde. And before that, she spent 32 years at Dupont, a company repeatedly identified As a A major producer of dangerous “forever chemicals.” Now she is in charge of approving chemicals for use at the EPA. Good luck to the rest of us.
