Asbestos is Not Banned in the United States Video Transcript
A common question I get is asbestos hasn’t that been banned already and the answer is, unfortunately, no asbestos has been banned in almost all of Western Europe but in 2018 asbestos still has not been banned in the United States. Now to be fair, asbestos was heavily regulated in the United States beginning in the early 1970s when OSHA and the EPA were created in fact asbestos was the first substance that OSHA regulated beginning in 1972 and 73 and the impact of that was that it controlled the use of asbestos at the workplace it took many years for there really to be a lot of enforcement of the rules but over time that OSHA regulation did control exposure at work sites and it saved lives because it reduced the amount of asbestos people were being exposed to on the job but there has not actually been a ban on asbestos. The EPA attempted a ban in the late 1980s and the asbestos industry took it to court fought the ban and successfully overturned the ban with the u.s. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in the early 90s and ever since then there hasn’t been an attempt to ban asbestos. Unfortunately, due to some changes in environmental regulations in the last couple of years the EPA is actually reviewing asbestos again, it’s part of a three-year review and so it may result finally in a ban of asbestos in the United States.
mesothelioma attorney, Ben DuBose discussing the fact that asbestos is not yet banned in the United States