Trump administration pulls back on plans to rewrite Biden-era asbestos ban
Source: Associated Press
Trump administration pulls back on plans to rewrite Biden-era asbestos ban
By MICHAEL PHILLIS and ALEXA ST. JOHN
Updated 2:38 PM EDT, July 8, 2025
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is dropping plans to allow continued use of the last type of asbestos legally allowed in U.S. manufacturing after an outcry from asbestos opponents.
The Environmental Protection Agency said in a court filing Monday that it will now defend the Biden administration’s ban of chrysotile asbestos, which is used in products like brake blocks and sheet gaskets.
The carcinogenic chemical has been mostly phased out in the U.S., but last year, the agency under former President Joe Biden sought to finish the decadeslong fight with a comprehensive ban. The EPA in 2024 said “exposure to asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and laryngeal cancer, and it is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.”
The EPA had said in a federal appeals court filing last month that parts of the ban may have gone “beyond what is necessary to eliminate the unreasonable risk” and that other options such as requiring workplace protection measures might eliminate that risk. The agency said it planned a roughly 30-month process to write new rules.
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Read more: https://apnews.com/article/epa-trump-biden-asbestos-ban-abe1f739a20cc2637605f447d92d56a4