New bill to ban asbestos introduced by House committee

Feb 27, 2008 - The Subcommittee on Environmental and Hazardous Materials will introduce a new bill tomorrow to the House of Representatives that, if approved, will ban the manufacture, import, and use of asbestos.

Many attempts have been made in the past to have a complete asbestos ban passed; however, not much success has been seen.

Recently, Senator Patty Murray and her staff waged a six year campaign to get senators to pass a bill banning all asbestos usage in the U.S., which is not currently one of the 40 countries that have already placed a complete ban on the deadly substance. The expert witnesses who had testified for Murray about the dangers and health effects caused by asbestos, upon learning that the bill had been passed, celebrated their victory. However, that group, which included government physicians, toxicologists, and public health experts, soon learned that the bill had been watered down to make it possible for it to be passed.

To protect their financial interests, industry lobbyists had poured large amounts of money and called in favors from politicians, who then put pressure on Sen. Murray and her staff to make some changes in the language of the bill before they would approve it.

The bill to be introduced to the House is said to address many of the shortcomings in Senate legislation, which includes prohibiting the mining and sale of vermiculite, talc, and taconite that have been contaminated by asbestos, language that had been cut from Sen. Murray’s bill. The House version calls for more, much-needed government policing of the nation’s few remaining talc and vermiculite mines. In addition, the new bill hopes to ban the import and manufacture of asbestos-containing automobile brakes in the near future.

It will be months before the House actually votes on the legislation and many obstacles stand in the bill’s path to success, but supporters are glad to see the fight for the complete ban of asbestos continuing.

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