New proposed bill aims to ban asbestos use completely.

New proposed bill aims to ban asbestos use completely

A new bill will soon be presented to the House of Representatives which calls for the complete ban of importation and use of asbestos and asbestos-containing products.

Bill H.R. 3339, championed by Representative Betty L. McCollum of Minnesota, is also being cited as the “Bruce Vento Ban Asbestos and Prevent Mesothelioma Act”, named after a member of Congress who passed away from pleural mesothelioma on October 10, 2000. Congressman Vento, who likely had developed the disease as a result of coming into contact with asbestos while working in factories during his younger years, had dedicated his career to campaigning for worker’s rights and environmental quality.

The House bill is a follow-up legislation to a Senate bill proposed by Senator Patricia Lynn Murray of Washington and her staff which passed last October. Because her bill had been watered down between when it was first proposed and when it finally passed in the Senate, Senator Murray’s bill came under criticisms by the same people who had testified for it. Instead of a complete ban on asbestos as it had initially called for, the Senate bill only prohibited products that contained more than one percent asbestos.

The significance of the one percent is that it related to the detection limits of microscopic analysis 30 years ago and was never meant to be considered a safety threshold.

The House Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee’s chairman, Al Wynn, said that there was no safety threshold for asbestos last week during a hearing where lawmakers debated the Bruce Vento Ban Act.

Many United States citizens falsely believe that asbestos has been banned in the country. Although the Environmental Protection Agency did issue a ban in 1989, a U.S. Court of Appeals overturned it in 1991.

Asbestos is responsible for thousands of deaths a year in the U.S., and tens of millions more have been exposed to the substance, many of whom are unaware of its presence in their body. Symptoms for asbestos-related illnesses can take decades after exposure to appear.

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