EPA finalizes rule banning ongoing use of asbestos

March 18 (UPI) -- The federal government on Monday took steps to finalize a ban on the ongoing use of the toxic Asbestos substance in an effort to cut back cancer diagnoses.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said this is the first rule -- which will finally ban the ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos -- "to be finalized under new Toxic Substance Control Act process," which it called a "historic milestone" for the United States "after more than three decades of inadequate protections and serious delays during the previous administration to implement the 2016 amendments."

EPA Administrator Michael Regan said "the science is clear" about asbestos which has caused "severe impacts" on public health for generations. He added how, under President Joe Biden, the United States "has been working expeditiously to put the nation's chemical safety program back on track"

The EPA in April 2022 first proposed the new rule to ban asbestos. On social media, the EPA called it "an historic step" in a policy the EPA first attempted to try by banning some asbestos over 50 years ago.

"This action is just the beginning as we work to protect all American families, workers, and communities from toxic chemicals," Regan said in a statement about asbestos -- linked to more than 40,000 U.S. deaths every year -- which is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian and laryngeal cancers.

A White House environmental official said the new change "marks a major step to improve chemical safety after decades of inadequate protections, helping advance President Biden's Cancer Moonshot goal to end cancer as we know it," commented the White House' Council on Environmental Quality Chair Brenda Mallory.