The Trump administration says it will keep EPA’s landmark ban on all ongoing uses of asbestos, a decision that upholds restrictions on the cancer-causing mineral regarded for decades as the “poster child” for failed U.S. chemicals policy.
The about-face — which came as a surprise just three weeks after EPA said it would delay and review the rule — preserves the long-fraught asbestos ban that carries significant implications for public health and the nation’s revamped toxics law.
The agency since then has “further reconsidered” how additional guidance for industry on implementing workplace protective measures “could provide further clarity,” Lynn Dekleva, deputy assistant administrator for the agency’s chemicals office, said in a court document filed Monday in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
“As a result, EPA does not intend to conduct notice-and-comment rulemaking to evaluate potential changes to the Asbestos Part 1 Rule at this time,” continued Dekleva, a Trump appointee formerly with the American Chemistry Council.
