Given some recent, and understandably, confusing news coverage of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ongoing actions on asbestos, we recognize we need to do a better job of explaining a complicated federal regulatory process.
There has been a lot of inaccurate, and often times conflicting, news coverage of EPA’s ongoing actions on asbestos. Federal regulatory processes are complex and their implications can often be misunderstood or misinterpreted.
So let us give clarity a try: ACC is in synch with the building, design and construction industry that asbestos should continue to be restricted from use in the modern built environment and ACC supports EPA’s proposed regulatory path to continue to restrict uses.
EPA’s Significant New Use Rule (SNUR) on asbestos authorizes two key agency actions. First, it cements the restriction of asbestos in building and construction products that haven’t appeared in decades. Second, it requires manufacturers to make the EPA aware of certain potential new uses of asbestos, further enabling EPA to regulate and restrict these proposed new uses based on a rigorous safety review.
Without this robust federal regulatory process, manufacturers could bring asbestos back into building materials without EPA approval.
The SNUR empowers EPA to conduct a rigorous safety review of any such new uses.
While concerns about the potential new uses of asbestos in building materials are understandable, opposition to the EPA asbestos SNUR is misplaced.
In order to be AGAINST using asbestos in building and construction materials, you have to be FOR what EPA is trying to do in the SNUR process. ACC supports EPA’s efforts.