ADAO's 10th Congressional Staff Briefing on September 13, 2016 in Washington, DC http://bit.ly/2cdKXAm

1. LINDA REINSTEIN
Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO)
President/CEO and Co-Founder
Linda@adao.us
Senate Staff Briefing
“TSCA Implementation: Prioritizing Asbestos to Protect Public
Health and the Environment”
September 13, 2016

3. ADAO Briefing Dedication to Brazil’s
Asbestos Miners and Victims
Linda@adao.us

4. ADAO Briefing Resources
www.adao.us

6. Linda@adao.us

7. President Obama Signs TSCA Reform into Law

8. Asbestos-Caused Diseases
• Lung cancer
• Mesothelioma
 Pleural
 Peritoneal
 Pericardial
 Testicular
• Asbestosis
• Pleural Plaques
• Other cancers include:
Laryngeal, Ovarian,
Colorectal, Pharyngeal,
Esophageal and Stomach

9. Mesothelioma and Asbestosis Deaths
(1999 - 2014)
Linda@adao.us
3,400
3,500
3,600
3,700
3,800
3,900
4,000
4,100
1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Deaths

10. Linda@adao.us

11. Can’t
• Identify or manage the risk
Linda@adao.usLinda@adao.us

12. Linda@adao.us
New Asbestos Use
Existing Asbestos Use
Asbestos Imports
TSCA Section 6 Must Prohibit

13. “In 2015, the Department of Commerce
submitted a report to Congress stating
approximately $2.2 million in brake
friction materials containing asbestos was
imported into the U.S. in 2013.”
Linda@adao.us
Asbestos Brake Friction Imports (2013)
- Motor & Equipment Manufacturers Association

15. TSCA Takeaways
 President Barack Obama became the first sitting US
president to publicly acknowledge the dangers of
asbestos as a known human carcinogen.
 ADAO urges EPA to include asbestos among the top ten
chemicals for prioritized risk evaluation and regulation
under Section 6 of The Lautenberg Act.

16. Brent Kynoch
Managing Director
Environmental Information Association (EIA)

17. What is Asbestos?

18. Linda@adao.us

19. Where is Asbestos?

20. 31 Million Metric Tons
Asbestos Consumption 1900 - 2016

21. NIOSH: “Firefighters in the study had a rate of
mesothelioma two times greater than the rate
in the U.S. population as a whole.”

22. TSCA Takeaways
 In 2013, a National Institute of Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH) study on mesothelioma found that
“firefighters in the study had a rate of mesothelioma
two times greater than the rate in the U.S. population as a
whole.”
 Asbestos can still be found in U.S. homes, schools,
offices, and consumer products.

23. Mark Catlin
Industrial Hygienist, Occupational Health & Safety Section
American Public Health Association (APHA)

24. 1930
• IARC lists asbestos as a
human carcinogen
•
• NIOSH calls for a ban
on asbestos in US
workplaces.
1976
• EPA lists asbestos as a
hazardous air pollutant
• OSHA and NIOSH created
the first standard for regulating
asbestos exposure.
19711964
Merewether and Price
report the first
epidemiological study
showing asbestos
exposure causes
asbestosis and death.
Irving Selikoff’s
study of insulation
workers irrefutably
proved that asbestos
is a human
carcinogen.

25. Elimination of Asbestos
APHA Policy Resolution, adopted November 2009
Congress should pass legislation banning the manufacture,
sale, export, or import of asbestos-containing products
(i.e., products to which asbestos is intentionally added or
products in which asbestos is a contaminant)…
The ban should also apply to products containing asbestos
or arising from asbestos-contamination of other
ingredient minerals (e.g., talc, vermiculite, taconite, quarried
stone)…
http://www.apha.org/policies-and-advocacy/public-health-policy-statements/policy-
database/2014/07/23/13/09/elimination-of-asbestos

27. Asbestos kills 15,000
Americans each year
Linda@adao.us

28. TSCA Takeaways
 Asbestos kills up to 15,000 Americans each year
from asbestos-caused lung cancer, mesothelioma,
asbestosis, and other cancers.
 In 2009, the American Public Health Association
(APHA) adopted the policy resolution calling for the
global elimination of asbestos and strong
prevention measures.

29. Environmental Consultant
Barry Castleman, ScD

31. “There are 16 chlor-alkali plants operating in
nine States that rely on this technology, that is
Louisiana, Alabama, Indiana, Kansas,
Nevada, New York, Texas, West Virginia
and Wisconsin.”
~ Senator David Vitter
2007 EPW Hearing: “Examining the Human
Health Effects of Asbestos and the Methods
of Mitigating Such Impacts”

32. Over 60% of
U.S. chlor-alkali
industry relies
on technology
that uses
asbestos
diaphragms.

33. Chlor-Alkali Asbestos Exposure Pathways
1. Mining and Milling
2. Transporting
3. Storage
4. Chlor-alkali Processing
5. Spillage and Clean-up
6. Removal/Replacement of Asbestos Diaphragms
7. Disposal

34. TSCA Takeaways
 Asbestos is a known human carcinogen, and there is no
safe level of asbestos exposure.
 The 2015 United States Geological Survey (USGS) reported
the chloralkali industry accounted for an estimated 90% of
U.S. consumption.

35. Mesothelioma Patient
Diagnosed in 2011
Mike Mattmuller

37. Linda@adao.us

38. Asbestos in Schools Report
Linda@adao.us

40. TSCA
Takeaways
 I am the new face of mesothelioma patients, and I am
only 34—with a brand new baby girl.
 Asbestos is in children’s toys and consumer
products in the United States, confirmed by several
independent investigations in 2000, 2007, and 2015.

41. Andy Igrejas
Executive Director
Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families (SCHF)

42. Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
• The Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
coalition represents 450 organizations and
businesses, including parents groups, health
professionals, advocates for people with
learning and developmental disabilities, labor
unions, public health advocates, and
environmental groups large and small from
across the nation.

43. Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical
Safety for the 21st Century Act
• Asbestos was front and center
in the long debate over TSCA
reform.
• The ability to ban asbestos
was the minimum benchmark
against which reform
proposals were measured.
• Lautenberg Act passed that
threshold.

44. PRIORITIZATION of High Priority Chemicals
• The Administrator shall give preference to—
– “(i) chemical substances that are listed in the 2014
update of the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical
Assessments as having a Persistence and
Bioaccumulation Score of 3; and
– “(ii) chemical substances that are listed in the 2014
update of the TSCA Work Plan for Chemical
Assessments that are known human carcinogens and
have high acute and chronic toxicity.

45. SCHF Recommendations for the First 10 High-Risk Chemicals
• Asbestos
• Lead & Lead compounds
• Cadmium & Cadmium compounds
• 1-Bromopropane
• 1,4-Dioxane
• Styrene
• Cyclic Aliphatic Bromides Cluster of flame retardants
(HBCD)
• Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4)
• Nonylphenol and Nonylphenol Ethoxylates (NP/NPEs)
• Tetrachloroethylene (PERC)

46. TSCA Takeaways
 The EPA’s failure to ban asbestos and the related court
decisions is what drove TSCA reform the most.
 The Lautenberg Act’s most important achievement
was giving EPA the ability to act on the worst existing
chemicals.
 Asbestos is at the top of that list. If EPA cannot use
the new law to ban asbestos, it will suggest that the
reform effort failed.

47. Daniel Rosenberg
Senior Attorney
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)

48. TSCA Then…
• In 1989, the US EPA announces an asbestos ban after
concluding exposure posed unreasonable risk to human health
• In 1991, a weak TSCA led to the ban being overturned in
litigation
– Risks must be weighed against its benefits and cost of restriction or ban
– EPA must choose “least burdensome means” of regulating to protect against risk
And Now…
• EPA must review existing and new chemicals by a
health-based standard and not the cost of restriction
or ban
• EPA must ensure the protection of “potentially
exposed or susceptible populations”

49. EPA must begin risk evaluations on 10
chemicals selected from Workplan List
by December 22, 2016
Asbestos is on the Workplan List

50. 1. Chemical selected for
review
2. Risk Evaluation: ≤ 3
years
3. Create and enact
restrictions: ≤ 2 years
*up to 2 years extension
allowed
Evaluating and Rulemaking

51. • Best Case Scenario
effective controls in
place and enforceable
by the end of 2021
• Worst Case Scenario
effective controls not
in place until the end
of 2028

52. TSCA Takeaways
 The Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st
Century Act replaces the 1976 TSCA “burdensome cost-
benefit safety standard”—which prevented EPA from
banning asbestos—with a health-based safety standard
and a requirement to protect “susceptible” populations.
 Even under the “best case scenario” for evaluating and
restricting chemicals, it will likely take years for EPA to
address even the “worst of the worst” chemicals like
asbestos.

53. Congressional Consensus
Linda@adao.us
Sen. Jon Tester
Sen. Barbara Boxer
Sen. Dianne Feinstein

54. Linda@adao.us

55. Linda@adao.us

56. Consensus
Asbestos Belongs in TSCA Top Ten

57. Protect Citizens and Businesses
We call on your office to urge the EPA to prioritize
asbestos on the 2016 top ten list of high-risk
chemicals for evaluation and regulatory action.
Linda@adao.us