ADAO Meets with White House Office of Management and Budget to Discuss Importance of the Upcoming Proposed Asbestos Reporting Rule to Protect Public Health and Americans’ Lives

1. ASBESTOS TSCA REPORTING RULE
March 18, 2022
Presented by Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
Barry Castleman, ScD
Richard Lemen, PhD, MSPH
Steven Markowitz, MD, DrPH
Linda Reinstein, President
Bob Sussman, Counsel

2. Asbestos is One of the Most Dangerous
Substance Since Onset of Industrial Revolution
• Universally classified as “known human carcinogen”
• According to International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), causally linked to
lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and cancer of the larynx in people
• IARC also observed positive associations between exposure to all forms of asbestos and
cancer of the pharynx, stomach, and colorectum.
• Also causes asbestosis and asbestos-related pleural thickening
• No safe level of exposure
• From 1991 to 2021, more than one million Americans died from preventable
asbestos-caused diseases.
• Despite reductions in use, asbestos continues to kill nearly 40,000 Americans
each year.

3. Asbestos Information Act of 1988
Required asbestos or asbestos-containing material manufacturers to report
to the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, within 90
days after this Act's enactment, on the years of manufacture, the types or
classes of product, and other identifying characteristics reasonably
necessary to identify or distinguish such material. Requires the
Administrator to publish such information within 180 days after this Act's
enactment.
Signed into law by President Ronald Reagan
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4. WHY THIS ASBESTOS REPORTING
PROPOSED RULE?
• In 2018, ADAO and five public health groups petitioned EPA to require
TSCA reporting to fill serious data-gaps on asbestos
• Goal was to obtain comprehensive information on asbestos
manufacture, use and exposure to inform TSCA risk evaluation and
management
• Petitioners sued EPA in 2019 after it denied the petition
• On December 22 2020, Judge Chen (N.D. Cal.) found that the denial:
“runs contrary to EPA’s obligation to collect reasonably available
information to inform and facilitate its regulatory obligations under
TSCA.”
• Judge Chen ordered EPA to require reporting to “address the information-
gathering deficiencies identified herein.”
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5. WHAT INFORMATION
DEFICIENCIES MUST EPA ADDRESS?
• According to Judge Chen:
• “EPA declined the petition’s request to collect more information about
asbestos containing articles.”
• EPA has “little information . . .about the quantities of asbestos-
containing products in the U.S. chain of commerce and the overall
consumer and occupational exposure for downstream uses of asbestos.”
• “EPA declined to collect more information about asbestos impurities
without [considering whether] companies had access to . . .third- party
testing from suppliers.”
• “And EPA declined to collect more information about asbestos
processors.”
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6. EPA’S OBLIGATION UNDER THE JUNE 7,
2021 SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT
EPA must publish a proposed rule under TSCA section 8(a) by April 14, 2022
“for the maintenance of records and submission to EPA of reports by manufacturers,
importers and processors of asbestos and mixtures and articles containing asbestos (including as an
impurity) that address the information-gathering deficiencies identified in the Court’s Summary
Judgment Order.”
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7. GOALS OF REPORTING RULE
• Develop information that supports ongoing TSCA work on asbestos:
• New information about use and exposure of Part 1 COUs should inform Part 1 risk
management rulemaking
• Information about COUs overlooked in Part I (including articles or contaminated talc or
other products) should inform Part 2 risk evaluation
• Per settlement agreement, obtain full information on:
• Importation and use of raw asbestos
• Importation and use asbestos-containing mixtures and articles
• Processing of raw asbestos and articles and mixtures
• Presence of asbestos contaminants in other substances and mixtures (including talc)
• Maximize public disclosure of vital health and safety information
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8. WHAT INFORMATION SHOULD BE REPORTED
Asbestos
Quantities imported, used, stored
Types of asbestos fibers
Testing for asbestos impurities
Levels of asbestos in mixtures and
articles
Exposures
No. of exposed workers, consumers
Levels of exposure (including monitoring
data)
Use of PPE, engineering controls
No. and location of user sites
Impacts
Methods, amounts, locations of
asbestos disposal
Complaints, lawsuits or reports of
asbestos-related harm
Compliance with OSHA or EPA
requirements
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There should be no reporting threshold based on level of asbestos in article or mixture

9. PRODUCTS POTENTIALLY OVERLOOKED
IN PART 1*
• Childrens’ toys
• Knitted fabrics (woven products)
• Asbestos cement products
• Compressed asbestos fiber
• Jointing paper, millboard and felt
• Building materials
• Sealants
• Yarn thread, cords and string
• Products for use in civil aircraft.
• Crocidolite footwear
• Asbestos paper
• Compressed asbestos fiber
jointing in sheets
• Window glazing
• Recycled asphalt shingle scrap
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* From internal EPA documents, public comments and SACC report as described in 9/22/20 Plaintiffs’ Combined Opposition
To Defendants’ Motion For Summary Judgment And Reply In Support Of Their Summary Judgment Motion in ADAO v EPA.

10. 10
2007 ADAO Testing Confirms
Five Contaminated Products

11. REPORTING PERIOD AND REPORTING
UPDATES
• Reporting entities should submit information for the 10-year period
preceding the effective date of the rule
• This “lookback” is important to –
• Capture trends and fluctuations in amounts of asbestos imported and stockpiled
• Identify importers and processors who ceased asbestos-related activities but may
resume them (“reasonably foreseen” COUs)
• Reportable information should be broken out for each year in the
reporting period
• Reports should be updated yearly until the COU is prohibited
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12. DEFINING REASONABLY ASCERTAINABLE
INFORMATION
• Basic element of section 8(a) reporting
• Statute requires reporting of information “insofar as known to the person making the report or
reasonably ascertainable”
• As defined by EPA, reporting entities have an obligation to obtain information not in
their “possession or control” if:
• it is “information that a reasonable person similarly situated might be expected to possess,
control, or know.”
• Since many reporting entities will importers who have limited information, EPA must
underscore their duty to reach out to foreign suppliers to ascertain:
• The presence of asbestos as an intended product component or impurity
• Any data on the levels of asbestos present
• Suppliers of talc or other mineral products known to potentially contain asbestos
based should be expected to be aware of their asbestos content
• This is critical for children’s products (crayons) with widespread use and exposure
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13. OUTREACH AND TRANSPARENCY
• EPA needs to conduct outreach to sectors that may have reportable
information such as:
• Chlorine and other chemical manufacturers
• Construction industry
• Auto suppliers
• Cement manufacturers
• Suppliers of talc-based consumer and industrial products
• EPA should post reports on its Website
• CBI redactions should be minimal under TSCA section 14
• EPA should submit an annual report to Congress compiling reports
• EPA should check completeness of reporting by looking for products on the
Internet, in stores and in import documentation
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