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Asbestos containing products have yet to be completely banned in the U.S, despite a move towards a ban by placing significant restrictions on the deadly substance.
However, in what is described as a step backwards, the U.S have now allowed asbestos to be used again in product manufacturing as of the 1st June 2018.
A SNUR (Significant New Use Rule) was apparently introduced by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
This new rule means that new products containing asbestos can be made on a case-by-case basis.
A report was released in May 2018 which detailed the EPA’s new framework they will use to evaluate the risk of their top prioritized substances.
According to this report, the EPA will no longer take into account the effects or presence of harmful substances in the air, ground, or water in its risk assessments.
The EPA reviewed its first batch of 10 harmful substances in 2016 under the amendment to the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).
This resulted in them having to reevaluate hundreds of potentially toxic substances on an ongoing basis in order to see whether they should face new restrictions or be removed completely from the market.
Unfortunately, this new SNUR will enable manufacturing companies to produce asbestos containing products without thinking about the endangerment to human life.
With asbestos related deaths totaling almost 40,000 annually, there are fears that reintroducing asbestos into the manufacturing process could mean asbestos making its way into new buildings.
Jan Garvey, from the National Asbestos Helpline, based in the UK, said, “This is a step backwards for the US. Asbestos is a known carcinogen, and causes many thousands of deaths every year of hard working men and women around the world.”
Source of article:- https://archpaper.com/2018/08/epa-asbestos-manufacturing/
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