Fourteen AGs Filed Comments Highlighting Flaws in EPA’s Risk Evaluation of Asbestos

JUNE 2, 2020

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey led a coalition of 14 attorneys general in filing comments highlighting deficiencies in the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) draft Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) risk evaluation for asbestos. The comments warned that the draft evaluation “fails to properly characterize the conditions of use for asbestos,” and urged the EPA to “revise its approach ... to comply with its obligations under TSCA and obtain the information it concedes it needs to conduct thorough evaluation of the risks presented by asbestos before issuing any final asbestos risk evaluation.” In particular, the comments pointed to the EPA’s unsupported conclusion that the import of asbestos and asbestos-containing products does not pose an unreasonable risk to human health—an assertion made despite the fact that the draft risk evaluation “is rife with admissions that EPA lacks sufficient information to be able to evaluate” such risks.