Patty Murray: “today I rise and join my colleagues Senators Baucus, Cantwell, Dayton, and Wellstone in introducing legislation to…”

“today I rise and join my colleagues Senators Baucus, Cantwell, Dayton, and Wellstone in introducing legislation to improve protections for workers and consumers against a known carcinogen: asbestos. The primary purpose of the Ban Asbestos in America Act of 2002 is to require the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, to ban the substance by 2005. Most Americans believe that asbestos has already been banned. People have this misconception in part because EPA tried to ban it in 1989, and the ban was well publicized. But what wasn't so publicized was the fact that in 1991, the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned EPA's ban, and the first Bush Administration didn't appeal the decision to the Supreme Court. While new uses of asbestos were banned, existing ones were not. People also believe asbestos has been banned because the mineral has been heavily regulated, and some uses are now prohibited. But the sweeping ban that EPA worked for ten years to put in place never went into effect. As a result, products such as asbestos clothing, pipeline wrap, roofing felt, vinyl-asbestos floor tile, asbestos-cement shingle, disc brake pads, gaskets and roof coatings still contain asbestos today.”