07/10/2025

Trump Administration, Reversing Itself, Won’t Rewrite a Ban on Asbestos

The New York Times | Hiroko Tabuchi | July 7, 2025

Trump Administration, Reversing Itself, Won’t Rewrite a Ban on Asbestos

The Trump administration has withdrawn its plan to rewrite a ban on the last type of asbestos still used in the United States.

The Biden-era ban was a victory for health advocates who had long fought to prohibit the carcinogenic mineral in all its forms. Last month the Trump administration said it planned to reconsider the asbestos ban, which would have delayed its implementation by several years.

But late Monday, it withdrew that filing.

“The agency has further reconsidered,” the E.P.A. said in the filing in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, and would no longer rework the asbestos ban. The filing is part of a court case brought by the industry challenging the restrictions.

Chrysotile asbestos, known as “white asbestos,” is banned in more than 50 countries for its link to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer that forms in the linings of internal organs. White asbestos, however, has been imported for use in the United States for roofing materials, textiles and cement. It is also used in gaskets, clutches, brake pads and other automotive parts, as well as in chlorine manufacturing.

The Environmental Protection Agency, under President Joseph R. Biden, adopted a ban in 2024 on the use, manufacture and import of chrysotile asbestos. It was the first legal constraint on the deadly substance since 2016, when Congress updated and strengthened the Toxic Substances Control Act by requiring testing and regulation of thousands of chemicals used in everyday products.

When the administration said last month it would review the asbestos ban, it drew criticism from Democrats as well as health advocates. In a Facebook post, Hillary Clinton, the former U.S. secretary of state and 2016 Democratic nominee for president, wrote, “What is this — Make Asbestos Great Again?”

The Trump administration had said, among other things, that it intended to consider whether the ban “went beyond what is necessary to eliminate the unreasonable risk” for workers using asbestos-containing sheet gaskets in chemical production.

The ban still allows some manufacturers up to 12 years to phase out the use of asbestos, a provision that followed lobbying efforts by trade groups like the American Chemistry Council. The restrictions still face an industry challenge in court.

The American Chemistry Council did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, the E.P.A. said it still disagreed with aspects of the Biden-era policy but had considered the time that a new rule-making process would require. The E.P.A. will now instead “take immediate action” to further strengthen protections for workers, it said in a statement.

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, an advocacy group that works on preventing asbestos exposure, welcomed the reversal. The federal government’s original move to reconsider the ban “would have opened the door to years of delay, confusion and increased risk to public health,” said Linda Reinstein, the group’s president.

Asbestos, a group of six naturally occurring fibrous minerals that have the ability to resist heat, fire and electricity, is linked to an estimated 40,000 deaths annually in the United States. It was first used in construction in the 1930s and was commonly used as an insulator in schools, hospitals, homes and offices as well as in consumer products.