Asbestos in the United States

Asbestos in Environmental Law

A group of minerals that are, chemically, a type of silicate with fibrous qualities. Asbestos has been used in a variety of ways because of its special properties: it is heat, fire, and electrically resistant; it impedes noise; acids and alkalis do not affect it.

Although asbestos use has been documented back to ancient times, it became commercially popular beginning in the nineteenth century. Products incorporating asbestos range from protective clothing and brakes to building materials such as thermal insulation, wallboard, tiles, and mastic.

The most enduring use of asbestos is that of building materials. Until the mid 70s, builders used asbestos liberally.

Asbestos is quarried or mined. Crushing and blowing separates asbestos from the extracted rock. Generally, it is white, but it can be light green, blue, or yellow. The sharp microscopic fibers are small enough to be inhaled, and when they are, they remain in the lungs, making lifelong exposure to asbestos a cumulative problem.

In its natural state, asbestos fibers may be friable, which means they can be easily crushed with hand pressure. After they are incorporated into another material, the friability varies. Friability is a crucial issue in decisions about how to deal with asbestos. The EPA and other environmental professionals refer to materials that contains more than one percent of asbestos as asbestos containing materials (ACM).

The public first became aware of health effects of asbestos through a study of ship workers and asbestos miners. The results showed an increase in three types of ailments after exposure to asbestos: asbestosis (a lung disease), mesothelioma (cancer of the pleural lining of the lungs), and lung cancer. The likelihood of asbestos related lung problems is significantly higher for smokers. Though no one could quantify the risk directly to the exposure of the workers, the link between inhalation of asbestos fibers and health effects had been established.

A number of laws and three separate federal organizations as well as state and local agencies regulate asbestos. The federal organizations are the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Department of Transportation (DOT), and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA). Each has distinct duties.

The Department of Transportation determines how asbestos is transported, labeled, packaged, and placarded. The EPA regulates emissions of asbestos fibers to the atmosphere, asbestos management in schools, uses of asbestos, and its disposal. Finally, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration concerns itself with worker safety, both in the workplace in general and in asbestos abatement projects and construction activities that may disturb material containing asbestos.

The environmental laws involving asbestos are the Clean Air Act, the Toxic Substances Control Act, the Clean Water Act, the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, and the Solid Waste Disposal Act. The most significant of these laws are the Clean Air Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act.

Asbestos is designated a hazardous air pollutant, and the type of activity regulated under the Clean Air Act is associated with construction and demolition projects. Since the EPA is required to deal with ambient air pollution, environmental regulations protect the public against air emissions. If construction or demolition projects will disturb a specified amount of friable asbestos containing material, the material must be managed according to the EPA’s rules. It is assumed that buildings erected prior to the mid 1970s contain asbestos containing material. Though asbestos in building materials was eventually phased out, some asbestos containing material was used in buildings even after that date. Asbestos is sometimes found in vinyl floor tiles, the mastic that secures the floor tiles, and roofing materials in buildings erected as late as the mid 1980s.

The EPA promulgated regulations under the Toxic Substances Control Act to ban the use of asbestos containing material in many products other than building products. In the case of Corrosion Proof Fittings v. Environmental Protection Agency, the court found the ban was unsupported, sending the EPA back to the drawing board and invalidating the ban.

In 1986, the Toxic Substances Control Act was amended to add Title II, which deals with asbestos in schools. The name of the law is the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA). In addition to identification and removal of certain asbestos containing material, this statute requires reinspection, an operation and maintenance program, and education of school employees. A loan and grant program was established under a different statute to assist the schools with the expenses involved in asbestos removal.

AHERA also required the EPA to complete a study of the asbestos problem and report to Congress. One of the issues to be considered was whether the asbestos in schools program should be extended to public and commercial buildings. In its report, the EPA did not make that recommendation. Since the EPA does not seem intent on regulating asbestos in public and commercial buildings, OSHA is gathering comments on the question of whether it should do so. Workers, particularly maintenance, custodial, and other service personnel, may be exposed because of their jobs, since no federal law requires identification of asbestos containing material in public and commercial buildings.

Lawsuits involving companies that manufactured asbestos containing building materials have crowded the courts for over a decade. Many of the suits become class action suits, and the defendants are often more than one company.
Based on “Environment and the Law. A Dictionary”.

Asbestos in State Statute Topics

Introduction to Asbestos

The purpose of Asbestos is to provide a broad appreciation of the Asbestos legal topic. Select from the list of U.S. legal topics for information (other than Asbestos).

Resources

Further Reading

• Information about Asbestos in the Gale Encyclopedia of American Law.