Asbestos Regs to Be Re-examined

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos Regs to Be Re-examined, by C. Holden (Science, 1992).

The study

• Author: C. Holden
• Journal: Science
• Published: 1992;255(5052):1639
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

In plain English

This is not a research study. It is a short news item in the 'Briefings' section of Science, dated 27 March 1992, and it reports no health data. It described the state of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) asbestos rules. In 1989, after several years and millions of dollars spent gathering evidence linking asbestos to lung cancer and other diseases, EPA banned virtually all new asbestos-containing products. The previous October, responding to a petition from firms that make asbestos-containing products, the fifth circuit federal appeals court in New Orleans struck down the ban. According to the item, the court cited EPA's failure to give industry a chance to rebut revised estimates of the ban's health benefits, and its failure to evaluate the safety of substitutes such as polyvinyl chloride. EPA wanted to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the Justice Department decided against it. EPA instead began a product-by-product review that might keep the door open for some uses, such as asbestos cement water main pipes and asbestos brake pads for older cars. The ban on new asbestos insulation in buildings was not affected by the ruling.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: News briefing (journalism item), not a research study
• Who was studied: Not applicable: no people or animals were studied; the item concerns U.S. EPA asbestos regulation
• Exposure: Asbestos-containing products covered by the EPA ban, including asbestos cement water main pipes, asbestos brake pads for older cars, and asbestos insulation in buildings
• Main results:
  • In 1989 EPA imposed a ban on virtually all new asbestos-containing products
  • The fifth circuit federal appeals court in New Orleans struck down the ban, in response to a petition from firms that make products containing asbestos
  • The court cited EPA's failure to give industry a chance to rebut revised estimates on the health benefits of the ban, and its failure to evaluate the safety of substitutes such as polyvinyl chloride
  • EPA wanted to appeal to the Supreme Court, but the Justice Department decided against it
  • EPA began a product-by-product review that might keep the door open for certain uses of asbestos
  • The ban on new use of asbestos insulation in buildings was unaffected by the ruling

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