Today, the public is well aware of the dangers of asbestos, but that doesn’t guarantee that they are safe. Many domestic and international agencies have been established with the specific purpose of protecting people from exposure to asbestos and other toxic materials. These regulatory organizations are essential to the safety of workers, as well as others at risk for exposure to the toxic mineral from legacy asbestos.
What do Asbestos Regulators Do?
The goal of asbestos regulators is to establish permissible exposure limits, monitor asbestos abatement projects, ensure that workers are properly trained in the handling of the toxic material, and regulate the disposal of asbestos-containing materials.
Multiple U.S. and internationally based agencies are committed to these missions. Though asbestos exposure is not the sole focus of most of these agencies, the individuals who run these organizations have seen the damage that asbestos can do, and a significant portion of their work has focused on regulating the use of the toxic mineral.
The best-known of these regulatory organizations include the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the European Union (EU). The weight of the rules that each of these organizations makes about asbestos comes from the scientific and medical community that conducts research demonstrating the dangers and impact of the mineral.
Among the most important of the organizations whose research informs recommendations and rules about how asbestos is handled is the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). As part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, NIOSH is responsible for conducting research that is relied upon by U.S. agencies making decisions about the best way to prevent work-related injuries and illness.[1] Similarly, the European Union relies on research published by the World Health Organization to inform its decisions regarding banning asbestos and other recommendations.
Not every organization that plays a role in regulation is strictly research-based. The International Ban Asbestos Secretariat is an important global player on the worldwide stage, acting as an invaluable conduit of information for those working to achieve a global asbestos ban.[2]
Asbestos Regulatory Organizations in the U.S.
In the United States, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Consumer Product and Safety Commission, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration are the organizations whose voices count the most when it comes to deciding how asbestos is managed.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) was created after Congress passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to protect workers on the job. OSHA’s work has transformed America’s workplaces, significantly reducing workplace fatalities, injuries, and illnesses. Among the many important regulations it has established, the federal agency both sets and enforces asbestos regulations.[3]
OSHA’s Role with Asbestos
OSHA has established standards for the construction industry, for general industry, and for shipyard employment sectors that reduce the carcinogenic mineral’s risk to workers. The agency requires employers to provide personal exposure monitoring that assesses risk and hazard where there is any potential asbestos exposure and has established legal worker exposure limits on airborne levels of asbestos that companies are never to exceed.[4]
The organization can impose fines to enforce its goals, and on many occasions, it cites employers for failing to protect workers and assesses significant financial penalties. In a recent example, OSHA representatives worked in tandem with the Illinois Attorney General’s office to pursue the owners and operators of a behavioral hospital and its subcontractors for improper handling and removal of asbestos-contaminated materials.
OSHA fines for mishandling asbestos generally run into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but its largest asbestos-related fine came in 2011 when a penalty of $1,247,400 was assessed against AMD Industries after five unprotected and untrained workers were required to conduct asbestos removal. The company was issued 19 willful and eight serious health citations after discovering that asbestos was present in its heating units, boilers, and connected piping.[5]
In 2015, OSHA named the industries that had consistently been responsible for asbestos exposure levels over their permissible levels. The top four career fields that were most at risk for asbestos exposure were automotive mechanics, manufacturing of asbestos-containing materials, building construction, and the petroleum, chemical, and rubber industries. The organization said that in many cases, workers in these industries were subjected to asbestos levels that were ten times the amount they deemed acceptable.
EPA’s Role with Asbestos
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a mission of protecting human health and the environment.[6] As part of that mission, the agency regulates asbestos to protect the public from exposure and to make sure that it is properly disposed of. The agency’s regulatory authority makes it responsible for protecting state and local employees who may be exposed to asbestos in their workplace.
The EPA’s role in regulating asbestos has evolved over the last several years, with the most recent rule coming in March 2024, when the agency finalized a rule to prohibit the manufacture and import, processing, distribution in commerce, and commercial use and disposal of chrysotile asbestos. The EPA is currently examining rules for protection from legacy asbestos.
Among the most notable actions taken by the EPA regarding asbestos was the April 2019 Final Rule, which gave the agency the authority to review asbestos-containing products before they could be approved for sale. This rule applied to both new products and those that are no longer sold. It left a previously established ban on six types of asbestos in place, but went further by stopping items from entering the county without being reviewed. The products involved included:
- Adhesives, sealants, and roof and nonroof coatings
- Arc chutes
- Beater-add gaskets
- Extruded sealant tape and other tape
- Filler for acetylene cylinders
- High-grade electrical paper
- Millboard
- Missile liner
- Pipeline wrap
- Reinforced plastics
- Roofing felt
- Separators in fuel cells and batteries
- Vinyl-asbestos floor tile
- Any other building material (other than cement)
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
NIOSH is not a regulatory agency, and it does not have enforcement power, but its work as part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention within the Department of Health and Human Services plays an important role in setting standards for asbestos regulations.
The scientific research and studies that NIOSH generates lead to the publication of important information that regulators use to support their recommendations. Much of its work involves exposure to asbestos in the workplace, and over the years, research conducted by NIOSH has had a significant benefit on the health of the American worker, including when it comes to setting standards on exposure to asbestos.
A quick review of the NIOSH website reveals numerous resources dedicated to asbestos for people whose careers have exposed them to the toxic mineral. Over the years, NIOSH has provided invaluable information on topics ranging from different types of respirators for use in shipbuilding and how auto mechanics can avoid asbestos exposure when working on brake systems. The organization has consistently warned about the dangers of asbestos, including secondary, take-home asbestos exposure from work in construction and demolition. NIOSH was also the organization responsible for publishing the essential framework for a national asbestos research strategy surrounding occupational exposure.
Consumer Product Safety Commission
While many of the organizations mentioned above focus their efforts on the American worker, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is dedicated to protecting the public. Founded in the early 1970s by the Consumer Product Safety Act of 1972, the agency has identified multiple sources of asbestos exposure in the home over the last several decades and provided information on how to safely dispose of these items.[7]
U.S. Food and Drug Administration
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is responsible for protecting public health by ensuring the safety, efficacy, and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, and medical devices and ensuring the safety of America’s food supply and cosmetics. Though the agency’s role in the regulation of asbestos-containing products has been limited in the past, recent allegations about asbestos contaminating talc-based products have led to the agency introducing a new talc rule that will test cosmetic products for the presence of hidden asbestos.
Global Asbestos Regulatory Organizations
Asbestos has caused death and illness all over the globe, and as a result, organizations that share the mission of protecting the public from mesothelioma and other illnesses have sprung up around the world. Though some countries continue to mine, process, and sell the toxic mineral, the majority of developed countries around the world have issued bans, controls, and regulations on its use and distribution.
The most important global organizations that have played a role in asbestos regulation include the European Union, the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat, and the World Health Organization.
The European Union (EU)
The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 European countries that was founded in 1993. Its primary goal is to promote peace, security, and justice, but it is also dedicated to the well-being of the citizens of its participating countries. As part of that mission, in 2005, the EU banned the use of asbestos by all of its members, creating a unifying rule that affected all members. Since then, the EU has introduced safeguards and directives on environmental pollution, chemical safety, workers’ protection, and consumer products specific to asbestos, and is working to lower the existing Occupational Exposure Limit under its Asbestos at Work directive. [8]
International Ban Asbestos Secretariat
Established in 1999 by anti-asbestos advocate Laurie Kazan-Allen, the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) is an important voice against asbestos use globally. While lacking regulatory authority, the organization has co-sponsored and supported numerous national and international conferences to promote a global ban on asbestos and challenges the asbestos industry’s control over information.
World Health Organization
Headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Health Organization (WHO) is the arm of the United Nations dedicated to public health. Founded in 1948 and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the WHO has taken a particular interest in asbestos and the role it has played in the death and illness of millions of people around the world. The organization actively works to enforce asbestos bans and to stop countries from using the carcinogenic material. In 2007, an official Outline for the Development of National Programmes for the Elimination of Asbestos-Related Diseases was published by the WHO, committing to collaborating with other intergovernmental organizations to achieve the goal of eradicating asbestos-related diseases, and a few years later, in 2013, it issued a report citing devastating statistics about the number of people who had lost their lives to asbestos exposure in the previous 15 years, and the number of years of life lost by the average asbestos exposure victim.
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