The Trump administration is trying to bring back asbestos

Since President Trump took office in January, his administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been on a deregulation spree. So far, the agency’s leaders have expressed interest in rolling back regulations around forever chemicals, or PFAs; reversing a cornerstone finding that greenhouse gases are dangerous for public health; and weakening enforcement of coal ash regulations. This week, new court documents indicate the EPA has set its sights on walking back protections from another toxin: asbestos. Based on court documents released on Monday, the EPA intends to “reconsider” a ruling, passed by the Biden administration in 2024, that banned chrysotile asbestos, the last form of asbestos used legally in the U.S. Per a release issued at the time of the ruling, 50 other countries had already banned chrysotile asbestos, which is most commonly used in the industrial process of making chlorine and on components in the automotive industry. “The action marks a major milestone for chemical safety after more than three decades of inadequate protections and serious delays during the previous administration to implement the 2016 amendments,” the Biden administration wrote. “Exposure to asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and laryngeal cancer, and it is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.” Now, in response to a petition from the Texas Chemistry Council, it’s possible that chrysotile asbestos will once again be a permissible manufacturing material. According to the new court documents, “EPA leadership has reviewed the Asbestos Rule and now intends to reconsider the Rule through notice-and-comment rulemaking,” noting that this process, including any regulatory changes, is expected to take approximately 30 months. This won’t be the first time that a Trump administration has tried to bring back asbestos. In 2018, his first administration’s EPA enacted a “SNUR” (or Significant New Use Rule) allowing the manufacture of new asbestos-containing products to be petitioned and approved by the federal government on a case-by-case basis. Strangely enough, Trump himself also wrote in his 1977 book Art of the Comeback that he believed asbestos bans were a conspiracy “led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal.” The EPA did not immediately respond to Fast Company’s request for comment on the reasoning behind its reconsideration.

Jun 18, 2025 - 22:40

The Trump administration is trying to bring back asbestos

Since President Trump took office in January, his administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been on a deregulation spree. So far, the agency’s leaders have expressed interest in rolling back regulations around forever chemicals, or PFAs; reversing a cornerstone finding that greenhouse gases are dangerous for public health; and weakening enforcement of coal ash regulations. This week, new court documents indicate the EPA has set its sights on walking back protections from another toxin: asbestos.

Based on court documents released on Monday, the EPA intends to “reconsider” a ruling, passed by the Biden administration in 2024, that banned chrysotile asbestos, the last form of asbestos used legally in the U.S. Per a release issued at the time of the ruling, 50 other countries had already banned chrysotile asbestos, which is most commonly used in the industrial process of making chlorine and on components in the automotive industry.

“The action marks a major milestone for chemical safety after more than three decades of inadequate protections and serious delays during the previous administration to implement the 2016 amendments,” the Biden administration wrote. “Exposure to asbestos is known to cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, ovarian cancer, and laryngeal cancer, and it is linked to more than 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.”

Now, in response to a petition from the Texas Chemistry Council, it’s possible that chrysotile asbestos will once again be a permissible manufacturing material. According to the new court documents, “EPA leadership has reviewed the Asbestos Rule and now intends to reconsider the Rule through notice-and-comment rulemaking,” noting that this process, including any regulatory changes, is expected to take approximately 30 months.

This won’t be the first time that a Trump administration has tried to bring back asbestos. In 2018, his first administration’s EPA enacted a “SNUR” (or Significant New Use Rule) allowing the manufacture of new asbestos-containing products to be petitioned and approved by the federal government on a case-by-case basis. Strangely enough, Trump himself also wrote in his 1977 book Art of the Comeback that he believed asbestos bans were a conspiracy “led by the mob, because it was often mob-related companies that would do the asbestos removal.”

The EPA did not immediately respond to Fast Company’s request for comment on the reasoning behind its reconsideration.