Appeals Court Voids EPA Ban on Making, Importing Asbestos

A federal appeals court Monday threw out a ban by the Environmental Protection Agency on importing, making or using asbestos, saying the EPA did not give opponents of the rule a chance to make their case.

The ban was announced last year, and a seven-year phase-in began that August. The ban was challenged by several firms involved in the asbestos business, plus the governments of Quebec and Canada, where the minerals used to make asbestos are mined.

The U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals sent the matter back to EPA for further action.

Asbestos, once used widely in insulation, boilers, automobile brake linings and other products, is a suspected carcinogen and is believed to cause lung ailments when its fibers are inhaled. Illnesses from asbestos often take decades to appear.

EPA attorneys argued in hearings last February that the long-range health benefits of the ban would be widespread.

But Judge Jerry E. Smith said judges faulted EPA for its procedures in formulating the ban.

The EPA failed to provide opponents of its ban with enough opportunity to cross-examine witnesses regarding disputed facts when hearings on the ban proposal were held, Smith said.

Such cross-examination is necessary under the federal Toxic Substances Control Act administered by EPA, Smith wrote.

Smith said also that the EPA “failed to discharge its (Toxic Substances Control Act)-mandated burden that it consider and reject less burdensome alternatives before it impose a more burdensome alternative such as a complete ban.”