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EPA Staff Objected To Agency's New Rules on Asbestos Use, Internal Emails Show (nytimes.com)

Top officials at the Environmental Protection Agency pushed through a measure to review applications for using asbestos in consumer products, and did so over the objections of E.P.A.'s in-house scientists and attorneys, internal agency emails show. From a report: The clash over the proposal exposes the tensions within the E.P.A. over the Trump administration's efforts to roll back environmental rules and rewrite other regulations that industries have long fought. Asbestos, a naturally occurring mineral and known carcinogen, was once common in insulation and fireproofing materials, but today most developed countries ban it. The United States still allows limited use in products including gaskets, roofing materials and sealants. The proposed new rule would create a new process for regulating uses of asbestos, something the E.P.A. is obliged to do under a 2016 amendment to a toxic substances law.

4 of 212 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Too many regulations hurt job creators by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yeah, who give a shit about things like peoples health or the environment we live in. Lets just do whatever the fuck we want!

  2. Re:Yes like tax exemptions by Immerman · · Score: 5, Insightful

    And when you're investing, you're not spending a large chunk of your life for that money. Why should a supposedly democratic country have a tax system that explicitly encourages wealth concentration by taxing capitalists less than labor?

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    --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
  3. Re:"attorneys and scientists" by Luthair · · Score: 5, Informative

    Ah yes, the stereotypical right-wing attacks on experts who have data and know what they're talking about.

    I sometimes wonder how many of these ACs actually believe the nonsense they spout or whether they're some loser sitting at a desk in China or Russia being paid peanuts

  4. Re:Too many regulations hurt job creators by Green+Mountain+Bot · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And yet the death rate by fire has steadily fallen since asbestos was banned in 1970.