EPA Finalizes Rule Under TSCA To Protect the Public from Asbestos Exposure

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced a final rule to require comprehensive reporting on all six fiber types of asbestos as the agency continues its work to address exposure to this known carcinogen and strengthen the evidence that will be used to further protect people from this dangerous chemical. The rule, issued under section 8(a) of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), requires asbestos manufacturers (including importers) and processors to report certain use and exposure information from the past four years, including information on asbestos-containing products (including as an impurity).

 

“We know that exposure to asbestos causes cancer and other serious health problems that still result in thousands of people dying every year, and today we’re continuing our work to protect people from this dangerous chemical,” said Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, Michal Freedhoff. “We’ve already proposed to ban chrysotile asbestos, and the data we’ll receive from this final rule will help us to better evaluate and address the health risks from the remaining uses and types of asbestos.”

 

EPA intends to use data collected through this reporting rule to help inform future actions involving asbestos, including the ongoing risk evaluation for “legacy uses” of asbestos (part 2) and potential future risk management activities resulting from that risk evaluation under TSCA. Additionally, EPA’s completed risk evaluation of ongoing chrysotile asbestos uses (part 1) included uses where asbestos may be part of a product, like brake blocks and gaskets. This rule could help identify other products that contain different types of asbestos.

 

Under the reporting rule, manufacturers (including importers) or processors of asbestos between 2019 and 2022 with annual sales above $500,000 in any of those years are required to report exposure-related information, including quantities of asbestos manufactured or processed, types of use, and employee data. Importantly, the rule also covers asbestos-containing products (including products that contain asbestos as an impurity) and asbestos that is present as a component of a mixture. Manufacturers (including importers) and processors subject to the rule will have nine months following the effective date of the final rule to collect and submit all required information to EPA.

 

Under the previous Administration, EPA narrowed the scope of the TSCA risk evaluation for asbestos by only reviewing certain uses of one fiber type of this chemical, chrysotile asbestos. The agency’s failure to consider additional asbestos fibers and its decision to exclude legacy uses and associated disposals of the substance resulted in litigation. In 2019, a court ruled that the agency unlawfully excluded “legacy uses” and “associated disposal” from TSCA’s definition of “conditions of use,” resulting in the need to supplement the agency’s review of asbestos with a “part 2” risk evaluation, which focuses on legacy uses and associated disposals, other types of asbestos fibers in addition to chrysotile, and asbestos-containing talc. EPA entered into a consent decree to complete the final part 2 risk evaluation by December 1, 2024. That consent decree also included requirements for the proposal and finalization of the reporting rule released today.

 

This final reporting rule is one of a series of actions EPA has taken to address the risks that asbestos poses to human health. Last year, EPA proposed to ban ongoing uses of chrysotile asbestos, the only known form of asbestos currently imported into the United States. Chrysotile asbestos is found in products like asbestos diaphragms, sheet gaskets, brake blocks, aftermarket automotive brakes/linings, other vehicle friction products, and other gaskets also imported into the country. EPA plans to finalize that rule later this year.  

 

One worker died and a second needed a month's hospitalization for a serious leg fracture after falling 35 feet when a suspended concrete pile struck the aerial lift in which they worked in December 2022. U.S. Department of Labor investigators determined their employer, The de Moya Group Inc. of Miami could have prevented the tragedy by following federal workplace safety standards.

 

Investigators with the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration learned that a 90-foot long, 18- by 18-inch concrete pile weighing 35,000 pounds broke free of its restraints when the supporting crane shifted in unstable soil and then struck the lift's boom, causing the two carpenters to fall onto the roadway below. A 46-year-old worker suffered fatal injuries while his 52-year-old co-worker sustained serious leg injuries.

 

The incident occurred as the employees worked to expand a bridge along the southbound lanes of Interstate 95 between Sunrise and Broward in Fort Lauderdale as part of a major Florida Department of Transportation infrastructure project.

 

OSHA issued citations for four serious violations to The de Moya Group, a highway and bridge construction company specializing in complex major infrastructure projects in Florida, for exposing employees to struck-by hazards by not complying with federal safety standards as follows:

 

"This tragedy never should have happened. A worker lost his life and a co-worker suffered life-altering injuries because The de Moya Group failed to follow industry-recognized and federally required safety measures," said OSHA Area Office Director Condell Eastmond in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. "Employers should use this tragic incident as a reminder to review their workplace safety practices and give their workers every opportunity to return to their families at the end of each workday safely."

 

In addition, OSHA issued the company an other-than-serious citation for using a crane with a broken load indicator and for not making certain that modified crane operating controls did not affect its safe operation. The agency proposed $58,942 in penalties, an amount set by federal statute.

 

Founded in 1986, the family owned and operated company had 30 workers at the worksite and employs about 230 workers.

 

The company has contested the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

 

Nine home renovation companies in Springfield, Missouri, have agreed to pay over $30,000 collectively in penalties to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to resolve alleged violations of the federal Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA).

 

According to EPA, the following companies failed to comply with regulations intended to reduce the hazards of lead-based paint exposure during renovations:

 

“Reducing exposure to lead-based paint – especially among children and pregnant women, and in communities already overburdened with pollution exposure – is a top priority for EPA,” said David Cozad, director of EPA Region 7’s Enforcement and Compliance Assurance Division. “The Agency is committed to ensuring that home renovators follow the law and protect workers and residents from lead exposure.”

 

EPA discovered violations of the lead-based paint regulations during inspections conducted in Springfield last year and determined that most of the properties being renovated were in communities already affected by pollution exposure. EPA is strengthening enforcement in such communities to address disproportionately high, adverse human health or environmental effects on vulnerable populations.

 

Companies that perform home renovations or hire subcontractors to perform renovations on pre-1978 housing are required to comply with regulations under EPA’s Lead Renovation, Repair, and Painting Program. The regulations include requirements to train employees in proper work practices; obtain certification from EPA prior to performing renovations; as well as compliance with lead safety practices, records retention, and notification to homeowners about the hazards of renovation-related lead exposure.

 

Reducing childhood lead exposure and the associated health impacts is a top priority for EPA. Lead-contaminated dust from chipped or peeling lead-based paint in homes built prior to 1978 is one of the most common causes of elevated blood lead levels in children. Infants and children are especially vulnerable to lead-based paint exposure because their growing bodies absorb more lead than adults do, and their brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead. They can be exposed from multiple sources and may experience irreversible and lifelong health effects. Lead dust can be generated when lead-based paint deteriorates or is disturbed by renovation work, such as window installation, demolishing painted surfaces such as walls or porches, and scraping and repainting of homes.

 

 

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced a settlement with Heritage-Crystal Clean LLC over alleged violations of the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act at the company’s facility located at 3970 West 10th Street, Indianapolis, Indiana. The company has paid a penalty of $38,221 and conducted a supplemental environmental project to replace lead-contaminated windows at residential homes in Indianapolis.

 

"We must ensure that facilities are complying with required annual reporting of what chemicals they use and what they are releasing into the environment," said EPA Region 5 Administrator Debra Shore. "People have a right to know about any toxic chemicals in their communities, especially those that are already overburdened by pollution.”

 

EPA alleges Heritage-Crystal Clean a petroleum lubricating oil and grease manufacturer, violated the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act by failing to submit required annual reports for toxic chemicals it manufactured, processed, or otherwise used in quantities above reporting thresholds. Specifically, the company failed to submit timely reports for 1,2,4-trimethylbenzene, ethylbenzene, toluene, xylene, naphthalene, chlorobenzene, lead, polychorinated biphenyls, molybdenum trioxide, and nickel compounds and to retain documentation for 3 years.

 

As part of the 2019 settlement with EPA, the company also replaced 129 windows suspected to present lead-based paint hazards in Indianapolis neighborhoods with environmental justice concerns. Heritage-Crystal Clean spent approximately $191,000 to complete the project.

 

Heritage-Crystal Clean’s facility is in an industrial area EPA identified as potentially having high pollution and socioeconomic burdens. EPA is strengthening enforcement in such communities to address disproportionately high human health or environmental effects of industrial operations on vulnerable populations.

 

 

For the third time since 2020, the operator of sawmills in Alabama, Connecticut, Florida, Massachusetts, Mississippi and Virginia failed to follow federal workplace safety standards across its organization, resulting in a worker fatality at its Alabama facility and a U.S. Department of Labor investigation.

 

An investigation by the department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration determined that a 20-year-old sawmill worker, part of a six-member crew trying to clear a jammed roller at Rex Lumber LLC in Troy in December 2022, was crushed when stored energy caused the infeed unit to close on him.

 

OSHA issued a willful citation for allowing workers to perform maintenance on equipment without controlling hazardous energy sources. The company also failed to review its energy control procedures regularly to ensure compliance and did not train employees on how to isolate stored energy in hydraulic accumulators.

 

The incident follows tragedies in 2021 and 2020 related to improper machine operations at two Rex Lumber sawmills in Florida. At the Graceville location in March 2021, an employee trying to fix a machine's faulty hydraulic valve suffered crushing injuries when they were caught in the machine's wheels and pulleys. In December 2020, a worker suffered an amputation injury — and died in a hospital days later — after their hand came in contact with the nip point of a conveyor's roller at the Bristol, Florida, location.

 

"Rex Lumber's failure to comply with well-known safety requirements led to the death of a worker and put others at serious risk of harm," explained OSHA Area Office Director Jose Gonzalez in Mobile, Alabama. "Safety standards exist to protect workers from the hazards of moving machinery and when followed, they can save lives."

 

After its investigation in Troy, OSHA assessed the company with $184,385 in proposed penalties. Since 2013, the agency has cited the sawmill operator and its subsidiaries for 19 serious and other-than-serious violations.

 

Operating since 1926, Rex Lumber LLC has sawmills in Troy, Alabama; South Windsor, Connecticut; Bristol and Graceville, Florida; Acton, Massachusetts; Brookhaven, Mississippi; and Doswell, Virginia. The company employs about 360 workers who harvest lumber from yellow pine.

 

The company has 15 business days from receipt of the citations and penalties to comply, request an informal conference with OSHA, or contest the findings before the independent Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission.

 

 

A fatal explosion in 2020 at a facility that performed specialty thermal spray coatings in Houston, Texas, was caused by a leak of propylene gas from a degraded rubber hose, according to a final report released last week by the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board. CSB found that the gas accumulated overnight in the facility and likely ignited when an employee arrived in the morning and turned on the lights. The CSB report describes several process safety failures that contributed to the incident, which killed two workers and a member of the public and damaged hundreds of nearby buildings.

 

The incident occurred on Jan. 24, 2020, at the Watson Grinding and Manufacturing Co. The leak of propylene, an extremely flammable hydrocarbon vapor, formed when a poorly crimped rubber hose that had lost its pliability became disconnected from a fitting inside a coating booth. Instead of using factory-crimped hose, Watson Grinding relied on its employees to crimp the hose manually. The hose was a replacement for what CSB described as a “more robust” copper tubing connection and was made of a grade of rubber unsuitable for propylene.

 

CSB found that an automated system for detecting leaks, sounding alarms, starting up an exhaust fan, and shutting off the gas supply was not functioning, and a manual shutoff valve at the propylene storage tank had not been closed at the end of the previous workday. The incident would have been prevented if either the valve had been closed or the safety system had been working, according to the report.

 

The coating building had been constructed following a 2008 incident that also involved a catastrophic explosion of propylene gas.

 

Following the 2020 incident, OSHA cited Watson Grinding for failing to provide effective information and training to employees on chemical hazards such as propylene, failing to ensure the equipment in the coating booths was gas-tight, and failing to ensure the propylene shutoff valve was closed at the end of each workday. Because the propylene stored at the facility was below the 10,000-pound threshold, it was not subject to the OSHA process safety management standard or the EPA risk management program rule.

 

More than 450 structures, including many homes, were damaged in the explosion. Two weeks later, a resident died from injuries sustained in his home as a result of the incident.

 

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