PENDING STUDY ON ASBESTOS IN TOYS COULD BOLSTER SENATE BILL CRITICS

摘要

Critics of a Senate bill intended to force EPA to ban asbestos are pointing to a forthcoming study showing some children's toys contain the substance to bolster their appeal to House lawmakers to strengthen the bill, which they say would allow industry to continue using materials capable of producing dangerous exposure levels to the known carcinogen, an informed source says. At issue is S. 742, which was unanimously approved by the Senate Oct. 4 would ban materials containing more than 1 percent asbestos by weight, a concentration critics say can still produce dangerous exposure levels. The critics are planning to lobby House lawmakers to incorporate more stringent language in companion legislation, and believe the study, which the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization and the Scientific Analytical Institute are poised to release Nov. 28, will bolster those efforts, the informed source says. As originally introduced March 1 by Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA), S. 742 would have required EPA to prohibit the manufacture, distribution and importation of all asbestos-containing products (ACP), which the bill defined as "any product (including any part) to which asbestos is deliberately or knowingly added or in which asbestos is deliberately or knowingly used in any concentration."