Group seeks total ban of asbestos in products

Minneapolis Star-Tribune/New York Times

• The latest: To improve public health, asbestos should be banned from all new products sold in the United States, according to a draft study from a panel that included doctors, business and government experts and union representatives.

• Background: The consumption of asbestos, a heat-resistant mineral used in insulation, roofing tiles and brakes, has fallen drastically since the early 1970s, when it was conclusively linked to cancer. Asbestos mining ended in the United States last year.

Still, more than 26 million pounds of asbestos, mainly from mines in Canada, was added to brakes, roofing materials and other products in 2001, compared with 1.5 billion pounds in 1972. An additional 90 million pounds of cement that contained asbestos was imported from Mexico or Canada in 2001, according to the study.

The study, called "Asbestos Strategies," was conducted by the Global Environment and Technology Foundation, a nonprofit group that promotes environmentally friendly development, under a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency.

Prolonged exposure to asbestos has been proved to cause cancer and asbestosis, a painful and sometimes fatal scarring of the lungs.

Many scientists say that even low levels of asbestos can sometimes cause mesothelioma, and when asbestos is found in the air, building owners can be forced to remove it at great expense.

A secretary at the Asbestos Institute, a Montreal group that promotes the use of asbestos, said no one at the institute was available for comment on the report.

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