MediaWatch: March 1995
Table of Contents:
Burned on Asbestos
U.S. News & World Report Senior Editor Peter Cary detailed the extensive costs that the Environmental Protection Agency places on the economy, particularly when it comes to regulations dealing with asbestos. In the February 20 issue, Cary chronicled the cost excesses of asbestos removal: "Much of the money, though, is probably being spent in vain....No one has ever determined how much asbestos in the air is unsafe, and there is now broad consensus among scientists and physicians that asbestos in public buildings is not much of a threat to health."
Detailing the EPA's failings, Cary wrote, "Less understandable is the role of government agencies, especially the Environmental Protection Agency, which created a public panic on the basis of paper-thin scientific information." He discovered that while EPA reports "did not command that asbestos be torn out, their dire admonitions -- plus the availability of federal funds for asbestos removal only -- pushed schools into many needless removals. An asbestos-remediation industry sprang up overnight; it would gross $4 billion to $5 billion annually." But in 1990, the EPA admitted its regulations may have indeed caused an even greater health hazard. According to Cary, "the EPA acknowledged that low levels of asbestos in school and office buildings meant low overall risk. It pointed out that the dust created by improper removal could actually increase the danger."
Cary concluded: "So the asbestos madness continues. For fear of asbestos, in 1993 New York City ripped out tons of plaster from its schools, only to find that just 25 percent of it contained asbestos." And pointing to future regulations he warned: "With Congress and the EPA now considering regulations for lead and radon exposure, the 1992 EPA report on how it messed up its message on asbestos should be required reading. But that report is virtually impossible to find inside the EPA. Says one in-house expert, `I think it's been buried.'"
