JUDY WOODRUFF: If you have followed any number
of stories about asbestos and its role with cancer, deaths and health problems over the
years, you might think it's been banned from use in the United States. Well, that's not the case. It is true that asbestos is not used in building
materials the way it once was. But it still is found in some household products,
and some public health experts worry about its continued use. Miles O'Brien is back with that story, and
why the regulation and oversight of it remains a public health concern. It's for our weekly segment on the Leading
Edge of science, technology and health. MILES O'BRIEN: For 15 years, Linda Reinstein
has pounded the marble halls of power in Washington, a foot soldier in a long environmental battle
that you might think was over. LINDA REINSTEIN, Asbestos Disease Awareness
Organization: We deserve to have our air free of contaminants, air, soil and water. And without an asbestos ban on all products,
we remain in peril. MILES O'BRIEN: Asbestos, naturally occurring
mineral fibers that are durable, fire-resistant and highly carcinogenic. Breathing them can trigger lethal diseases. There is no debate about that. But more than 50 years after a landmark study
confirmed this, asbestos is a poster child for a broken regulatory process. It is still used by U.S. industry, present
in 30 million homes, and is a contaminant in consumer products, including children's
toys and makeup. WOMAN: The FDA is now warning parents to throw
out three products from Claire's after new tests found they contained asbestos. MILES O'BRIEN: Officially, asbestos kills
nearly 3,000 Americans every year, but these deaths are under-reported. Environmental and health advocates believe
the actual toll is much higher. LINDA REINSTEIN: I urge you to expeditiously
and thoroughly evaluate the risk, and move to fully banning asbestos without any exemptions. MILES O'BRIEN: In 2006, Linda Reinstein's
husband, Alan, died of mesothelioma, cancer of the thin layer of tissue that covers our
internal organs, a fatal disease caused almost exclusively by asbestos. Alan Reinstein was exposed to asbestos at
a shipyard and while doing home renovations. His widow is pushing newly introduced legislation
to enact an outright ban on asbestos. Do you feel like you have made progress? LINDA REINSTEIN: Progress is glacially slow. I have buried so many people I have known
and loved, including my husband. WOMAN: You OK? PAUL ZYGIELBAUM, Cancer Patient: Yes. I'm just loopy from the drugs. MILES O'BRIEN: Paul Zygielbaum is one of those
stories behind the grim numbers. When we first met him in December of 2017,
he was in the midst of a powerful chemotherapy infusion 14 years after he was diagnosed with
mesothelioma. PAUL ZYGIELBAUM: I'm just hoping that I can
get back to a better physical condition, to where I can do the things I want to do. And I have no idea whether that's going to
happen or not, so that is kind of frustrating. MILES O'BRIEN: This is just one of more than
50 rounds of chemotherapy and immunotherapy he endured. A former engineer for the space, computer
and utility industries, he believes he was exposed to asbestos at a power plant. PAUL ZYGIELBAUM: This is a carcinogen. It's deadly. It's insidious, because a disease doesn't
show up for 15 to 50 years after exposure. And it's like there's a blind eye being turned
to that, where that doesn't happen with many other carcinogens. MILES O'BRIEN: Why do you think that is? PAUL ZYGIELBAUM: I think there's decades of
industry lobbying behind it. MILES O'BRIEN: But scientists see a lot of
need for urgency. Every time they look at asbestos under an
electron microscope, they are reminded of the risks. Brenda Buck is a medical geologist at the
University of Nevada, Las Vegas. BRENDA BUCK, University of Nevada, Las Vegas:
This little fiber coming off here is quite long and very thin, which is very typical
of asbestos fibers. It's strong. It's durable. It's fireproof. MILES O'BRIEN: Those properties made them
an appealing choice in hundreds of household products. At one time, asbestos was marketed as a modern
marvel. WOMAN: Ooh, it is attractive. MAN: Yes, and it'll stay that way too. That's what I like about it. MILES O'BRIEN: But people who worked around
it in shipyards factories and mines, started getting sick, most infamously in Libby, Montana,
where asbestos dust from a mine has killed 10 percent of the population. BRENDA BUCK: They have these great properties
that we can use in materials, but those very same properties is why they're so hazardous
in the human body. They don't break down. When you breath them in, they're pretty much
going to stick with you for your lifetime. MILES O'BRIEN: The human immune system response? Attack the stubborn fiber. But, eventually, this backfires, creating
damage, disease and eventually death from cancer and a host of other afflictions. BRENDA BUCK: So, the government started to
regulate occupational exposures. They started at pretty high levels. And as more and more science was conducted,
we began to realize that we needed lower and lower exposures to prevent disease. MILES O'BRIEN: In the 1980s, schools across
the country scrambled to remove asbestos insulation from pipes and boilers. Then, in 1989, the EPA issued a ban on the
manufacturing, importation, processing and sale of products containing asbestos. But the chemical industry successfully sued
to overturn it in 1991. So, in 2016, Congress and the Obama administration
enacted an updated Toxic Substances Control Act. The idea? Give the EPA more teeth to regulate asbestos
and other hazardous chemicals that remain in the environment. But the march toward a ban came to a grinding
halt with the election of Donald Trump. In 2005, speaking as a real estate developer,
he told a Senate committee this: DONALD TRUMP, President of the United States:
A lot of people in my industry believe asbestos is the greatest fireproofing material ever
-- ever made. MILES O'BRIEN: Trump's appointee in charge
of chemical safety at the EPA is Nancy Beck, who came straight from a high-level post at
the largest chemical lobbying firm in the country, the American Chemistry Council. In a statement, the ACC denies Beck has a
conflict of interest, and says that claims that she does "unfairly disregard her career
experiences and decades of work as an objective and highly respected scientist." But, under her leadership, the EPA is refusing
to even study, much less regulate, the legacy asbestos that is all around us. The EPA says it is committed to protecting
the public from asbestos exposures. And it says, the statute gives discretion
to the administrator to focus on the uses that are of greatest concern. LINDA REINSTEIN: It's a David-and-Goliath
battle. And we are the small person trying to move
big mountains. There's huge money that flows. MILES O'BRIEN: And so does the asbestos. The United States has imported more than 6,000
tons of asbestos since 2011, almost all of it used by the chlor-alkali industry to make
chlorine. It mostly comes from Brazil, but, in 2017,
that country banned the mineral, as have more than 60 other nations. As Brazil winds down production, asbestos
imports will increasingly come from Russia, where some shipments are stamped with a seal
of the president's face, along with the words "Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President
of the United States." Meanwhile, in Southern Nevada, Brenda Buck
and her colleague medical geologist Rodney Metcalf have found even more troubling cause
for concern about asbestos. MAN: It's everywhere. Look at this, everywhere. MILES O'BRIEN: They have mapped more than
a million acres of naturally occurring asbestos here. The discovery came after they uncovered evidence
of unusually high rates of mesothelioma among women and children, a telltale sign of asbestos
exposure that is environmental, rather than occupational. BRENDA BUCK: Even if the EPA banned all use
of asbestos in the nation, we still have it occurring in our soils, and therefore, in
our air. And people are still being exposed to it just
through these natural mechanisms. MILES O'BRIEN: The Occupational Safety and
Health Administration has set limits on asbestos use in the workplace. But scientists say there is no evidence there
is any safe level of exposure to asbestos, which is why Linda Reinstein keeps pushing
for a total ban. LINDA REINSTEIN: Alan's chair will remain
empty forever, and my heart will be broken, but I will fight on. PAUL ZYGIELBAUM: I'm optimistic about a change
in attitude in Washington. I think it can happen. I don't think we're done yet. But I think, ultimately, we will win. MILES O'BRIEN: You're an unlikely optimist. PAUL ZYGIELBAUM: That's what keeps me going. MILES O'BRIEN: Paul Zygielbaum lost his 15-year
battle with mesothelioma on January 25. Asbestos will likely take thousands of other
American lives before the year ends. The deaths are slow and painful, not unlike
the regulatory response to this public health crisis. For the "PBS NewsHour," I'm Miles O'Brien
in Santa Rosa, California.
