Melanie Benesh

The administration should be extending the ban to commercial uses and is catering to the wishes of the chemical industry.

We are really trying to get the full scope of the problem, and it seems like the Pentagon has that data. The results also would be of interest to ordinary people and communities that are worried about water contamination but may not have lawyers able to wrangle with the Pentagon and certainly don't have the money to pay for this kind of information.

The Trump administration will be partly to blame when the next worker is injured or dies as a result of being exposed to this extremely dangerous chemical. The EPA was catering to the wishes of the chemical industry.

This new rule makes it more difficult for industry to resume some abandoned uses of asbestos, but that is a half step at best. An outright ban is the only way the public can trust industry will never again be able to use this dangerous material that has literally killed tens of thousands of Americans.

If EPA is serious about protecting Americans from asbestos exposure, EPA should quickly release its full risk assessment under [the Toxic Substances Control Act] and issue a total ban on all uses of asbestos. That is the only way to ensure this deadly carcinogen can never be allowed on the market again.

While today’s regulatory determination is an important first step in finally getting PFOA and PFOS out of drinking water, affected communities should not have to wait any longer for relief.

The sad reality is that PFAS chemicals are all around us.

It’s not an ‘either or’ issue. We certainly have to think about ways to remediate, ways to get PFAS out of the environment. But we also can’t keep adding to all the pollution that’s already out there.

This is a multi-administration failure to take action on PFOA and PFOS and on the broader class of PFAS chemicals that may pose health effects.