Court overrules EPA rule on technicality
NY Daily, Long Island - OCT 22 1991

New Orleans- A federal appeals court yesterday threw out a ban by the Environment Protection Agency on importing, making or using asbestos, saying the EPA didn’t give opponents of the rule a chance to make their case.

The ban was announced in 1990, and as seven - years phase - in began in August of that year. Several businesses involved in the asbestos business - as well as the governments of Quebec and Canada, where the minerals used to make asbestos are mined - challenged the ban.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sent the matter back of EPA for further action.

Asbestos, once used widely in insulation, boilers, automobiles brake linings and other productions, is a suspected carcinogen and is believed to cause lung ailments when its fibres are inhaled asbestos often take decades to appear.

Opponents of the ban said it would save few and hurt not only the economies of Canada and United States but those of developing nations where asbestos is used to make concrete pipes used in water systems.

The court has found that EPA failed to find substantial evidence that todays asbestos products unreasonable risk, industry attorney Edward ran said in a statement.

EPA lawyers were examine the appeals court statement and would react to it within a few days said agency spokeswomen Gwenn Brown. EPA attorneys argued in hearings last February that the long - ranges health benefits of the ban will be widespread and incalculable.

But appeals Judge Jerry E. Smith said the Judges faulted EPA for its procedures in formulating the ban.

The EPA failed to provide opponents of its ban with enough opportunity to cross - examine witness regarding disputed facts when hearing son the ban proposal were held, Smith said.

Such cross examination is necessary under the federal Toxic Substances control Act administered by EPA, Smith wrote.

An asbestos victims group said the ruling wouldn’t stop the eventual phasing out of asbestos products in the United States but it would slow down that process.

“If the EPA won’t ban asbestos in the U.S. market forces will, “ Mary Vogel, of the Asbestos Victims Special Fund Trust, said in a statement.

“The real danger is whether this court ruling will set a precedent for other toxic substance: whether it will enable industry to always cry that it didn’t have its say,“ Vogel said.

Smith also said that the EPA “failed to discharge its TSCA - mandated burden that it consider and reject less burdensome alternative such as a complete ban.”

Appeals of the ban full to the New Orleans - based 5th Circuit because it is experienced in handling asbestos related cases.