Toxics
Toxic waste from industry, hazardous household materials, pesticides and auto emissions are polluting our air and water and endangering our health at home and in the workplace. More than 80,000 chemicals permitted in the United States have never been fully assessed for toxic impacts on human health and the environment. Cancer, learning disabilities, infertility and birth defects have all been associated with exposure to toxic chemicals. These chemicals have been found in children’s baby bottles and car seats, cleaning products, building materials, cosmetics, fabrics, toys, furniture, electronics, food and beverage containers and many other consumer products.
Cry Wolf Quotes
To destroy or seriously cripple the asbestos industry in this country through hastily developed or unnecessarily severe regulations will benefit neither the employee, the industry, nor the country as a whole, and could quite possibly have serious economic, social, and other consequences both now and in the future.
The [vinyl chloride standard would be the] tip of an enormous regulatory iceberg….If government allows workers to be exposed to the gas, some of them may die. If it eliminates all exposure a valuable industry may disappear.
There is no evidence that ingestion of asbestos fiber is any way harmful.
To the extent that it makes the manufacture of asbestos materials in the United States technologically unfeasible or uneconomic, it will force the purchase abroad of products for which there is no-asbestos substitute, with consequential losses in profit, increases in unemployment, and deterioration in the nation’s balance of payments.
Related Laws and Rules
Evidence
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Applying Quality Criteria to Exposure in Asbestos Epidemiology Increases the Estimated Risk
The government of the Netherlands recently decided that their occupational exposure limit to asbestos was still too high. The Health Council of the Netherlands proposed dropping the limit from .01 percent to .002 percent. OSHA's occupational limit is .1 percent.
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Industry Opposition to Government Regulation
The real costs of specific regulations, in chart form.
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The Going-Out-Of-Business Myth
OMB Watch debunks the cry wolf claims made against specific regulations, in chart form.
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Behind the Numbers: Polluted Data
Almost everyone (including regulators) overestimates the costs of regulation.
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Costs and Benefits of Reducing Lead in Gasoline
The benefits of removing lead from gasoline dramatically exceeded costs.
Backgrounders & Briefs
The Secret History of Lead
This immense article is an intricately detailed history of leaded gasoline, from the industry's early cover-ups to their attempts to defeat EPA regulations.
The Removal of Lead From Gasoline: Historical and Personal Reflections
First-person historical analysis of the leaded gasoline fight.
