Asbestos regulation is through the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA).

Certain products containing asbestos are banned while others are still in use.

Some products containing asbestos that have been banned include corrugated paper, commercial paper, flooring felt, rollboard, and specialty paper.  The EPA continues to watch over old users and regulate “new users” of asbestos.

There are two federal laws that EPA asbestos regulation fall under:

• The Clean Air Act (CAA)

• The Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA)

Asbestos Regulation under the Clean Air Act – The Asbestos NESHAP

This act (and subsequent revisions), is for asbestos regulation of places that are monitored by NESHAP (the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Pollutants for Asbestosis).  NESHAP regulates owners and operators of renovation and demolition sites to establish proper work practices as not to release harmful levels of asbestos fibers.  They also regulate disposal of asbestos.

This regulatory act has banned the following materials:

• Most Spray-Applied Surfacing Asbestos-Containing Materials - with more than 1% asbestos that is used to spray structures, buildings, conduits, and pipes. These types of products include fireproofing/insulating and spray used for decorative. Sprays with more than 1% asbestos do not fall under asbestos regulation and can be used if covered by a certain binder and if it’s not able to be fried after application.  If it can be fried, there can’t be any asbestos emissions into the air or there needs to be proper methods set-up to clean the asbestos before it escapes into the outside air.

• Thermal System Insulation – This asbestos regulation includes wet-applied and preformed asbestos pipe insulation and preformed asbestos block installation on hot water tanks and boilers.

Asbestos Regulation under the Toxic Substances Control Act – “Asbestos Ban and Phaseout Rule”

Portions of this act relating to asbestos are not in effect anymore due to appeals.

Some products that are still under asbestos regulation (banned) include corrugated paper, parole board, commercial paper, specialty paper, flooring felt, and “new uses” of asbestos.  Some products that contain asbestos and are not banned include: clothing that contains asbestos, pipeline rap, roofing felt, caskets, roof coatings, asbestos cement flat sheet, asbestos cement corrugated sheet, and others.  See the following link for a full list of materials EPA.

Asbestos Regulation under the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response ACT (AHERA) This act is responsible for asbestos regulation in schools.

Asbestos Regulation under the Asbestos School Hazard Abatement Reauthorization Act (ASHARA) This act is responsible for asbestos regulation of specific personnel (i.e. workers, accredited inspectors, management planners etc.) who work with asbestos.

CPSC regulates asbestos in consumer products and has banned asbestos from being used in such products as wall patching compounds and textured paint.

OSHA is responsible for protecting workers who may become exposed to asbestosis on the job. The permissible amount of asbestos exposure allowed for workers during an 8 hour day is 0.1 fiber per cubic centimeter of air and cannot exceed 1.0 fiber per cubic cm of air as averaged over a sampling of 30 minutes.

Asbestos regulation will continue to occur since this fiber is a known carcinogen.

Tags: asbestos regulation

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 14th, 2009 at 2:05 am and is filed under Asbestos Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.