Asbestos is a toxic mineral that was once a mainstay of American life. It can still be found in consumer and automotive products, cosmetics, toys and construction materials. Scientists started raising red flags about the health threats of asbestos in 1906. By the 1930s, research found that one out of four workers making asbestos-containing products had signs of asbestosis. In the 1960s, groundbreaking work documented the association between asbestos exposure and cancer. Yet according to the United States Geological Survey, the United States remained one of the top five worldwide consumers of asbestos until the late 1980s.

In 1989, the E.P.A. finalized a decade-long rule-making effort that set a seven-year timeline to ban most asbestos uses under the Toxic Substances Control Act, or T.S.C.A. Regrettably, the asbestos industry filed a lawsuit challenging the rule, and a federal appeals court overturned the agency ban just two years later. That decision cut the legs out from under the E.P.A.’s ability to regulate all but the few asbestos-containing products that fell outside the scope of the industry lawsuit. It also set a precedent that was used by a variety of industries to block the agency from regulating other chemicals like phthalate esters, formaldehyde and methylene chloride that were known to pose risks to human health and the environment.

Over time, asbestos became the poster child for the failure of the T.S.C.A., sparking bipartisan support to strengthen the law. In 2016, a bipartisan majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed the Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act, removing roadblocks like the cost-benefit analysis that had paralyzed the agency’s actions on asbestos. At the signing ceremony for the new law, President Barack Obama pointed to the T.S.C.A.’s failure to ban asbestos, saying that “the system was so complex, so burdensome that our country hasn’t even been able to uphold a ban on asbestos.” Unfortunately, much to the disappointment of families of asbestos victims and Congressional leaders who championed passage of the Lautenberg Act, the E.P.A. is failing to use the new tools Congress provided to ban asbestos.

The Trump E.P.A. began evaluating the risks of asbestos, but it excluded from consideration important pathways of exposure and uses . For example, the agency refused to address asbestos that remains installed in millions of homes from construction materials used in the 1950s, 60s and 70s; would not consider the exposure of firefighters when they enter burning buildings containing asbestos; and disregarded the presence of asbestos contamination in children’s products like crayons. It failed to take into account scientific information on certain types of cancers clearly linked to asbestos, including ovarian cancer; colorectal cancer; and cancers of the stomach, esophagus, larynx and pharynx.

In addition, this administration imposed a toothless requirement on importers of asbestos-containing products from countries that still use asbestos, requiring them to notify the agency before discontinued uses are resumed rather than permanently banning them from entering the United States.