To the Editor:

Re “Asbestos Kills Nearly 40,000 Americans a Year. Ban It” (Op-Ed, nytimes.com, Oct. 15):

The claims of Gina McCarthy and William K. Reilly , former administrators of the Environmental Protection Agency, regarding its recent actions on asbestos are misleading.

Earlier this year, for the first time in 30 years, the agency issued a rule under the Toxic Substances Control Act that strengthened safeguards related to products containing asbestos. When Ms. McCarthy and Mr. Reilly say that “w e thought we had relieved Ame rica” of asbestos, they gloss over the fact that neither of them achieved that goal while leading the E.P.A.

Before our rule, asbestos products that were no longer on the market could come back without any agency review, without any agency restrictions and without any opportunity for the agency to prohibit that use. Our rule closed this dangerous loophole.

Some people say the E.P.A. should immediately ban all remaining asbestos products. Under the toxic substances law, the agency legally cannot do that in one simple step. By law, the E.P.A. must evaluate the risk of remaining asbestos uses before it can restrict or ban these products. This is exactly what we’re doing.