The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) published the draft risk evaluation of asbestos on March 30, 2020.  EPA reviewed a suite of potential asbestos exposures and made the following initial determinations on risk:

• EPA did not find risk to the environment.  For all the conditions of use included in the draft risk evaluation, EPA has preliminarily found no unreasonable risks to the environment under any of the conditions of use.

• EPA’s draft risk evaluation preliminarily found unreasonable risk to workers, occupational non-users, consumers, and bystanders.  EPA found that workers, occupational non-users, consumers, and bystanders could be adversely affected by asbestos under certain conditions of use.

EPA states that these initial determinations are based on a draft risk evaluation of the reasonably available information and are not final determinations on whether asbestos presents unreasonable risks under the conditions of use.  EPA will use feedback received from the public comment and peer review processes to inform the final risk determinations.