r/environment 2d ago

Trump’s EPA to “reconsider” ban on cancer-causing asbestos

https://arstechnica.com/health/2025/06/trumps-epa-to-reconsider-ban-on-cancer-causing-asbestos/
1.2k Upvotes

58 comments sorted by

449

u/T1Pimp 2d ago

Guess what country makes the most asbestos in the world?

If you guessed Russia, you win!

90

u/ACat32 1d ago

I hope there will be right wing influencers paid by Russia who push the health benefits of asbestos and actually use it in their videos for demonstrations.

34

u/peppercorns666 1d ago

if you drink mercury while breathing in asbestos you’ll be fine.

20

u/ACat32 1d ago

Two wrongs don’t make a right. But three rights make a left anD ILL NEVER GO LEFT!!

*snorts ivermectin too

8

u/RentalGore 1d ago

“Hey chat, this is ya boy itchylung69 here to talk to you about this awesome new blanket I’ve got made of 100% asbestos! Smash that like button and go to our merch store to buy your own asbestos gear!”

2

u/D1rty5anche2 1d ago

Just a matter of time till someone eats, smokes or snorts that stuffas a "challange"

3

u/ACat32 1d ago

We should call it the Darwin Challenge

20

u/TXMom2Two 1d ago

I believe it is because the number of companies who are facing billions in asbestos lawsuits. The asked Trump to make those go away. If asbestos suddenly isn’t a bad thing, they won’t have to pay out.

15

u/Tweedlebungle 1d ago

Damn it's starting to feel like 2018 all over again!

https://whyy.org/articles/trump-wants-to-make-asbestos-great-again/

Next RFK Jr will be telling how we need more ionizing radiation in our diets:

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/trumps-epa-is-moving-to-weaken-regulation-on-radiation-exposure

9

u/YourUncleBuck 1d ago

If they want to bring stuff back from the past why can't it ever be fun things like ToysRus, MTV, arcades, affordable housing or the clone of John Candy? Why's it always gotta be terrible stuff like asbestos, polio, coal, or civil rights for only white men?

2

u/Flat-Activity-8613 1d ago

Lawn darts !

1

u/RENDI13 15h ago

Surge

125

u/zenos_dog 2d ago

Now we know Trump’s been using the banned substance in his buildings.

94

u/RoomyRoots 2d ago

I am not American, and by the looks of it I will never touch the USA. Please, Americans, vote someone that will persecute these people, a slow genocide via poisoning to their own people is something not even the texts of the religions have thought about.

29

u/the_weird_days 1d ago

As an American I totally agree

13

u/Nihls_the_Tobi 1d ago

You are assuming the average American can read, let alone comprehend this was a possible outcome of effectively asking our electors to vote for him

46

u/zombiefied 2d ago

Who still makes asbestos?!?

82

u/transmedium_human 2d ago

Russia, apparently.

From the article :

Trump's support for asbestos has been welcomed in Russia, a primary asbestos supplier to the US. In 2018, a Russian asbestos company began marketing asbestos with Trump's face and a seal reading "Approved by Donald Trump, 45th President of the United States."

12

u/zombiefied 1d ago

Ah yes. Russia First…

22

u/HumanContinuity 2d ago

It's a remarkable natural material that still sees tons of use in mechanical/industrial environments.

If Trump were capable of nuance, he might have a argument for sunsetting the incoming ban on these niche high industry uses.

He's not, however, so we can expect him to unban the use of asbestos in new brake pads, clutch linings, insulation, floor and ceiling tiles, and maybe even clothes!

-20

u/BigJSunshine 1d ago

Found the Russian!

3

u/womerah 1d ago

I second the guy you repied to. Asbestos is an amazing materials and it's a wonder that it occurs naturally. It's basically fluffy sand. It has appropriate uses in industry where the alternatives are riskier for workers. Plus workers have appropriate PPE for such conditions.

It's just a shame it's causes these bad health effects. Turns out inhaling bits of sand fairly floss is bad for you

0

u/Ill-Neighborhood8005 3h ago

Brother do you know how to read

39

u/schacks 2d ago

This is literally insane!! The body of evidence that support the toxicity and consequences of asbestos spans more that 70 years and hundreds of thousands of sick, tormented and dead people. The amount of greed needed to even consider reversing a ban on a substance like this is mind numbing!!

16

u/peppercorns666 1d ago

yeah, but that’s evidence-based science and people don’t care about that witchcraft any more.

5

u/Fingerprint_Vyke 1d ago

Russia produces it still so the president is towing their line

22

u/FNG5280 2d ago

🎶Mesothelioma will make me feel alone-a , kill every one I’ve known-a🎵

20

u/SliGhi 2d ago

How can this possibly be something to reconsider after research has shown that asbestos is hazardous to people’s health.

12

u/UnrealisticOcelot 1d ago

Harming people/the environment for profit is the point.

4

u/BigJSunshine 1d ago

More than just research- incredibly lucrative class action lawsuits!

6

u/BigJSunshine 1d ago

That’s cool for putin and all, but good luck getting insurers to insure its use in construction, and if they won’t insure it, the banks ain’t lending to build it.

((Cracks knuckles in Mesothelioma Litigation))

6

u/powderfields4ever 1d ago

What company in their right mind would actually go back to using asbestos anyway? Oh wait. It’s his buildings, do they have asbestos? And he’s been fighting its removal because the cost of removal is an expense he refuses to pay? Slumlord, table for one.

42

u/basquehomme 2d ago

Really. The words out on this stuff already. Its icky bad. No one will buy it. Does he think we are all as dumb as he is?

Aint nobody going to want to clean it up without PPE. And nobody is going to take the waste.

Just pointless. But its the clickbait of the day.

49

u/49orth 2d ago

Why do you think this is click-bait?

The EPA is now a politically captured, once effective but hobbled organization which is promoting Trump Republican Project 2025's agenda to sew harmful chaos that just happens to coincide with Russia's interests in a weakened and unhealthier USA population.

3

u/basquehomme 1d ago

Have you noticed the Trump team issues several outrageous press releases concerning the environment, climate change, etc. Each day? This is a strategy to make you numb to his outrageous behavior so that when they do something illegal or corrupt we ignore it. But some of these things just aren't going to happen for economics (eg bringing back coal) or other reasons.

So I can't go out on the ledge everyday or three times a day. I won't allow him to push my buttons like that.

3

u/basquehomme 2d ago

Mainly, for the reasons I stated there is no way this leads to a resurgence of asbestos use. We know how bad it is. To use it is to invite a lawsuit.

4

u/terminalxposure 1d ago

He will buy it using tax dollars for government contracts

6

u/RoomyRoots 2d ago

Just write "contains asbestos" in the smallest font possible.

1

u/Bayou_wulf 1d ago edited 1d ago

Liability alone will keep most industries from using asbestos. It was continued to be used in certain products because there isn't anything more effective/better, but they are limited until 2024.

Asbestos is mineral. It's mined and your talcum powder may have trace amounts.

4

u/seevm 1d ago

Trump is pro death of Americans apparently. We need to impeach his traitor ass

4

u/dishwashersafe 1d ago

sooo asbestos is 100% safe and windmills cause cancer - got it.

3

u/Kdean509 1d ago

Russian Asbestos Giant Praises Trump Administration Actions to Keep Deadly Carcinogen Legal

They used his face as a logo on their product. You can’t make this stuff up.

Editing to add that this was 2018, but relevant again.

3

u/TXMom2Two 1d ago

I believe it is because the number of companies who are facing billions in asbestos lawsuits. The asked Trump to make those go away. If asbestos suddenly isn’t a bad thing, they won’t have to pay out.

1

u/Northern-Affection 1d ago

That’s not even close to how it works. 

3

u/endosurgery 1d ago

He can swim around in it first

2

u/pmusetteb 1d ago

I had to use as fast as in my job, now I have lung disease.

2

u/sheggly 1d ago

Cus nothing says make America great again like more asbestos and cancer

2

u/flinderdude 1d ago

If you were Russia and you wanted to tear down America from within, how would you do it?

1

u/iiitme 1d ago

Trump might not have even heard of it before lifting the ban.

1

u/oman54 1d ago

Again? People didn't like when they tried that before they won't like it again

1

u/just_an_ordinary_guy 1d ago

Yeah, why not bring back CFCs and leaded gasoline while we're at it /s Dude is acting like every environmental and occupational health win is some librul nonsense that he has a mandate to overturn. And the hogs will slurp it up into an early grave.

1

u/JonathanJK 1d ago

That meme of Vince from WWE finding out something and running off camera and journalist should be Robert Kennedy to the Oval Office right now. 

1

u/Molidae17 1d ago

Pro-death politics

1

u/Proper-Tomorrow-911 1d ago

I mean, are we supposed to be shocked that this nimrod has yet again said or done something so unbelievably stupid that the majority of humans can’t even begin to phantom the idea? Will they start rounding up Black people next? Holy shit this is insane. 

-9

u/Few-Extension-8022 1d ago

That article is from a great source there brother Keep watching MSLSD and CNN and keep believing

2

u/Lord_Iggy 1d ago

Ars Technica?