Author: Elaine Shannon
Website: http://www.enviroblog.org/2009/11/american-public-health-cal…

By Elaine Shannon

People think asbestos, a known carcinogen and cause of lung disease, has been banned - and it has, in about 40 countries.

But not here in the United States, where, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, asbestos imports increased between 2007 and 2008 by nearly nine percent, to 1,880 tons. It is still being used in consumer products such as joint compounds and some construction materials. Asbestos can also be found in brakes and clutches of older vehicles, older buildings and as a contaminant in some vermiculite.

On Nov. 11, 12,000 members of the American Public Health Association (APHA), meeting in Philadelphia, passed a resolution urging Congress to ban “manufacture, sale, export or import of asbestos-containing products.”

The measure, coordinated with the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, which represents victims of asbestos-related disease, calls for other measures to minimize work and public exposure to asbestos, as when asbestos seams…

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