An illuminating new investigation by ProPublica examines the devastating effects of asbestos in US workplaces. As the report notes, the carcinogenic qualities of asbestos have been well known for decades, but the US has never banned it, even as “dozens of other countries” did. As a result, countless workers have been put at risk of developing deadly diseases like asbestosis or the cancer mesothelioma. As the Environmental Protection Agency prepares to outlaw the substance once and for all, it faces stern opposition from various chemical companies.
The ProPublica investigation focuses on workers at OxyChem, a plant in Niagara Falls, New York. Along with Olin Corp., OxyChem is reportedly one of the “two major chemical companies” that uses the “hundreds of tons of asbestos” purchased from Brazil each year. They use the chemical to manufacture chlorine, and argue that “workers face little threat of exposure” thanks to their “stringent” safety protocols. As numerous former workers attested, however, this was far from the case at the Niagara Falls plant.
According to workers like Henry Saenz, “asbestos dust hung in the air, collected on the beams and light fixtures and built up until it was inches thick.” Workers frequently moved throughout the plant without personal protective equipment, carrying the particles home on their clothes. They reportedly asked their managers to protect them from the chemicals, but their requests were not heeded, and “the dangers remained until the plant closed in late 2021 for unrelated reasons.”
Despite the well-reported risks of asbestos, US regulators “accepted the chlorine companies’ argument that asbestos workers were safe enough,” according to ProPublica. The EPA finally proposed a rule outlawing asbestos in April of this year, but trade associations are lobbying for it to reconsider the initiative on the grounds that companies maintain strict safety protocols that protect workers who handle the chemical. “The industry groups have also made the case that a ban would jeopardize the country’s supply of chlorine and could even create a drinking water shortage,” per ProPublica, arguments that the EPA and other advocates have said are untrue.
As the regulatory battle unfolds, hundreds of workers still handle asbestos at chlorine plants in four states: Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Kansas. Saenz, meanwhile, is now a 64-year-old grandfather experiencing lung troubles and wondering if his days are numbered. “It’s a nightmare,” he told ProPublica.
More information on the risks faced by workers handling asbestos, and the decades-long battle to ban it, is available via ProPublica’s heartbreaking investigation.
