Exceeding My Capacity for Cynicism

The Trump administration is making plans to reverse the ban on the import of asbestos.

Seriously?

The inexorable march of American public health forward into the past goes merrily onward. From The New York Times:

Known as “white” asbestos, chrysotile asbestos is banned in more than 50 countries for its link to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer that forms in the lining of internal organs. White asbestos, however, has been imported for use in the United States for roofing materials, textiles and cement as well as gaskets, clutches, brake pads and other automotive parts. It is also used in chlorine manufacturing.

Last year the Environmental Protection Agency, under President Joseph R. Biden, adopted a ban on the use, manufacture and import of chrysotile asbestos. It was the first legal constraint on a deadly substance since 2016, when Congress updated and strengthened the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act by requiring testing and regulation of thousands of chemicals used in everyday products.

Lord above, I thought we’d all agreed on asbestos. The scientific consensus is undeniable. Huge settlements have been paid out in lawsuits on behalf of hundreds of thousands of victims over the years. Everybody knows how to spell mesothelioma. (Hell, it killed poor Warren Zevon at 56.) But we had not reckoned with the new philosophies of American public health—No Carcinogen Left Behind and Truncated Lives Matter.

Un-dirtyword-believable.