Asbestos Laws Do Not Protect the Public: New petition recommends stronger Ban Asbestos Bill.

Physicians, scientists and others who have seen firsthand how asbestos can harm the public are signing a petition to the House of Representatives asking members to pass stronger laws to ban asbestos and outlaw the importation and use of asbestos-containing products, according to the Seattle Post Intelligencer.

Exposure to asbestos is known to cause serious illnesses such as mesothelioma, asbestos-related lung cancer or asbestosis.

Some of those who signed the petition are the same medical professionals that testified for Sen. Patty Murray in her six-year-long effort to pass a ban. However, they say, the bill, SB742, doesn't go far enough to protect the public from asbestos exposure.

The Intelligencer reports that the Senate version of the Bill would not have outlawed asbestos from vermiculite, talc, taconite and other sources of contamination.

The article says that Dr., Michael Harbut, who is co-director, National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers at the Karmanos Cancer Institute, spoke out agains the Bill, saying, "What the Senate passed would even allow asbestos fibers to be present in everything from road patch to stuffed teddy bears." Harbut is chief, Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine at Wayne State University.

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