WASHINGTON STATE SENATOR URGES NATIONAL BAN ON ASBESTOS

Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works hears testimony

U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) testified on the urgent need to ban the importation and use of asbestos in the United States at a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee held in June, 2007. The Senate committee was examining the damaging health affects of asbestos exposure.

In March, Senator Murray reintroduced legislation to ban asbestos that she has been fighting to enact for six years. Her bill, the Ban Asbestos in America Act of 2007, prohibits the importation, manufacture, processing and distribution of products containing the deadly fiber -- long associated with causing cancer, especially among industrial workers. The bill also calls for dramatically expanding research, disease treatment programs, and public awareness on the dangers of asbestos.