Senate passes legislation banning asbestos products

By 2010, finding items with asbestos could be very difficult, and making or importing them could be illegal.

The U.S. Senate unanimously passed a ban on asbestos products Thursday, the culmination of a six-year effort by Sen. Patty Murray. A similar bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

“It’s been six long years of looking into people’s faces with them asking, ‘When will something be done?’ ” the Washington Democrat said. “There is no reason to have asbestos in any product.”

Asbestos has been linked to mesothelioma, a fatal lung disease that currently has no cure.

The bill sets aside $50 million for asbestos-related research and treatment at 10 centers, which will be named later, and calls for a national registry of patients with mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases to aid in the research.

It also requires the U.S. Navy to do more research on asbestos-related disease, early detection and treatment. About a third of the mesothelioma victims have some connection to the Navy, either through their military service, work in the shipyards or being in the family of a shipyard worker who brought asbestos home on their clothes, Murray said.

If the bill becomes law, stores and distributors of products such as brake pads and ceiling tiles that often use asbestos for its heat-resistant and insulating properties will have two years to sell out their inventory and begin restocking with non-asbestos products.

People who have cars with asbestos brake pads would not be required to change them before they wear out.

Homeowners who have asbestos in tiles or the wrapping on furnaces or water heaters would not be forced by the law to replace them.