Public-health advocates who in June praised legislation to ban asbestos now say the version passed by the Senate last month was watered down so significantly that they no longer support it. Thanks in large part to industry lobbying, many products containing cancer-causing asbestos wouldn’t be banned under the new version of the bill. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), who has labored for years to get asbestos legislation passed, told the grim truth: “If I was just Patty Murray and I didn’t have to worry about getting other votes or a Republican president or that I have a one-vote majority in the United States Senate, I’d have a 100 percent ban.” Says advocate Linda Reinstein, speaking for many frustrated activists, “We all knew that compromises had to be made to get this legislation passed, but I didn’t anticipate that industry would successfully intervene at the last minute.”
