Asbestos Ban Bill Criticized Over Use to Make Chlorine (1)

A tug of war between legislation aimed at reducing asbestos’ deadly effects and concerns that the bill’s timeline to ban the chemical could jack up drinking water costs and impede medicine production played out during a Senate hearing Thursday.

Asbestos is used to make the chlorine used to disinfect drinking water.

Chlorine can be made in other ways, but the bill’s requirement to phase out asbestos imports in two years would reduce chlorine supplies and raise costs, Robert J. Simon, a vice president of the American Chemistry Council said at a Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works subcommittee hearing ...