Tester and Daines Lead Bipartisan Effort to Designate National Asbestos Awareness Week

Senate Resolution Aims to Educate the Public About Dangers of Asbestos Exposure

(Montana)-To educate the public about the risks of asbestos exposure, U.S. Senators Jon Tester and Steve Daines led a bipartisan effort to designate this week as National Asbestos Awareness week.

Tester and Daines’ resolution will raise awareness about asbestos-related diseases that have plagued people in northwest Montana and across the country, as well as urge the U.S. Surgeon General to warn Americans about the risks of asbestos exposure. The resolution designating the first week of April as National Asbestos Awareness Week is cosponsored by Senators Richard Durbin (D-Ill.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Johnny Isakson (R-Ga.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Edward Markey (D-Mass.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

“Asbestos exposure has impacted too many families and taken the lives of too many Montanans,” Tester said. “As we work to fully clean up communities like Libby and Troy in northwest Montana, it is critically important that all Montanans and all Americans understand the lifelong risks of being exposed to asbestos.”

“Families in Libby and across Montana have been exposed to this life-threatening disease for far too long,” said Daines. “By drawing attention to asbestos, we’ll continue to educate folks and in turn, prevent our communities from further devastation.”

“Once again our Senators have stepped up and recognized the ongoing concerns related to risk from not only new importation and production of asbestos materials but also the risk from existing asbestos and Libby Amphibole in structures around our country,” said Dr. Brad Black, Medical Director and CEO for the Center for Asbestos and Related Disease in Libby, Montana. “We really appreciate the strong support of our Montana Senators!”

“Senator Tester has shown tremendous leadership in the introduction and now passage of the bill creating the 14th National Asbestos Awareness Week,” said, Linda Reinsten, co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. “Asbestos is still not banned in the United States, and each year, up to 15,000 Americans die from preventable asbestos-caused diseases while imports and use continue. Raising awareness about its dangers is one of the best preventive tools we have to help save lives. We profusely thank Senator Tester for helping to further this important mission.”

Tester and Daines’ resolution outlines the specific risks of asbestos exposure-including mesothelioma, which has killed thousands of Americans.

Tester and Daines’ bipartisan Senate Resolution was unanimously passed by the Senate on March 29 and is available HERE.