Asbestos laws and regulations in the US are in place both at the federal and state level to protect people from asbestos exposure, but many people are not familiar with these. People experience asbestos exposure every day because there is not enough awareness concerning these regulations. This article summarizes the asbestos laws and regulations designed to protect people from asbestos exposure from materials already in place in buildings. Those affected when these asbestos laws and regulations are ignored include anybody who:

• Works in or visits a public building
• Lives in apartment building with more than four units
• Does construction work

This article deals mainly with the laws in place, but there is also quite a bit of litigation and asbestos lawsuits that center around asbestos exposure and mesothelioma disease, a particularly bad form of cancer. In this area of law, asbestos attorneys attempt to get compensation from those responsible for causing the asbestos exposure.

People who are concerned that they have been exposed to asbestos or might have mesothelioma can find more information about this aspect of it at various asbestos attorney websites, and there are some links at the bottom of this article for more information about this area.

NESHAPs stands for National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, and these asbestos regulations deal with renovation and demolition in public buildings, including apartment complexes with more than four units (it does not apply to private homes). Many people who work in public buildings or live in apartments are not familiar with these rules, but also many who are responsible for following these regulations are not familiar with them either.

Building owners and construction firms are often not familiar with these requirements or just plain choose to ignore them, and this can lead to asbestos exposure of the building occupants and to the workers performing remodeling or demolition activities.

Asbestos NESHAPs rules and regulations basically say that material that is going to be disturbed needs to be first evaluated to make sure it does not contain asbestos, and if it does contain asbestos then special rules and permits must be followed in removing it. This often involves a licensed asbestos abatement company.

Many, many times people ignore this and will just tear up a material first without checking to see if it is non asbestos-containing material; if it does in fact contain asbestos, then the building occupants and those doing the work have been exposed to asbestos. The building occupants often will continue to be exposed to asbestos because the building will become contaminated with asbestos dust.

There is often not much enforcement of these rules unless somebody sees it happening and reports it to the health department. For example, a few years ago in Texas they passed a law where to get a building permit you had to certify that the material that you were going to disturb is asbestos-free, but they left it to each municipality to decide what evidence was required. In some places, the building contractor just has to sign a piece of paper swearing it is all asbestos-free without providing any supporting evidence.

Not all people get building permits either. Scraping off the so-called “popcorn” ceiling texture can lead to a great deal of asbestos exposure, but many just do this without worry about permits or asbestos exposure.

To really certify that the material is asbestos-free, one would need either a signed statement from the original building engineer stating that no asbestos containing materials were used in the building, or a professional asbestos testing inspection including lab results. Asbestos inspections are often needed in buildings built before 1978.

If you visit or work in a public building or live in an apartment complex, asbestos laws and regulations are supposed to protect you from asbestos exposure. However, these asbestos laws and regulations are often either not known or ignored by the responsible parties, and asbestos exposure may occur and continue to occur after remodeling or renovation. If you believe that these asbestos laws and regulations are being violated, then you should contact the Department of Health in your state, and if you believe you have wrongfully experienced asbestos exposure, you may want to contact an attorney.

• Mesothelioma Disease - What’s with the Lawyer Commercials
• Understanding the Asbestos NESHAP
• EPA Asbestos site
• Mesothelioma.com
• Asbestos.com
• Residential Asbestos Removal and Asbestos Abatement Tips
  
• Asbestos in the Home