ADAO Files New Suit Over Missed Legacy Asbestos Deadline

Legislation & Litigation

Written by Travis Rodgers | Edited by Amy Edel

The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization is taking the federal government to court over a missed legal deadline that leaves millions of Americans at risk. The nonprofit asbestos advocacy group filed a lawsuit in federal court in Washington, D.C., against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Administrator Lee Zeldin. The lawsuit says the EPA missed a mandatory deadline to address the public health threat of legacy asbestos.

This filing marks another chapter in ADAO’s decades-long effort to hold the EPA accountable. It raises questions about federal oversight of legacy asbestos in homes, schools and worksites across the country.

We spoke with Linda Reinstein, president and CEO of ADAO, who told us: “Our laws are meant to protect people. When federal agencies fail to meet their legal obligations to protect public health, we have no choice but to hold them accountable. We do this for the families who have lost someone to asbestos-related disease.”

ADAO has previously filed lawsuits against federal agencies in recent years to compel federal action on asbestos exposure. The group filed in January 2026 to require transparency about asbestos handling during the White House East Wing demolition. And in 2024 ADAO filed suit to push the EPA to close gaps in its chrysotile final rule and another suit to prevent lobbying groups from preventing action.

What the EPA Was Required to Do

The Toxic Substances Control Act gave the EPA 1 year to propose a risk management rule if an unreasonable risk was found. The EPA’s finding was clear: Legacy asbestos poses an unreasonable risk to human health. That evaluation, completed in December 2024, gave the agency until December 2025 to propose a rule. The agency let that deadline pass.

ADAO gave the EPA formal notice of its intent to sue on February 13, 2026, as TSCA’s citizen suit provision requires. More than 60 days passed with no action from the agency. That satisfied the legal requirement to move forward with filing.

“The law requires the EPA to propose a risk management rule to protect public health,” Reinstein told us. “ADAO’s lawsuit seeks to ensure accountability and to compel the protections necessary to prevent exposure and save lives. Until the EPA fulfills its legal obligation, communities across the United States remain at risk.”

What ADAO Is Asking For

ADAO wants a court to step in and make the EPA do what the law already requires. ADAO also wants policymakers, public health leaders and advocates to support broader asbestos prevention efforts. Those efforts include strong and enforceable regulations addressing legacy asbestos and the passage of the Alan Reinstein Ban Asbestos Now Act, which would fully ban asbestos in the United States.

Reinstein shared, “The EPA’s findings confirmed what workers and families have long known: Legacy asbestos kills. It is not confined to the past. It remains in homes, schools and workplaces across the country, where disturbed materials can release dangerous fibers into the air.”

ADAO won a federal court challenge in 2019 after the EPA tried to exclude legacy asbestos from its initial risk evaluation entirely. When the EPA then delayed the follow-up evaluation, ADAO secured a court-ordered deadline for completing it. The EPA met that court-ordered deadline, completing the evaluation in December 2024, but then missed the separate deadline to act on its findings. Now ADAO is asking the court to make sure the agency follows through on what that evaluation requires.

What Is Legacy Asbestos and Who’s at Risk

Legacy asbestos refers to asbestos products in buildings across the U.S., usually installed at the height of asbestos use in the mid 20th Century. Common asbestos products in homes, schools and public buildings include insulation, floor tiles, roofing and pipes. While asbestos isn’t added to new builds, millions of older structures still contain them.

Routine activities like home renovation, building maintenance and demolition can release asbestos fibers. And construction workers, teachers and firefighters, for example, can unknowingly carry toxic asbestos fibers home on their clothing, hair or skin, putting their families at risk of asbestos exposure through secondary exposure.

Legacy asbestos causes cancers like mesothelioma and lung cancer, as well as serious chronic conditions like asbestosis. Asbestos-related diseases often have long latency periods. Mesothelioma can take 20 to 60 years to develop from initial exposure. Symptoms also initially are hard to distinguish from more common conditions like pneumonia, making early diagnosis challenging. But awareness, screenings and early detection can significantly improve outcomes.

Raeleen Minchuk Prokopetz

Verified Asbestos.com Survivor

Peritoneal Mesothelioma Survivor Beating the Odds

At just 36, doctors diagnosed Raeleen Minchuk Prokopetz of Canada with peritoneal mesothelioma. Raeleen’s exposure to asbestos can be traced to her infancy, when she was exposed to asbestos as a baby. Her father renovated her grandparent’s home in 1979. Raeleen says it’s likely she inhaled asbestos fibers while crawling on the floor of the 1950s-era home during the renovation.

Raeleen Minchuk Prokopetz

Verified Asbestos.com Survivor

Read Raeleen’s Story

A Closer Look at ADAO’s Previous Legal Actions

One month after the Biden administration finalized what became known as the chrysotile asbestos ban in March 2024, ADAO filed a petition in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals. The suit pressed the EPA to close remaining gaps identified in the final rule.

The first EPA ban on a form of asbestos in more than 30 years, it phased out 6 recognized uses of chrysotile and blocked the chlor-alkali industry from importing it. But ADAO noted serious gaps such as a phase-out period of up to 12 years for some producers, no protections for auto mechanics or industrial workers handling existing asbestos parts and no safeguards against asbestos pollution near chemical plants in Texas and Louisiana.

Also in April 2024, the American Chemistry Council filed petitions in multiple federal courts seeking to roll back those protections entirely. ADAO filed a motion to intervene in the American Chemistry Council litigation, directly opposing the industry effort to gut the rule.

In January 2026, ADAO sued the Trump administration under the Freedom of Information Act after months of unanswered requests for records related to the demolition of the White House East Wing. The organization wanted documentation showing whether asbestos was found in the structure, how abatement was handled and how demolition debris was disposed of. The White House said precautionary measures were taken before work began, but never released any supporting records.