A Government Accountability Office (GAO) analysis has disclosed that OSHA took more than five years and EPA’s Office of Prevention, Pesticides, and Toxic Substances (OPPTS) took more than three years to release written materials warning of the potential hazards of exposure to asbestos in automotive brakes. The GAO report recommended that both agencies develop procedures to deliver such information to the public more quickly. This is especially important, the GAO observed, when an agency has identified the need to advise people how to protect themselves from health and safety hazards to which they might be exposed. During the five years that OSHA worked on its warnings, the agency twice decided not to release drafts before the final posting because the agency wanted to study the asbestos brake issue further and to avoid alarming the public. The new warning materials were necessary because workers and the general public were not aware that asbestos was still present in both old and replacement automotive parts.
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