asbestos still legal to use in US or did they actually ban it

Your instinct to ask is right and honestly the answer is going to frustrate you. The EPA tried to ban asbestos outright back in 1989 under TSCA, and a federal appeals court threw most of it out in 1991. So for decades the US was one of the only developed nations still allowing it. The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization pushed hard on this for years.

Now there is some movement. The EPA finalized a rule in March 2024 banning chrysotile asbestos, which is the form still being imported, mostly for use in the chlor-alkali chemical industry. That's a real ban on a real product. But legacy asbestos already in place, in old ships, old buildings, old equipment, that's a different regulatory question entirely and those materials are still out there.

For your situation specifically, the 1971 to 1991 window on Navy vessels is something we've seen in a lot of litigation. The manufacturers of those insulation products and gaskets knew the risks well before the Navy was telling sailors anything. That gap between what companies knew and what workers were told is typically where liability gets established.

Consult an attorney for your specific situation, but what you experienced on the Oriskany is exactly the kind of documented exposure history that matters in these cases.

Short answer is yes, it's still legal in the US, and that genuinely surprises most people when they find out.

The EPA tried a full ban back in 1989 under the Toxic Substances Control Act but a federal appeals court struck most of it down in 1991. So we've been operating under a patchwork of partial restrictions ever since. Some uses were banned, some weren't. The really frustrating part is that chlor-alkali plants were still using asbestos diaphragms well into the 2000s.

The EPA did finalize a new rule in 2024 under the reformed TSCA that bans chrysotile asbestos specifically, which is the type still actively imported and used. That's genuinely new ground. But it doesn't address legacy asbestos already in buildings, ships, equipment, all the stuff that's been sitting there for decades.

For your situation, the 1971 to 1991 window on naval vessels is one of the most heavily litigated exposure periods we see. Engine rooms and pipe spaces on those ships had insulation from manufacturers who, and this is well documented in litigation, knew about the risks for years before adequate warnings ever appeared. The Oriskany specifically went through multiple refits during that era.

The regulatory history actually matters in these cases because it tends to show what companies knew and when they knew it, even before any ban took effect.

Please do consult an attorney familiar with your specific situation, particularly one with naval asbestos exposure experience.

Short answer is yes, it's still legal in the US, and that surprises most people when they find out. The EPA tried a near-total ban in 1989 under the Toxic Substances Control Act but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned most of it in 1991, which is one of the more frustrating rulings I've seen in 20 years of doing this work. So certain legacy uses stayed on the market.

What we do have now is the 2024 rule under the amended TSCA that finally banned chrysotile asbestos, which is the last type still being imported and used commercially here. That's a real step. But it doesn't undo decades of exposure for guys like you.

The Navy situation from that era is something I've seen in hundreds of cases. The government and manufacturers had internal documents going back to the 1940s showing they knew about the risks and kept it quiet anyway. That gap between what they knew and what they told workers is often where the legal theory lives in these cases.

Given your exposure window of 1971 to 1991 across multiple ship compartments, there could be viable claims against manufacturers of those specific products, not the Navy itself due to sovereign immunity considerations, though there are exceptions that may apply depending on your jurisdiction.

Please do consult an attorney who handles asbestos litigation specifically for your situation. Statutes of limitations vary by state and typically run from date of diagnosis, not exposure, so timing does matter here.

The short answer is that the US still has not fully banned asbestos, and that surprises most people including some of my colleagues when they first hear it. The EPA tried a comprehensive ban in 1989 under the Toxic Substances Control Act, and then in 1991 the Fifth Circuit Court vacated most of it. So we went from what looked like a real ban to essentially having it stripped away in court. The current situation is that asbestos can still be imported and used in certain products, though the EPA did finalize a rule in 2024 under amended TSCA that bans chrysotile asbestos (the most commonly used form) in chlor-alkali manufacturing. So there's movement, but it's not a complete prohibition.

Countries like the UK, Canada, Australia, the entire EU, they banned it outright years ago. We're genuinely behind on this one.

For your specific exposure window, 1971 to 1991, that overlaps almost perfectly with the period when asbestos use in Navy vessels was at its peak and then slowly declining. The engine rooms were particularly bad because the insulation and gasket materials deteriorated in the heat and sent fibers into the air constantly. The latency period (the gap between exposure and diagnosis) for mesothelioma runs 20 to 50 years in most cases, which explains exactly why so many Navy veterans from that era are getting diagnoses right now.

Please do talk to your oncologist about where things stand clinically, and if you're not already at a specialty center that sees high mesothelioma volume, it's worth looking into.