EWG Action Fund, with financial support from the American Association for Justice, has launched a national campaign to increase public awareness about the pervasiveness of asbestos, which is still lethal and legal in the U.S. As EWG Action Fund’s research shows, asbestos is still imported and used throughout the country — yet Americans have little way to know where they may encounter this deadly substance. EWG Action Fund advocates reform of the broken federal toxics laws to protect people from dangers such as asbestos. It defends Americans’ right to know where they might be exposed to toxic substances so that they can take steps to guard themselves and their families.

As EWG Action Fund documented in its groundbreaking 2004 investigation “Asbestos: Think Again,” thousands of Americans die each year from asbestos-related diseases. In addition to lung cancer and other illnesses, exposure to asbestos can cause mesothelioma, an extremely painful and fatal form of cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs, stomach and other organs. Mesothelioma requires expensive medical treatment and is sometimes fatal within months of diagnosis.

EWG Action Fund, organized under section 501(c)(4) of the Internal Revenue Code, is a sister to the Environmental Working Group. Its mission is to protect health and the environment by educating the public and lobbying on a wide range of environmental issues. Donations to the EWG Action Fund are not tax-deductible.

This website is dedicated to the memory of Michael Bradley, who died in April 2014 of peritoneal mesothelioma, a rare and incurable cancer that is almost always caused by exposure to asbestos. His family believes he was exposed by a “deadly hug” – contact with his father, who worked at a landfill that handled asbestos waste. He was 29 years old. His mother, Sandy Neuenschwander, continues fighting in his name for a ban on asbestos.