Should Asbestos in Buildings Be Regulated on an Environmental or Occupational Basis?"

The issue of asbestos abatement in buildings may be viewed as part of a larger and more fundamental scientific and social issue: Should asbestos in buildings be regulated on an environmental or an occupational basis? The environmental ap-proach to regulation of hazardous substances has a different emphasis from that of an occupational approach. The environmental approach emphasizes abatement of property damage, while the occupational approach is more concerned with de-creased exposure levels and compensation for injuries to health. Similarly, the justifications for the two approaches also have a different emphasis. The need for environmental protection is justified on the basis of diffuse injuries of toxic sub-stances to the general population. In comparison, the justification for regulation of toxic substances in the workplace is based on identifiable injuries to workers. These different justifications have led to some divergence in policy approaches. Thus, this article addresses the issue of abatement of asbestos in buildings in the context of comparing the environmental with the occupational approaches to regulating asbestos in buildings. THE ENVIRONMENTAL APPROACH The environmental approach to regulating hazardous substances focuses on abatement remedies for property damage rather than individual compensation for health-related injuries. ' The Federal government's role in funding abatement rem-edies is necessary because the particular polluters that cause injury are difficult to identify, and because tort law does not readily induce clean-ups. For example, th