The White House Office of Management and the Budget (OMB) stepped in and killed EPA plans this past April to warn the American public that as many as 35 million homes might be insulated with asbestos-contaminated insulation, according to an investigative report by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. Specifically, the Environmental Protection Agency discovered that asbestos-contaminated ore from a mine in Libby, MT, is contained in insulation called Zonolite, which has been used in millions of homes, businesses, and schools across the country. When inhaled, asbestos can cause lung cancer and mesothelioma (a rare cancer of the thin membranes lining the abdominal cavity and surrounding internal organs). Fibers in the Libby ore have been found to be 10 times as carcinogenic as other, more prevalent asbestos fibers. EPA was also set to declare a public health emergency in Libby, where the mine’s asbestos contamination has killed hundreds and sickened thousands, before the administrator of OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), John Graham, blocked it, according to the Post-Dispatch. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) recently sent a letter to OMB Director Mitch Daniels demanding details on OMB’s role in obstructing the EPA announcement. “I ask you to provide a full and timely explanation for OMB’s actions causing EPA to abruptly reverse course on declaring the emergency and notifying the public,” Murray wrote. Documents provided to the Post-Dispatch through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request indicate the administration’s concern over “potential national backlash” from the Libby declaration. This would have been the first public health emergency ever issued by an agency, authorizing the removal of asbestos-contaminated insulation from Libby homes and providing long-term medical care for the sick.