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After three decades of attempts, the Environmental Protection Agency has banned the only form of asbestos still in use — part of a family of toxic minerals linked to lung cancer and other illnesses that cause about 40,000 U.S. deaths each year, the agency says. The EPA on Monday formally prohibited the import and use of chrysotile asbestos, the last type of asbestos that U.S. industries use. The ban comes 33 years after a federal judge blocked the agency’s initial attempt to ban the cancer-causing mineral. While the use of asbestos has declined since, it remains a significant health threat. (Phillips, 3/18)

President Joe Biden on Monday signed an executive order directing the most comprehensive set of actions ever taken by the president’s office to expand and improve research on women’s health. In a statement, the president and First Lady Jill Biden also announced more than 20 new actions and commitments by a wide range of federal agencies for research on issues that emerge across a woman’s lifespan, from maternal health outcomes and mental health challenges to autoimmune diseases and menopause. (Gerson, 3/18)

Repeated scans of patients suffering from the mysterious ailment commonly known as “Havana syndrome” found no significant evidence of brain injury, according to an ongoing investigation by the National Institutes of Health. Two studies, published Monday in JAMA, found few significant differences in a range of cognitive and physical tests among more than 80 patients who had been stationed in Cuba, Austria, China and other locations compared with a control group of people with similar job descriptions. (Achenbach and Harris, 3/18)

The Pentagon's internal watchdog has found that the Armed Forces Medical Examiner mismanaged the collection and handling of organs from at least 184 deceased troops -- and hundreds of others -- that were collected as samples as part of the autopsy process. According to a report released Monday, officials with the medical examiner's office failed to set up "consistent processes or policies for organ retention and disposition" that led to families either not knowing that organs had been taken or not having their wishes for those remains honored. (Toropin, 3/18)