Archive for March, 2008

March 14, 2008, Detroit, Michigan – Saturday March 29 is the date of the 4th annual Asbestos Awareness Day Conference, hosted and organized by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO).

ADAO is a non-profit organization run by volunteers. The organization is dedicated to serving as a voice for the victims and families who have been affected by asbestos diseases by fighting for a complete ban on asbestos products and encouraging research that improves treatment options and prognosis for people with asbestos-related diseases.

The executive director and co-founder of the ADAO, Linda Reinstein, will be joined by world-renowned asbestos disease experts as part of the organization’s efforts to continue educating the public about the hazards associated with asbestos.

Reinstein, of Redondo Beach, California, has experienced the effects of asbestos-related diseases first-hand. Her husband Alan, the former president of ADAO, died from mesothelioma in 2006 after being diagnosed in 2003 at the age of 63. Alan Reinstein was exposed to asbestos more than fifty years prior to his diagnosis with the cancer.

Inhalation, swallowing, or otherwise ingesting asbestos fibers can cause diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma. Asbestosis is a chronic lung condition that develops as a result of long-term exposure to inhalable asbestos. Mesothelioma is a cancer that can develop in the lining of the lungs, heart, or abdominal cavity.

Both diseases are incurable and mesothelioma in particular is a particularly deadly form of cancer, as itis aggressive and highly resistant to treatment.

Environmental and asbestos expert Michael R. Harbut, MD, MPH, FCCP, and co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers, says there is no safe level of asbestos exposure.

The Asbestos Awareness Day Conference is a joint effort that has been organized via collaboration between the ADAO and the International Asbestos Ban Secretariat, and is the official event that signals the beginning of Asbestos Awareness Week.

The conference will be held at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Michigan, between 8am and 5.30pm. Education and outreach will be provided for people affected by asbestos exposure and asbestos-related diseases, including research scientists, physicians and healthcare workers in addition to victims of asbestos-related diseases and family members of disease victims.

The cost of attending the conference varies. For physicians and other healthcare professions the cost is $225, while people with asbestos-related diseases, their family members, and students, pay just $75.

A Remembrance Service and Brunch ($25) will also be held on the following Sunday, March 30, starting at 9.30am. A candle-lighting ceremony will be held at 10.30 EDT at which people at the ceremony and all over the world can participate to remember those who have died as a result of asbestos exposure.

Those who wish to attend should be advised that registration is limited. More information can be found at http://www.adao.us/.

DETROIT, Michigan – On Sunday March 29, world renowned experts on mesothelioma and other asbestos-related diseases will meet for the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization’s 4th Annual Asbestos Awareness Day Conference. The conference, held at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute in Detroit, Michigan, is part of the ADAO’s continuing effort to educate the general public about the dangers of asbestos and encourage research to improve treatment options for victims.

ADAO is a non-profit international organization that is run completely by volunteers. It was begun by family members of those suffering from asbestos-related diseases and the victims themselves, and its mission is to enhance awareness of the dangers of asbestos and stop production and commercial distribution of the deadly carcinogen. Executive director and co-founder, Linda Reinstein lost her husband to mesothelioma in 2006.

The conference is sponsored by a collaborative partnership of ADAO, the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute and the International Ban Asbestos Secretariat. It marks the official beginning of Asbestos Awareness Week.

Alan Reinstein, husband of the current executive director, was the former ADAO president. He was diagnosed with asbestos at 63 years of age and died three years later in 2006. He was exposed to asbestos nearly 50 years earlier through occupational exposure and home repairs. His wife calls him “an inspiration to all those impacted by asbestos-related diseases”.
ADAO was instrumental last winter in identifying asbestos in a popular Christmas toy and having it removed from toy shelves across the nation.

Mesothelioma results when a person inhales of swallows asbestos fibers, which permanently penetrate the lung and other tissues. Most asbestos related diseases have long latency periods, ranging from ten to fifty years. Even after the victim realizes that something is wrong, the conditions are often diagnosed. Exposure to asbestos is the only known cause of pleural mesothelioma, a virulent, aggressive cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs. It is also a cause of lung cancer, and doubles the risk of colon cancer.
Asbestos expert Dr. Michael R. Harbut states bluntly that there is no such thing as a safe level of asbestos exposure.
“Each and every fiber causes an increased risk of unnecessary suffering and unnecessary death,” says Harbut.

Dr. Harbut is co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers.
Each year, there are 4,000 to 8,000 new cases of mesothelioma diagnosed in the United States, and mesothelioma is the rarest of asbestos-related cancers. Tens of thousands more people will be diagnosed with other cancers caused by asbestos exposure each year. Those cancers include lung cancer, colon cancer, stomach cancer and cancer of the esophagus.

ADAO’s mission is to educate the public about the dangers of asbestos, as well as the importance of early asbestos screening for appropriate health care. While there is no known cure for asbestosis or for mesothelioma, early diagnosis can increase the options for treatment.

BELLAIRE, Ohio – The contractor who is handling the demolition of a historic downtown building says that the EPA is wrong about asbestos in the building, and their mistake could add nearly $150,000 to the demolition costs.

On February 18, the EPA issued an order to halt demolition at the historic downtown Bellaire building because, they said, the building is riddled with asbestos, which must be removed before the rest of the building can be demolished.

The four story building caught fire and burned to a shell in December of 2007. The demolition originally began on January 23, and was expected to take 90 days and cost the small village $50,000. Contractor Nick Masciarelli knew from the start that the EPA would have to inspect the structure for the presence of asbestos and approve an abatement plan before the demolition could be completed. He and his crew intended to remove the top ten feet of the structure by hand, and then have the EPA inspect.

On February 18, Masciarelli’s work crews took off a front wall, and discovered what they thought was asbestos. Work was halted immediately and the EPA called. The agency confirmed the suspicion, and Masciarelli prepared to have the asbestos removed.

Asbestos, widely used in building construction before 1980, is often found in older buildings, and can become a problem during renovations and demolition because of the potential for asbestos fibers to become airborne. Asbestos dust is easily inhaled, but once it is in the body, it can cause serious health problems. While the effects of asbestos are not immediate, they can be devastating, and include lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis. For that reason, the EPA requires that buildings that contain asbestos must be handled with care and precautionary measures.

The precautionary measures include both handling of the asbestos while it is being removed and the eventual disposal of any materials that are contaminated with asbestos. Asbestos-containing materials and any debris that is contaminated with asbestos dust must be disposed of at special landfills that are licensed to deal with the contamination. That is where the issue lies for Masciarelli. The contractor claims that the EPA has overestimated the amount of asbestos in the building.

According to the EPA, the entire building is full of dangerous asbestos. Removing all of the tainted items and shipping them to a specialized landfill would quadruple the original cost estimate of demolishing the four story building. The original estimate was for $50,000 for the ninety day contract. Asbestos removal, if the EPA is right, could add an additional $150,000 to the cost of the job.

And according to Masciarelli, the EPA is wrong. The contractor brought in another independent hazardous waste testing firm to check up on the EPA’s findings. According to Masciarelli, the independent tests showed that the only asbestos concern in the building is the old boiler in the basement. Boilers and furnaces were often wrapped in asbestos coatings for insulation and fireproofing purposes.

If that’s the case, then the contractor can simply remove the boiler and dispose of it, then finish the demolition as planned. He has passed on his test findings to the EPA and is awaiting their ruling on the subject.

MANHATTAN, New York – The EPA has approved a decontamination plan that will allow CUNY to finally demolish Fiterman Hall, which has stood in ruins on the edge of ground zero. It is expected to berazed within a year.

Matthew Goldstein, chancellor of CUNY, said that the approval by federal regulatory officials will finally allow the important project to move forward. The 15 story building is part of the Borough of Manhattan Community College.

Fiterman Hall was originally constructed in 1959 as an office building, and was given to CUNY by Miles and Shirley Fiterman. The building was in its final stages of renovation for use as an academic building on September 11, 2001. Like most other buildings built during that era, the building contains many asbestos-containing materials. Those materials have complicated the demolition and removal plans for the hall.

The hall was severely damaged when the World Trade Center Towers collapsed that day. Falling rubble tore a hole in the building, set fires inside it and piled debris against its exterior. In 2006, a report stated that asbestos-containing materials remained in Fiterman Hall, and that there were also other contaminants present in the building that were related to the world trade center. Those contaminants include asbestos, silica, lead, PCBs, dioxin and ‘man-made vitreous fibers’ like insulation.

The dormitory authority presented its decontamination plan to the EPA, and was told on Friday that the plan was accepted. The agency concluded that the safeguards presented in the plan will help ‘prevent the occurrence of a situation that may present an imminent and substantial endangerment to public health and the environment”.

Asbestos, the most notable contaminant in the building, becomes a hazard when the materials that contain it are damaged or broken, releasing asbestos fibers into the air. That sort of damage is most likely to happen during demolition or renovation of a building that contains materials made with asbestos. The collapse of the World Trade Center towers released tons of asbestos into the Manhattan air, and the continued presence of damaged buildings and debris represent a continuing health hazard to the people of New York. Asbestos causes mesothelioma, a rare cancer that affects the lining of the lungs and is invariably fatal. It has also been implicated as a substantial risk factor for lung cancer and a number of other cancers and debilitating respiratory illnesses.

Because of the hazards, the EPA requires contractors and building owners to file a demolition plan when preparing to demolish a building. The plan must address concerns about asbestos and show how the demolition will be carried out to avoid releasing asbestos fibers into the atmosphere where they can become a public health hazard.

On Friday, the EPA accepted the decontamination plan filed by the dormitory authority that has responsibility for the building. The project is expected to take four to six months for decontamination and removal of all hazardous substance, followed by another four to six months to complete the deconstruction of the building. It will cost about $16.3 million, and will be carried out by PAL Environmental Safety Corporation of Long Island City, Queens. Work has already begun on the decontamination part of the plan.

A trial which names DuPont in a case of asbestos exposure is nearing the end of its fourth week in the 172nd Judicial District Court, and courtroom fireworks continue to build. The family of plaintiff Willis Whisnat Jr. contends that the pipefitter was exposed to asbestos during the time that he worked at DuPont as an independent contractor, and that exposure eventually resulted in mesothelioma, a rare lung cancer that is only found in those exposed to asbestos. Whisnat died of mesothelioma at the age of 72.

The trial began on February 21, and is expected to last through next week. Earlier this week, tempers flared in the courtroom as attorneys for the defense questioned a health expert about safety precautions in use at the DuPont plant in the 1960s, and implied that Whisnat did not follow them. Wednesday, attorneys spent the morning arguing about which evidence and which witnesses would be allowed into consideration.

Whisnat was a pipefitter working for B.F. Shaw who worked as an independent contractor for DuPont in 1966. Attorneys for DuPont sought to enter B.F. Shaw employee records into evidence, claiming that they would show that Whisnat spent most of his time at the Sabine Works, a DuPont facility, in areas isolated from asbestos. DuPont was able to recover those records despite the fact that B.F. Shaw closed in 1988. The plaintiffs argued that those records had not been authenticated. They “could have been produced on a word processor,” claimed the lawyers for Whisnat’s family. Judge Floyd did not allow the records into evidence.

Floyd also declined to hear the testimony of an independent contractor who worked at another DuPont facility. The employee was going to testify that B.F. Shaw warned its employees of the dangers of asbestos, and that workers were instructed to wear dust masks when working in areas of heavy asbestos dust.

Attorneys for DuPont argued that the plaintiffs were simply trying to ban any evidence that contradicts their case.

Whisnat’s family joined a class-action suit against DuPont after his death. The suit claims that DuPont negligently and maliciously exposed workers to asbestos even after the company knew that asbestos dust and fibers cause health hazards, including the mesothelioma that killed Whisnat.

Plaintiff’s attorney Glen Morgan made a compelling opening statement that has been widely quoted across the country. Morgan stated that DuPont’s asbestos policies during the 60s, 50s and 40s were so malicious that the company’s “right to exist should be taken away”.

LOS ANGELES, California - Yesterday, a jury awarded a $7million judgment to a California couple in compensation for the wife’s mesothelioma. The suit filed by Joan Mahoney and her husband alleged that Joan’s mesothelioma had its roots in exposure to asbestos in joint compound manufactured and distributed by Georgia Pacific Corp. Georgia Pacific plans to appeal the judgment, but the case has made headlines across the area, and the headlines have raised old concerns among homeowners throughout the area.

Asbestos was widely used in building and construction trades until about 1980. The fibrous mineral was often crushed, powdered and mixed into cement, cellulose, wood fibers and other materials and ingredients to add insulating and fire retardant properties to the materials. Companies like Georgia Pacific included asbestos in products like joint compound for texture and other reasons. Many older homes contain asbestos in a number of forms and places.

Joan Mahoney, an actress with a 30 year career, retired to a more sedate life with her husband in the 1960s. The couple ran a small remodeling business to help make ends meet. It was there, Mahoney’s lawsuit alleges, that she was exposed to asbestos dust. The joint compound manufactured and sold by Georgia Pacific would have been used in a number of different ways in those home remodel jobs. Most often, it was troweled over seams in wallboard then sanded smooth to create a seamless wall surface. Joint compound was also often used to create so-called “popcorn ceilings” and decorative troweled plaster ceilings.

According to information found at the EPA web site and from other health and environmental agencies, asbestos containing materials are not a hazard, as long as they are in good repair. Asbestos is only dangerous when tiny fibers of it become airborne and are inhaled or swallowed. The microscopic fibers lodge in the body, in soft tissues in the lungs, esophagus and other bodily tissues, where they remain for years. Eventually, they may cause lung cancer, asbestosis or pleural mesothelioma, the rare cancer that Mahoney was diagnosed with in 2006.

One of the occupations that is high on the list of those most at risk from mesothelioma are a group of construction workers called “joiners”. Their job was to mix joint compound, trowel it on and smooth it over seams between drywall panels, and then sand the asbestos-containing joint compound when it was dry. The dust caused by the sanding was laden with asbestos, known to cause mesothelioma in those who breathe it.

As Mahoney’s case makes front page news, home renovators are asking concerned questions about the risk that they take in remodeling their homes. Popcorn ceilings and textured walls in homes built or renovated during the years from World War II to about 1980 are likely to contain asbestos. If you are planning to renovate a home from that era, the EPA recommends that you have the materials tested to find out if they contain asbestos. If you choose not to have the materials tested, says the EPA, you should assume that there IS asbestos present, and take all the recommended precautions for dealing safely with asbestos.

March 13, 2008, Beaumont, Texas – The Whisnat Vs DuPont asbestos trial, now in its fourth week, continues to heat up, with several hours of a single day consumed by discussions between opposing attorneys over whether or not certain evidence and witness testimony would be admissible.

The suit was filed by family of Willis Whisnat, a former B.F. Shaw pipefitter who had worked at DuPont’s Sabine Works facility in Beaumont, Texas, as an independent contractor. One of the principle allegations in the case is that Whisnat’s work as an independent contractor exposed him to asbestos fibers in the 1960s, causing him to later develop fatal mesothelioma cancer.

Mesothelioma is a highly aggressive and treatment resistant type of cancer that is incurable and is only caused by exposure to asbestos.

Whisnat died from mesothelioma in the late 1990s, at the age of 72. His family joined a class-action suit after his death. The members of the suit claim that DuPont exposed workers to asbestos despite knowing that doing so would be a serious health hazard.

Last week, jurors heard testimony from several witnesses who had testified that Whisnat did not wear a respirator to prevent asbestos exposure while at work. DuPont claims that its safety policies required its employees to wear respirators in situations of extreme dust exposure, but an industrial hygienist testifying for the plaintiffs said that workers were not always able to determine what conditions constituted an extreme hazard.

This week, debate over what testimony and evidence should be admissible lasted for most of March 12, as plaintiff and defendant attorneys disagreed over allowing some employee records to be admitted as evidence.

DuPont’s attorneys want to enter as evidence some B.F. Shaw employee records. The defendants say the records show that Whisnat spent most of his time at DuPont working in locations that were not subject to any asbestos exposure.

The records were located at an Alabama warehouse, where they had been stored following the closure of B.F. Shaw in 1988. However, presiding Judge Floyd denied the admissibility of the records, on the grounds that they had not been authenticated.

Judge Floyd also denied the testimony of an independent contractor who had worked at DuPont’s Victoria facility. The witness was prepared to testify that B.F. Shaw had warned workers at that facility to wear dust masks when working with asbestos, to protect themselves from the dangerous dust.

DuPont’s attorneys have complained that the plaintiffs are attempting to have banned any evidence that contradicts their case.

March 13, 2008, Charleston, West Virginia – A West Virginia man has filed an asbestos lawsuit against a total of 42 different companies that he claims are responsible for having exposed him to dangerous asbestos dust.

Charles Edward McLane filed the suit in the Kanawha Circuit Court, naming DuPont, Union Carbide, Goodrich Corporation, and others in the twelve count lawsuit.

McLane claims that his exposure to asbestos occurred as a result of dust created by the use of products manufactured by these companies. McLane also alleges in the suit that using the products caused injury to his lungs, respiratory system, and cardiovascular system, as a result of the exposure to asbestos and other harmful dusts.

In the short term, inhalation of asbestos dust causes lung irritation, but there are more serious consequences as a result of long term exposure. Exposure to asbestos is known to cause diseases such as asbestosis, a chronic lung inflammation, and mesothelioma, a rare but very aggressive and treatment-resistant cancer.

Another big name specifically mentioned in the suit is Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, commonly known as 3M. The company was formerly a manufacturer of dusts masks as well as asbestos-containing products.

In the lawsuit McLane claims that he has suffered damage to his health because the masks manufactured and marketed by 3M did not provide the protection that the company claimed in their marketing material.

Among the allegations made by McLane is that 3M marketed the masks in such a way that he believed using the masks would protect him from asbestos and other harmful dusts, as well as fumes and other potential toxins. McLane says, however, that because he has developed health problems as a result of inhalation of asbestos and other harmful dusts, that the 3M products he used to provide protection did not work as 3M claimed.

In addition to the charges laid against 3M in the suit, McLane alleges that the other companies named, including DuPont, Union Carbide, Goodrich Corporation, and others, failed to warn him that there were dangers associated with exposure to asbestos and the other products he was working with.

The suit includes a total of twelve counts, including claims that McLane suffered serious injury, and great pain, suffering, and mental anguish. The suit also claims McLane has lost both earnings and income potential as a result of the damage done to his health.

McLane is seeking punitive as well as compensatory damages for loss of earnings, and physical pain and mental anguish.

March 12, 2008,  – Global chemical manufacturer W.R. Grace has agreed to pay a record $250 million to fund the removal of asbestos in Libby, Montana. This agreement finally settles a claim brought by the federal government in 2001 under the Superfund law.

It has been approximately eight years since the media first reported on the northwest Montana town’s asbestos problem. More than two hundred residents of Libby have died from asbestos-related diseases. The figure includes many people who never worked at the W.R. Grace-owned zonolite mine that was the source of the asbestos contamination.

EPA officials have said that the $250 million is, to date, the biggest Superfund settlement for the purpose of cleaning up a polluted site. According to the terms of the settlement W.R. Grace must pay the $250 million within thirty days of approval by a Delaware federal bankruptcy court (the company filed for bankruptcy in 2001).

If the settlement is approved by the court, the money will be paid into an independent Superfund account, to be used to recoup money already spent, and to pay for future clean-up and investigations. A total of $11 million will be set aside for future asbestos education programs and special projects such as emergency housing clean-up.

Over the last eight years, the EPA has spent around $168 million cleaning up asbestos contamination in Libby. Some of the money spent has also paid for medical check-ups and diagnostic medical tests for thousands of residents of the town.

EPA emergency coordinator Paul Peronard, who has been involved with the Libby clean-up since 1999 and is the EPA team leader for the project, says that up to an additional $175 million may be needed to complete the remediation.

Peronard says he doesn’t believe that remediation attempts will be completed in the near future, due to the enormous scope of the project, and the fact that Libby is such a heavily contaminated site.

The EPA has been removing asbestos in the town for eight years. In 2001 the federal government filed suit against W.R. Grace to recover costs of investigation and clean-up, and the company was forced to file for bankruptcy as a result of thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits.

In 2003, U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy ordered W.R. Grace to pay $54.5 million to the EPA to cover asbestos clean-up costs, but the money was not paid due to bankruptcy. The $250 million settlement finally resolved that judgment, too.

The W.R. Grace criminal trial is expected to open in Missoula by June of this year. Federal prosecutors will use as evidence a number of investigations and studies carried out by the EPA.
On federal study indicated that more than residents of Libby and the surrounding area had developed lung abnormalities as a result of mining operations. These abnormalities were present not only in mine workers, but in residents who had never worked at the mine.

The record $250 million settlement finally makes the chemical company financially responsible for cleaning up Libby. The process of deciding whether W.R. Grace knowingly endangered the town will begin in just a few months, at the criminal trial.

HELENA, Montana - After years of litigation and negotiation, W.R. Grace has agreed to pay $250 million in reimbursement for government expenses in the cleanup of asbestos contamination at Libby, Montana.

The settlement was announced today by the U.S. Justice Department and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. It is the highest settlement in the history of the Superfund program for environmental cleanups. The deal settles a claim the government filed against Grace to for past and future costs of cleaning up the site and surroundings of the former Grace vermiculite mine located just outside Libby.

The mine was owned and operated by the W.R. Grace & Co. until the early 1990s. It stopped operation mid-1990, and was officially closed in 1994. For decades previous, Grace had extracted tons of vermiculite every day from the mine. The vermiculite was contaminated with asbestos, a mineral that has been inextricably connected to mesothelioma, a rare cancer that is caused by exposure to asbestos fibers. Each day that the mine was in operation, it pumped tons of asbestos into the air to be breathed in by the residents of Libby.

Since 1994, over 1,200 residents of Libby have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases, including mesothelioma, lung cancer, asbestos cancer, and asbestosis. The Environmental Protection Agency has been working with residents of Libby and various environmental cleaning firms to decontaminate the mine and all the surrounding area by removing the asbestos-laden dirt and other asbestos-containing materials. Among other things, the EPA has removed tons and tons of dirt from around the mine itself, torn up a track at the local high school because it was made with asbestos-laced materials, and removed a skating rink from the Libby Middle School that was made with asbestos-containing materials. The cleanup has been going on since about 2000, and is expected to continue for years to come.

In 2003, a federal court in Montana awarded a judgment of $54 million to cover the initial cleanup costs, but the judgment was never paid because the company declared bankruptcy. The judgment covers that 2003 settlement and adds on additional costs incurred since then and future estimated costs of cleaning up the town and surrounding areas.

The settlement now must be approved by the bankruptcy court. Once approved, the company will have thirty days to pay the fine to the EPA. The EPA will hold the settlement in a special account within the Superfund to pay for future cleanup costs at Libby.