Archive for the ‘Delaware’ Category

Delaware - The federal Environmental Protection Agency has fined a Delaware charter school for violations of the Asbestos Hazards Emergency Response Act (AHERA). Pencader Business & Finance Charter High School failed to comply with several regulations required by AHERA.

Thousands of schools in America were built using asbestos-containing construction materials, due to the extremely durable, strong, and fire-resistant nature of asbestos fibers.

However, those same properties which made asbestos such a desirable construction material also make it a health hazard. When inhaled, asbestos fibers become lodged in the lungs, and the body cannot degrade or expel them.

Heavy and consistent exposure to inhalable fibers can cause a chronic lung disease called asbestosis, while a relatively small amount of exposure can cause deadly mesothelioma cancer to develop decades later.

For that reason, exposure to inhalable asbestos is an extreme health hazard, and many schools which contain asbestos materials end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on asbestos containment or removal, in their efforts to keep students and staff safe.

To deal with the problems asbestos can create in schools, the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act guidelines require schools to create and maintain asbestos management plans. In addition, schools must be inspected every three years, and asbestos management plans must be available for public review by staff and parents.

Management plans are intended to provide a written record of the steps a school takes to deal with asbestos and prevent exposure. In addition the plans are intended to help prevent accidental asbestos exposure which might occur when the location of asbestos-containing materials is not known.

The EPA inspected the school on March 1, 2007 and found evidence of three violations of AHERA. The school had failed to conduct initial inspections to locate and identify asbestos in its buildings, had failed to create and submit and asbestos management plan, and had failed to notify staff and parents of the availability of management plans.

Pencader Business & Finance Charter High School has been fined a civil penalty of $2,421.30. However, the school paid a total of $2,744 to comply with AHERA requirements, and therefore the EPA has considered the penalty to be fully paid.

The Delaware Bankruptcy Court which has been overseeing the W.R. Grace & Company case has set a bar date for claims related to Zonolite attic insulation which are to be filed in the W.R Grace case.

In order to preserve their case against the company, anyone who wishes to make a claim relating to Zonolite attic insulation must file that claim on or before the bar date, which has been set at October 31, 2008.

For the purpose of the bar date, Zonolite claims are property-related claims. These may include the costs of asbestos abatement, and any reduction in property value or other economic loss which results from the presence of W.R. Grace-manufactured Zonolite in a home.

Zonolite is a type of loose-fill, non-roll vermiculite insulation produced and sold by W.R. Grace & Co. The company mined the vermiculite from a mine located in Libby, Montana. The mine, the vermiculite, and all the insulation sold under the brand name Zonolite is contaminated with tremolite asbestos.

The contamination of the mine where the substance was obtained is so severe that the entire town of Libby has been declared an EPA superfund site for almost a decade, with hundreds of millions spent on clean-up. More than 1,000 residents of Libby have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases as a consequence of working in or living near the mine. At the end of this year, the criminal trial against W.R. Grace and several of its top executives finally get under way.

The consequences of the production and use of contaminated vermiculite are even more far-reaching than appears at first glance. Many more people than those residing in Libby may eventually be affected, as Zonolite is present in millions of American homes.

Zonolite was sold from the 1920s up until the 1980s under several brand names, including Attic Fill, Attic Plus, Cashway Attic Insulation, Econofil, House Fill, Wickes Attic Insulation, Zonolite Insulating Fill, Sears Micro Fill, Quiselle Insulating Fill, Mica Pellets Attic Insulation, Unifil, and Ward’s Mineral Fill.

Zonolite insulation may appear as a glittery granular substance. Granules may be silvery, gold, or brown in color, and their color may have darkened after being present in an attic for several years. Even homes with newer insulation may still contain Zonolite, as the substance may be found underneath newer rolled insulation.

For more information about filing claims, interested parties can visit www.graceclaims.com, call 1-877-465-4817, or write to Claims Processing Agent, W. R. Grace & Co. Bankruptcy, P.O. Box 1620, Faribault, MN 55021-1620.