20110414
20110308
“Exposed – The Facts about Asbestos” – April 1 – 7, 2011 « ADAO – Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
“Exposed – The Facts about Asbestos” – April 1 – 7, 2011
« ADAO – Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization:
"Global Asbestos Awareness Week April 1st - 7th
'E X P O S E D – The Facts about Asbestos'
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
« ADAO – Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization:
"Global Asbestos Awareness Week April 1st - 7th
'E X P O S E D – The Facts about Asbestos'
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
20100719
Statement of Linda Reinstein regarding "Drop the Rock"
Statement of Linda Reinstein regarding "Drop the Rock": "Linda Reinstein, CEO and Co-Founder of Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) Issues Statement on 'Drop the Rock', SB 624
Largest Independent Organization for Asbestos Awareness Continues Mission of Public Health
Washington, DC ... July 19, 2010 --- The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), the largest U.S. organization serving as the voice of asbestos victims, today released a statement from Linda Reinstein, CEO and Co-Founder, regarding the Drop the Rock campaign.
'In a united call for compassionate action, The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) fully supports the Drop the Rock campaign to remove the official California State rock, Serpentine, which is the host rock for asbestos. The tragic irony of this designation is that asbestos exposure can cause numerous respiratory diseases and cancers including lung cancer and mesothelioma. The legislation behind the movement, SB 624, is about abolishing a symbol that conveys a very dangerous legacy. In 1965, Serpentine was designated as the state rock of California to promote the then lucrative asbestos mining industry, an industry that has since been closed down. For these reasons, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) joined The John McNamara Foundation and the Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to 'drop the rock', a symbol that represents suffering, death and disease to thousands of people.
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
Largest Independent Organization for Asbestos Awareness Continues Mission of Public Health
Washington, DC ... July 19, 2010 --- The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), the largest U.S. organization serving as the voice of asbestos victims, today released a statement from Linda Reinstein, CEO and Co-Founder, regarding the Drop the Rock campaign.
'In a united call for compassionate action, The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) fully supports the Drop the Rock campaign to remove the official California State rock, Serpentine, which is the host rock for asbestos. The tragic irony of this designation is that asbestos exposure can cause numerous respiratory diseases and cancers including lung cancer and mesothelioma. The legislation behind the movement, SB 624, is about abolishing a symbol that conveys a very dangerous legacy. In 1965, Serpentine was designated as the state rock of California to promote the then lucrative asbestos mining industry, an industry that has since been closed down. For these reasons, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) joined The John McNamara Foundation and the Pacific Heart, Lung and Blood Institute to 'drop the rock', a symbol that represents suffering, death and disease to thousands of people.
- Sent using Google Toolbar"
20080604
Asbestos Has Not Been Banned
Despite its well-documented dangers, you may be shocked to learn that asbestos has yet to be banned in the United States. Doctors and scientists agree: asbestos is a carcinogen and there is no safe level of exposure. Congress can and should pass legislation to ban asbestos-containing products and fund educational and research programs.
We urge you to support the Committee Print version that calls for ban of asbestos products.
Asbestos Legislative History
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20080601
Sheffield57 tenants ask city to take control of building
322 West 57th Street
By David Jones
An irate group of tenants at the controversial Sheffield57 luxury condo conversion urged a New York Housing Court judge on Thursday to appoint an administrator to take control of the building, amid charges that developer Kent Swig is trying to harass them into leaving by failing to repair collapsed ceilings, extensive water leaks and asbestos contamination.
Judge Sheldon Halpern was asked to appoint a so-called administrator of rents, who would assume management of the building at 322 West 57th Street. The 845-unit building, which still has rent-regulated tenants, has been the subject of extensive litigation and protest since Swig acquired it in 2005 for $418 million.
About 46 of 120 free-market and regulated tenants signed the so-called 7A petition, and several of the 150 newly signed condominium owners have complained of extensive maintenance problems at the building.
Tenants' lawyers allege that numerous complaints to city and state officials have been ignored, despite a November 2007 accord between the tenants, Swig and Attorney General Andrew Cuomo's office.
"There is a cause of action under the [city's] new harassment statute with the landlord," said attorney Robin LoGuidice, who is representing the tenants with partner Robert Grimble. "One of the issues we're seeing is there is ongoing construction and there is nothing reflected in the Building Department with regards to the complaints that are being called in."
The city passed a law in March that prevents landlords from harassing tenants into leaving apartment buildings. The law's supporters said it was needed because tenants have been harassed to force conversions of rent-regulated units into market-rate apartments or condominium units.
The filing, led by tenant Susanne Jansson, names Swig, building manager Ed Johnson, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development and Column Financial (a unit of Credit Suisse), among other lein holders, as defendants, among others.
Swig has previously denied that the building had any asbestos contamination. Attorneys for Swig said that there are no outstanding violations and said that the remaining construction is taking place on the upper floors of the building, while new residents are moving into lower floors. When asked if there were any remaining maintenance problems, attorney Stuart Saft said "not really."
"This really seems to be the last gasp of a tenants association trying to interfere with something that has already occurred," Saft said.
Saft said that 275 units have been sold with another 75 under contract.
Credit Suisse declined comment. HPD officials were not immediately available.
The case has been adjourned until June 19, according to Grimble and LoGuidice.
20080521
Carbon Nanotubes That Look Like Asbestos, Behave Like Asbestos
New study shows inhaling long, thin carbon nanotubes may result in asbestos-like health effects
Fighting Cancer: Historic Anti-Asbestos Legislation Moving Forward With Support of Meso Foundation
LEGAL AFFAIRS EDITORSContact: Christopher E. Hahn of The Meso Foundation, Office, +1-805-563-8400, Cell, +1-805-252-8955, chahn@curemeso.org; or Joel Schnur for The Meso Foundation, Office, +1-212-489-0600 x204, Cell, +1-917-647-2249, joel@schnurassociates.com
SANTA BARBARA, Calif., May 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Six years ago, Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) first introduced her proposed legislation to ban asbestos and invest federal funding in the research critically needed to develop effective treatments for the vicious cancer, mesothelioma, and other asbestos related diseases. Since 2002, the Mesothelioma Applied Research Foundation (Meso Foundation) has worked closely with Senator Murray to stop the death and suffering and to get this life-saving legislation passed. On October 4th, 2007, 120 Meso Foundation volunteer advocates from all over the country descended on Capitol Hill, meeting with their Senators, and urging support for the legislation. By the end of that very day, the Senate unanimously passed it.
On the House side, Congresswoman Betty McCollum (D-MN) introduced the companion legislation as The Bruce Vento Ban Asbestos and Prevent Mesothelioma Act of 2007 (H.R. 3339). The Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee of the House's Energy and Commerce Committee (E&C Committee) has taken the lead on the legislation. In its draft, known as the Committee Print, the Environment and Hazardous Materials Subcommittee has carried forward Senator Murray's work on the ban, eliminating an exception for asbestos present at 1% or less by weight, making the ban a matter of federal statute rather than EPA regulation, and adding enforcement provisions.
20080505
Brent Coon reaches five settlements in enormous asbestos suit
More settlements have been reached in an asbestos suit so enormous that its plaintiffs routinely occupy the bulk of Judge Donald Floyd's 172nd District Court monthly docket.
A pool of potential jurors waited outside the courtroom on Monday, May 5, but before they could enter the court, the defendants in the suit blinked and the parties reached an undisclosed settlement.
The lawsuit, Helen Adams et al vs. AC&S et al, was originally filed in 2004 by the Brent Coon & Associates law firm on behalf of more than 2,000 plaintiffs against around 400 corporations.
Coon's lawyers managed to negotiate five settlements for their clients Steve Atkins, Clifton Hightower, Jackie Lytle, Elenora Demore and Judith Mullens.
The suit alleges the plaintiffs, or their deceased family members, were "exposed to large quantities of asbestos or asbestos-related products from the defendants, resulting in a variety of respiratory and other diseases."
According to the plaintiffs' original petition, defendants including AC&S, Foster Wheeler, H.B. Zachry, Brown & Root, Bechtel and Dresser as contractors or distributors sold, installed, removed or distributed asbestos-containing products, which "were unreasonably dangerous and defective."
All the suit's plaintiffs allege the defendants were negligent for failing to adequately warn of the dangers of asbestos exposure and failure to test products before entering them into the stream of commerce.
Defendant 3M Corporation is also specifically named for providing mask products to plaintiffs that did not provide adequate respiratory protection.
The plaintiffs were suing for past and future pain and suffering, past and future mental anguish, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, disfigurement, past and future physical impairment, medical bills and funeral bills in the event of death.
Steve Atkins case No. E167-892-G
Clifton Hightower case No. E167-892-BY
Jackie Lytle case No. E167-892-DJ
Elenora Demore case No. E167-892-FN
Judith Mullens case No. E167-892GO
 |
| Brent Coon |
A pool of potential jurors waited outside the courtroom on Monday, May 5, but before they could enter the court, the defendants in the suit blinked and the parties reached an undisclosed settlement.
The lawsuit, Helen Adams et al vs. AC&S et al, was originally filed in 2004 by the Brent Coon & Associates law firm on behalf of more than 2,000 plaintiffs against around 400 corporations.
Coon's lawyers managed to negotiate five settlements for their clients Steve Atkins, Clifton Hightower, Jackie Lytle, Elenora Demore and Judith Mullens.
The suit alleges the plaintiffs, or their deceased family members, were "exposed to large quantities of asbestos or asbestos-related products from the defendants, resulting in a variety of respiratory and other diseases."
According to the plaintiffs' original petition, defendants including AC&S, Foster Wheeler, H.B. Zachry, Brown & Root, Bechtel and Dresser as contractors or distributors sold, installed, removed or distributed asbestos-containing products, which "were unreasonably dangerous and defective."
All the suit's plaintiffs allege the defendants were negligent for failing to adequately warn of the dangers of asbestos exposure and failure to test products before entering them into the stream of commerce.
Defendant 3M Corporation is also specifically named for providing mask products to plaintiffs that did not provide adequate respiratory protection.
The plaintiffs were suing for past and future pain and suffering, past and future mental anguish, lost wages, loss of earning capacity, disfigurement, past and future physical impairment, medical bills and funeral bills in the event of death.
Steve Atkins case No. E167-892-G
Clifton Hightower case No. E167-892-BY
Jackie Lytle case No. E167-892-DJ
Elenora Demore case No. E167-892-FN
Judith Mullens case No. E167-892GO
20080417
Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization
Share Your Story With Congress
ADAO is looking for individuals who have been diagnosed with asbestos-related diseases or any victims who have lost their fight to share their story.
The purpose of this search is to assemble a databank of examples that can be used to illuminate the inaccurate statistical reporting and forecasting of asbestos-related diseases.
Each story is important to the asbestos disease awareness and to ban asbestos. Please note on your story if you are available to speak to the press or travel to Washington , D.C. to speak with members of Congress. ADAO will not disclose any personally identifying information about those who wish to remain anonymous. Please include your name, address, phone, type of disease, exposure and type of treatment on your email to "Victims"
ADAO encourages you to view a powerful slideshow illustrating the high human cost of asbestos use. To see the slideshow, please visit ADAO.Corefusion.net
20080416
Tell Congress: Totally Ban Asbestos in Industrial Materials, Consumer Products and Toys | 800 Signatures |
Asbestos Victims, Advocacy Organizations, Health and Safety Directors, Environmentalists,
Americans have zero tolerance for asbestos!
Scientists agree: Asbestos causes cancer and other deadly diseases, thousands of Americans die each year from asbestos-related diseases, and there’s no known safe level of exposure to any form of asbestos. Yet asbestos is still legal in the US and still found in many common consumer products – even children’s toys.
The US EPA attempted to ban asbestos-containing products in 1989, but that ban was overturned on legal technicalities in court two years later.
In 2007, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization commissioned independent, certified laboratory testing that found asbestos in common household products, such as spackle, window glazing, and duct tape, and even in best-selling children’s toys, such as the popular "CSI Fingerprint Examination Kit." Research by others had already found asbestos in some children's play clays.
Congress is expected to hold hearings soon on whether to implement a total ban on asbestos-containing products. Right now, industry lobbyists are pressuring Congress to institutionalize the allowance of up to 1 percent of asbestos in our industrial materials, consumer products, toys, and other products on American store shelves. We say, "No!" It’s time for a total ban on asbestos in American products.
As organizations and individuals representing and advocating for those most impacted by the toxic effects of asbestos, we urge Congress to institute an effective and verifiable ban on asbestos.
Sign the Petition
W. R. Grace & Co. announced an agreement in principle that would settle all present and future asbestos-related personal injury claims. The agreement, reached with the Official Committee of Asbestos Personal Injury Claimants, the Future Claimants Representative and the Official Committee of Equity Security Holders, requires the following assets to be paid into a trust to be established under Section 524(g) of the United States Bankruptcy Code:
· Cash in the amount of $250 million;
· Warrants to acquire 10 million shares of Grace common stock at an exercise price of $17.00 per share, expiring one year from the effective date of a plan of reorganization;
· Rights to proceeds under Grace’s asbestos-related insurance coverage;
· The value of cash and stock under the litigation settlement agreements with Sealed Air Corporation and Fresenius Medical Care Holdings, Inc.; and
· Deferred payments at $110 million per year for five years beginning in 2019, and $100 million per year for ten years beginning in 2024; the deferred payments would be obligations of Grace backed by 50.1% of Grace’s common stock to meet the requirements of Section 524(g).
The agreement in principle contemplates the filing of a plan of reorganization and related documents with the Bankruptcy Court. The plan will be subject to approval of its co-proponents, exit financing, and Bankruptcy Court and District Court approvals.
Lawsuit Indicates Popular Toy Contaminated with Asbestos
CBS Corporation, along with a toy maker and multiple retailers, were sued on April 11, 2008 by Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, a California advocacy group for asbestos victims.
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization stated that laboratory tests showed that the powder used to dust fingerprints in a toy crime-scene kit contained asbestos. The toy is based on “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation,” a popular CBS crime drama.
The toys were removed from the market last year due to the results of several tests conducted by the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization. The toys were manufactured by Planet Toys, Inc, who stated that several tests showed no asbestos in the toys.
Planet Toys, Inc. announced a stop sale of the toy.
Currently, asbestos attorneys are working on cases in which serious illness has resulted from asbestos exposure.
20080404
Congress to Chemical Industry: You’re Under Investigation
Energy and Commerce Committee launches probe into chemical industry corruption of science and public health protections at EPA
Energy and Commerce Committee launches probe into chemical industry corruption of science and public health protections at EPA
WASHINGTON – The powerful House Energy and Commerce Committee today launched a landmark investigation into the chemical industry lobby group, The American Chemistry Council (ACC). In a letter addressed to the President of the American Chemistry Council, committee chairman Rep. John Dingell (D-MI), and Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI/1st), chair of the committee’s Oversight and Investigations Committee, demanded answers to a long list of questions designed to determine the degree to which chemical industry money and influence has corrupted science and decision making at the Environmental Protection Agency and potentially endangered the health of all Americans.
Said Stupak in a statement accompanying the letter to the ACC, “Americans rely on sound science to ensure the safety of everyday products. If that science has been compromised by industry, then the health and safety of the public is in danger.”
The full text of the letter is at the bottom of this release:
“EWG has collected thousands of internal chemical industry documents showing that for decades the chemical industry has worked to corrupt the scientific process and deceive the American public about the health risks of their products, even as they knowingly polluted the bodies of every person in the country with toxic chemicals,” said Richard Wiles, Executive Director of EWG.
“This is a landmark investigation. For the first time the public will find out exactly how the chemical industry uses their influence to corrupt government science at the expense of public health,” Wiles added.
how to safely remove asbestos
"introduction to asbestos removal 1989, an instructional film for asbestos removal"
20080403
20080402
$11 Million Asbestos Award Upheld by California Appellate Court
On March 28th, a California Appellate court upheld a verdict made in July 2007. Over $11 million was awarded to a former California couple to cover the medical, emotional and punitive damages related to mesothelioma caused from asbestos exposure.
The lawsuit was filed against Asbestos Corp. Ltd. In 2005 shortly after the husband was diagnosed with mesothelioma. The husband, who is now 77, has limited mobility, needs an oxygen tank and has lost the ability to care for his wife who also suffers from health problems.
The husband was exposed to asbestos while he was working in Navy shipyards in the 1940’s and 1950’s. While working in the shipyards, he repaired boilers with the use of asbestos products.
The lawsuit was awarded to the couple based on evidence that Asbestos Corp. Ltd. had been aware of the dangers posed by asbestos, but failed to use warning labels until the 1970’s.
Judge Bars NJ's $800M Suit Against Grace
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/fn/5666628.html
© 2008 The Associated Press
PHILADELPHIA — A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday barred New Jersey environmental regulators from imposing an $800 million fine against W.R. Grace & Co. for allegedly lying about asbestos contamination in the state.
Judge Judith Fitzgerald ordered the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to drop a lawsuit it filed against W.R. Grace in 2005 in an effort to collect the fines.
The lawsuit said Grace lied to the state about asbestos dangers at a Hamilton, N.J., plant where it processed vermiculite for more than 40 years. The vermiculite, from a mine in Libby, Mont., was found to have contained asbestos.
When Grace closed the Hamilton plant in 1994, it submitted an environmental report to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection that said the vermiculite Grace processed didn't contain harmful levels of asbestos, leading the state to conclude there was no need to test the soil or clean up the site.
In 2000, however, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency found high concentrations of asbestos.
W.R. Grace filed for Chapter 11 protection April 2, 2001. Fitzgerald said New Jersey's state court lawsuit against the company ran afoul of the shield that protects bankrupt companies from legal actions.
New Jersey said its moves against W.R. Grace were exempt from the Chapter 11 shield as an exercise of its police or regulatory power. State regulators said they acted to protect the public health and safety from a company that allegedly filed false reports about the extent of asbestos contamination at a site in New Jersey.
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/334357_asbestos05.html
EPA refused to warn of asbestos dangers
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/health/334357_asbestos05.html
EPA refused to warn of asbestos dangers
Millions of homeowners at risk
Last updated October 4, 2007 9:31 p.m. PT
By ANDREW SCHNEIDER
P-I SENIOR CORRESPONDENT
Congressional investigators will hammer the Environmental Protection Agency in a soon-to-be-released report for its flawed examination and cleanup of hundreds of factories that once processed asbestos-contaminated vermiculite into insulation.
But public health specialists say the investigation ignores an even greater failure: the EPA's refusal to adequately warn millions of homeowners that they may be exposed to cancer-causing asbestos in that insulation.
The Government Accountability Office conducted the investigation for Congress. The report, expected to be made public later this month, will say that the EPA's examination of sites in Spokane, Portland and 264 other communities that processed ore from Libby, Mont., used outdated criteria and underestimated or completely missed the dangers to people who worked there or lived nearby.
But the report will not address the EPA's failure to warn homeowners about the risks they face from the insulation.
"It is unconscionable that EPA would not inform the American public of the danger they live with by having this potentially lethal material in their homes," said Dr. Richard Lemen, former assistant U.S. Surgeon General, and acting director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.
The hazard from exposure to the tremolite asbestos contaminating the vermiculite insulation is well known, Lemen said, "and for EPA to basically keep it a secret from homeowners for all these years is outrageous."
The ore and the finished vermiculite product were sold by W.R. Grace & Co., often under the brand name Zonolite.
It's impossible to know how many homes contain insulation made from the ore. The government and lawyers who have brought a class-action suit against Grace use a formula that calculates the peak years of Zonolite sales, the percentage of the market those sales represented and the number of homes built during that period.
In Washington state, 230,000 to 300,000 homes fall into that matrix, out of as many as 35 million nationwide.
"The EPA knows that people throughout the country continue to encounter this dangerous insulation in their day-to-day activities," said Dr. Aubrey Miller, a U.S. Public Health Service physician.
For eight years, he has worked with the EPA team investigating hazards of the asbestos in the insulation.
"Kids continue to play in it," Miller said. "Workers continue to work in it. Residents continue to be exposed to it and few, if any, have a clue of the hazardous nature of this material.
"For years scientists have documented that the most minor movement, slightest disruption of this Zonolite insulation will unleash millions of fibers into the air. For the child playing in the attic or the cable or telephone installer, or anyone doing renovations, the risks are enormous."
Keven McDermott, manager of EPA's Environmental Services Unit for the Pacific Northwest region, says she continues to get calls asking about the safety of the insulation, seven years after her office did the first analysis of the risks posed by consumer products made with ore from Libby.
"This tells me that as an agency we have not done enough to educate the public about the hazards of Libby vermiculite, especially the insulation," she said. "I feel sick at heart when a young father tells me he just rewired his house, crawling through the vermiculite insulation in his attic day after day, tracking dust and asbestos throughout his home.
"When I explain about the asbestos in Libby vermiculite, there is a stunned silence. He wonders out loud what harm he may have done his family -- and himself.
"We have got to get the word out that they need to take precautions when they work around vermiculite attic insulation."
Almost everything related to the Libby ore and how it's to be dealt with has been mired in a quagmire of national politics, well-funded asbestos industry lobbyists and White House meddling.
The Justice Department has filed serious criminal charges against Grace and seven of its top executives for concealing the dangers of the ore it mined and sold. After two years of postponements, the trial may begin early next year.
In 2002, then-EPA Administrator Christy Todd Whitman agreed with her team of scientists and physicians working in Libby that a "Public Health Emergency" should be declared because of the severe toxicity of the asbestos contamination in the insulation. The declaration would have authorized and provided money for intensified health studies that would quantify the threat from the Libby asbestos, expand the cleanup of the town and the homes, and conduct an extensive publicity campaign to notify homeowners and workers of the dangers from exposure to Zonolite.
Thousands of pages of e-mails, letters and reports document intense efforts from the White House to block the declaration, especially the part that would require the government to tell millions of homeowners that they could be living with a toxic threat in their attic and walls.
In May 2003, EPA said it was launching a "national consumer awareness campaign to provide homeowners with important information on vermiculite attic insulation which may contain asbestos."
It promised extensive television and radio ads, a "blitz" of appearances on national and local news show, the distribution of "tens of thousands" of posters and warning brochures in home improvement stores.
It never happened.
In August, Sen. Max Baucus brought current EPA Administrator Steven Johnson to Libby for a hearing on why EPA headquarters thwarted efforts to institute the emergency declaration. When the Montana Democrat threatened to subpoena the documents showing what happened, Johnson agreed to provide them.
For decades, millions of pounds of the shiny vermiculite ore was shipped from Libby to processing plants throughout North America. High capacity ovens transformed the vermiculite into featherweight, silvery fluff used in scores of consumer and construction products from potting soil to insulation.
Grace documents show that the bulk of residential Zonolite sales were north of a line running from northern California through Denver and St. Louis to Philadelphia. Marketing, production and sales reports obtained by the government show heavy concentrations of Zonolite sold throughout Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, California and in Canada.
Exposure to tremolite asbestos in Libby caused asbestosis, mesothelioma and lung cancer among the miners, their family members and people who lived in town but had no direct connection to the mine.
Hundreds have died and government testing has found that thousands of other people who live or worked near Libby have signs of the disease.
The Seattle P-I disclosed the deaths in Libby eight years ago. Within months government health specialists involved with the victims of the Grace mine insisted that the toxicity of the tremolite that contaminated the vermiculite was alarmingly different, but it continues to fall under the same government regulations and tolerances established for the less lethal chrysotile form of asbestos.
Grace said it stopped producing the insulation in the late 1980s and most of its sites had been sold to other businesses. EPA investigators say the new owners of former processing plants may not have known that tons of asbestos-contaminated waste may have been buried on the property or was clinging to dust-covered rafters.
EPA headquarters told its regional offices to determine how many sites were contaminated. Some regions did elaborate sampling of soil, air and dust. Others did "windshield surveys" without leaving their car. Some regional offices did nothing.
"Based on these evaluations, 19 sites were found to be contaminated ... and needed to be cleaned," the GAO will report. But, it noted, in evaluating the sites EPA used a decades-old "1 percent rule," which said an area was "safe" if the asbestos found didn't exceed 1 percent.
For years many scientists and physicians from EPA and the National Centers for Disease Control were largely ignored by agency chiefs when they argued that that the 1 percent threshold was just an arbitrary number that industry supported.
As to the insulation in homes, EPA has posted a warning on its Web site and produced a pamphlet that will be sent to anyone who asks.
Said Miller, the Public Health Service physician:
"This is not how a public health crisis should be handled."
ONLINE
Find out about asbestos in the home: goto.seattlepi.com/r1038.
P-I senior correspondent Andrew Schneider can be reached at 206-448-8218 or andrewschneider@seattlepi.com.
© 1998-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
20080401
The Vermiculite Association
List of members
- moulded shapes, bonded with sodium silicate for use in:
- high-temperature insulation
- refractory insulation
- fireproofing of structural steel and pipes
- soil conditioner
- as loose-fill insulation
- packing material, valued for its high absorbency
- suitable as a substrate for various animals and/or incubation of eggs
- lightweight aggregate for plaster, proprietary concrete compounds, firestop mortar and cementitious spray fireproofing
- as and additive to fireproof wallboard
- component of the interior fill for firestop pillows, along with graphite
- carrier for dry handling and slow release of agricultural chemicals
- soil additive for plants, together with perlite for potted plants
- growing medium for hydroponics.
- means to permit slow cooling of hot pieces in glassblowing, lampwork, steelwork, and glass beadmaking
- used in in-ground swimming pools to provide a smooth pool base
- used in commercial handwarmers
- used as a sterile medium for the incubation of reptile eggs
- light-weight insulative concrete
Daily Herald |
| ASBESTOS COMPANY WESTERN MACARTHUR CO and MAC ARTHUR CO Debtors Case Nos 0246284 T 0246285 T and 0246286 T Jointly Administered under Case No 0246284 T Chapter 11 Notice of Deadline to Submit Ballot on Asbestos Related Personal Injury Claims and of Hearing on Confirmation of Plan of Reorganization If you suffer from an asbestos related personal injury as a result of exposure to asbestos in products distributed installed or fabricated by Western Asbestos |
| Sunday, March 30, 2003 Chicago, Illinois |
| Post-Standard, The |
| removing asbestos in an illegal and scheme at a Pittsburgh public housing complex ers then dumped the asbestos throughout ing the parking lot of the tion Army and at a cemetery nursing medical and office and even the Milton J benstem Museum of Science and Technology in Syracuse are among the places where crews did sloppy court ments show The crackdown by federal not the state Labor which is charged with policing the business has produced testimony that shows how th |
| Sunday, February 15, 2004 Syracuse, New York |
| Post-Standard, The |
| removed asbestos in illegal scheme By Mark Weiner Staff writer About 20 percent of workers who illegally removed asbestos in a statewide scam are at high risk of developing cancer one of the nation's leading occupational health doctors said Wednesday Dr Stephen Levin medical director of the Mount ving J Selikoff Center for and Environmental Medicine in New York City warned that workers face other potential health problems from their exposure t |
| Thursday, October 28, 2004 Syracuse, New York |
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