An apartment building in Boulder, Colo. that rented to many University of Colorado students remains off-limits today after inspectors found asbestos in the drywall mud.

According to an article in the Daily Camera, a fire Saturday at the Hill House apartments displaced 50 people, mostly university students, and though there were no injuries, it is expected that some tenants will lose everything. Complicating the issue is the presence of asbestos.

Police told the media that air quality tests were being done and that tenants could not re-enter the building until it was determined that asbestos fibers in the air were within the legal limits. Officials also noted that some items may not be salvageable because of the level of asbestos contamination inside the building.

“This is incredibly traumatic,” CU spokesman Bronson Hilliard said, noting that some of the students whose apartments burned lost possessions such as lap tops, cell phones, wallets, and passports, as well as clothes and other personal belongings. One student told a counselor that all she had left were the shorts, shirt, and flip flops she was wearing when the fire broke out.

Hilliard said the university is “still trying to determine exactly how many students were affected.” During the summer, many students sublet their apartments and some may have been out of town for travel. The university is available to help with emergency housing needs as well as meals and other necessities, he added.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been conducting air monitoring tests in several towns affected by the recent floods in Iowa, hoping to keep an eye on the level of asbestos in the air caused by the damage and demolition of homes in the area.

According to an article in the Daily Iowan, the EPA notes that the tests are “purely precautionary” and part of normal procedure after floods like the ones that hit Iowa late last month. Similar measures were taken last year after serious flooding occurred in Kansas and other states along the Mississippi.

 Marion Burnside, the Iowa asbestos coordinator for the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, said the main concern with asbestos is that it is light and easily airborne as well as strong and durable, so it’s able to subsist through the flooding. Burnside said asbestos was once used in more than 36,000 building materials, such as acoustic insulation, thermal insulation, and fire proofing, and that many of the damaged homes and commercial buildings in the area probably contained some asbestos materials.

“When you disturb [asbestos], it can break,” he explained. “Friable” or crumbling asbestos is easy to inhale, Burnside added. When asbestos is inhaled, it can lodge in the chest area and eventually cause serious pulmonary diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma.

Testing, says on-site EPA coordinator Kevin Larson, will continue for at least a few more weeks until officials are satisfied that no risk exists.

“We are trying to be proactive,” Larson said. “I think our message here is a positive one.”

With the busiest beach weekend of the summer behind us, frequenters of Chicago’s Illinois Beach State Park remain concerned about the hazards presented by the asbestos rock readily found on this 6.5 mile stretch of sand along Lake Michigan.

According to the Chicago Sun Times, a story printed in their newspaper in 1997 first broke the news about possible asbestos contamination at the popular beach. Eleven years later, there are few answers as to whether or not casual users of the beach are in danger of eventually developing diseases such as mesothelioma.

State and federal officials have maintained that the beach is safe yet last year, after 10 years of inaction, a special team from the U.S. EPA’s Environmental Response Center conducted further tests to determine safety levels. These tests came about a year after a 2006 study showed “significantly elevated” levels of asbestos at the park, including amphibole asbestos, which is the most toxic form of the mineral.

The article notes that asbestos rocks found at the beach appear as “normal” rocks to young visitors who enjoy building sandcastles. And despite warning signs that ask visitors not to handle the rocks, beachgoers often don’t know the difference between safe rocks and asbestos-containing materials.

Investigators have identified five different sources that may have caused the pollution along the beach, including a massive Johns-Manville site located just south of the park. Johns-Manville currently faces thousands of asbestos-related lawsuits from employees and others who’ve used their asbestos-containing products in the past.

Though the 2007 tests maintain that the beach is safe, advocates for asbestos reform disagree with the findings. An environmental watchdog group known as The Illinois Dunesland Preservation Society believes all the efforts have been inadequate and stress that exposure to asbestos, even at low levels, can cause significant health problems in the future.

Yet the EPA said just last week that a preliminary analysis “confirmed previous studies showing low levels of potential asbestos exposure for recreational users of the beach.” There is no cause for immediate action, they add.

Illinois state Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) officials say they are keeping a close eye on demolition work being performed at the former Cargill/Pillsbury plant in Springfield to determine that asbestos is not being released by contractors at the site.

According to an article in the Springfield Journal Register, an inspector from the Illinois EPA visited the property this week after residents in the area raised concern about initial work at the site, but found no violations.

“They were removing items, but none of the items were asbestos-containing items,” said agency spokeswoman Maggie Carson, referring to a crew from Ley Metals Recycling Inc., the Springfield-based company that bought the plant from Cargill Corp. last year.

She told concerned citizens that the EPA would be notified if asbestos was disturbed during the demolition. Asbestos that is damaged during demolition or renovation may cause the release of dangerous airborne fibers, which could be inhaled by those working or living in the vicinity. Asbestos is known to cause mesothelioma and other serious lung ailments.

“Anytime you’re going through a demolition process, a business like this would have to document that the asbestos is being managed properly, or that it is being removed in an appropriate way,” Carson said. “The asbestos that is there is contained and is not considered a public health issue.”

After five years of being tossed from port to port, the French aircraft carrier Clemenceau – laden with tons of asbestos – will head to Great Britain for its final dismantling.

According to an article in the Telegraph, Britain has been determined to be the appropriate final resting place for the ship, which was said to be “too toxic” to be dismantled in India’s Alang shipyard, where many of the world’s old ships head for shipbreaking. The Indian government turned away the ship about two years ago.

According to the article, the ship will be broken up by a company called Able UK, based in the northeast portion of England. British citizens have mixed feelings about the ship’s arrival in the UK but most environmental groups lauded the decision.

Environmentalists who hailed India’s dismissal of the ship and have accused France of transporting their pollution to various parts of the developing world were pleased with Britain’s agreement to take on the task of breaking down the Clemenceau. The British shipyard possesses the proper tools to handle toxic asbestos. It has been argued that the Alang shipyard does not possess the proper technology for either removal or disposal of the hazardous material. Workers at Alang have one of the highest incidences of asbestos diseases in the world.

“Overall we’re happy to see the ship going to the UK rather than India,” said Ingvild Jenssen of the Brussels-based NGO Platform on Shipbuilding, a coalition of 14 non-governmental organizations including Greenpeace. “As far as we know now, Able does have all its environmental permits and planning permits.”

Today, the Malaysian Trade Unions Congress (MTUC) initiated a campaign calling for a full ban on the use of asbestos in the construction and manufacturing sectors within the country by the year 2010.

According to a posting on Yahoo Malaysian News, MTUC secretary-general G. Rajasekaran noted that he is hard-pressed to understand why his country has yet to ban asbestos, considering that the mineral has been banned in Japan and all the countries of the European Union.

“Malaysia till now has only come up with regulations on the safe use of asbestos but that is not enough. In fact, there is no such thing as safe asbestos,” Rajasekaran told those gathered at the MTUC headquarters, echoing what experts have said in regards to the dangers of the mineral.

According to the article, use of asbestos in the building industry in Malaysia began in the late 19^th century and has continued, peaking in the mid 20^th century. Though asbestos has been banned in many countries, it continues to cause illness as asbestos-related diseases often remain dormant for up to 50 years.

The announcement by the MTUC came on International Workers’ Memorial Day, a day set aside to honor those who’ve died of work-related accidents or occupational illnesses.  

In a unanimous vote taken on Monday, the Minnesota Senate approved research funding to study rare mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer that has been showing up in disproportionate rates among Minnesota’s Iron Range miners.

Now that the Senate has approved the money for research, the bill will go to Gov. Tim Pawlenty, and the House is expected to act on Wednesday.

The bill uses $4.9 million for four phases of research from a Department of Commerce-administered fund that is now running a healthy surplus, notes an article on MyFox Twin Cities.

Researchers from the University of Minnesota will lead the study, which was prompted after reports from the state government which showed several new cases of mesothelioma among taconite miners in 2007. The study will analyze death records, conduct screenings of former and current Iron Range workers, and conduct environmental reviews of the area. The research is expected to take up to five years to complete.

The governor has said he opposes the way the study is being funded and it is expected that he may veto the bill when it reaches his desk this week.

Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center has been fined $110,000 for failing to provide proper employee safeguards during a December renovation project in which workers handled materials containing asbestos.

According to an article in the Niagara Gazette, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has charged the hospital with allowing hospital workers to remove asbestos-containing material from a steel ceiling beam without benefit of masks or other protective clothing. OSHA investigated the charge after a hospital employee called to complain and upon inspection, determined that employees were indeed at risk.

“The agency’s investigation also determined that workers on the project were not adequately informed about the hazardous nature of their work, nor did the medical facility do an adequate job of decontaminating workers’ clothing, monitoring asbestos levels on-site or disposing of materials containing asbestos,” the article said.

“There was a breakdown of essential precautions before, during and after this work and the sizable fines proposed here reflect the gravity of the hazard,” said Arthur Dube, OSHA’s area director in Buffalo. “The medical center’s failure to supply and ensure these basic and required safeguards placed these employees at risk of debilitating illness.”

In all, 17 citations were issued to the hospital, totaling $85,000. In addition, the agency cited the medical center for one “repeat citation” for failing to notify employees of the presence, location and amount of asbestos-containing or potentially asbestos-containing materials in the work area.” A similar violation had been issued in April of 2006. So-called “repeat citations” carry fines of up to $25,000.

Officials at Memorial Medical Center will meet with OSHA representatives later this week in an attempt to adjust the citations and penalties.

“The medical center is committed to providing a safe and healthy workplace for all of its employees,” the hospital said in a statement released by spokesman Patrick Bradley. “Therefore, we cooperated fully with OSHA during the course of its investigation and began making the corrections suggested by that agency as soon as they brought this matter to our attention.