The village of Potsdam, New York has been steeped in asbestos-related controversy for months. First, a series of cancer-related deaths of long-time village officials who worked in the civic center raised concerns about asbestos in the air.

Asbestos exposure can lead to lung cancer, as well as mesothelioma, a rare cancer that can manifest initially in the lungs, abdomen, or pericardium. A series of asbestos air quality tests were performed, with each test failing to detect asbestos. Then, a village worker raised concerns about the safety of her workplace that were published in a local paper. The next day, she was fired.

Now, asbestos is still a major concern for the people of Potsdam. The village is currently seeking grant money to renovate a facility to upgrade offices and move the courtroom elsewhere. The current courtroom is known to contain asbestos mastic adhesive in the ceiling. Officials are applying for a $600,000 historic preservation matching grant through the state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation. Potsdam Supervisor Marie C. Regan said at the Town Council meeting last week that she hopes to get support for the town’s applications from state and county legislators. "Everybody knows we need to rehab this building. No one’s arguing that part," Mrs. Regan said.

The village has yet to determine how it will use the current courtroom in the civic center, which is currently undergoing an asbestos abatement project. Atlantic Testing recently took 80 samples of flooring and walls and tested the air for a number of substances in the town hall.

In Rockford, Illinois, construction crews are getting ready to conduct asbestos abatement and demolish a group of vacant homes in the Churchill Park neighborhood. This neighborhood was badly devastated by flooding two years ago, and the homes have deteriorated. Asbestos abatement must occur in some of these homes prior to demolition; otherwise, the asbestos in the structures could become airborne during the demolition process. Exposure to asbestos can lead to mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer that can lie dormant for years before emerging and rapidly spreading throughout the body.

Local resident Craig Springer is glad that some of the homes are finally coming down, but he says that the process has been too slow, and that further work is still needed. A lifelong neighborhood resident, the 22-year-old has confronted vagrants and drug dealers in the area who took advantage of the vacant buildings. “I figured the city would be on it a lot quicker,” he said. “It’s past time for these houses to come down. They should have come down a long time ago.”

Rockford Local Development Corp. used a $10 million line of credit backed by the city last year to acquire 102 of the 128 flood-damaged homes in the area, says storm water manager Brian Eber. Additional help came in the form of a $3 million Hazard Mitigation Flood Grant awarded in June by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. This was enough to deal with 36 of the properties.

“We didn’t make the citizens wait until FEMA gave us the grant,” Eber said. “If we had done that and forced them to wait, then more of the homes would have been foreclosed on and walked away from and ruined their credit. The city took unusual steps to try to salvage the situation for people who sustained significant damage a number of times.”

In Moss Point, Mississippi, it has been announced that repairs and improvements at the City Hall building should begin before the end of the calendar year. The building was damaged during Hurricane Katrina, and city workers have been doing their jobs out of trailers for some time while they wait to be able to use their building again. Leo Wood, project manager with Broaddus and Associates, said that architects on the project have been talking with companies that specialize in mold remediation and asbestos abatement. Once those two hazards have been dealt with, work might begin as early as next month. "We’ve got to pull out sheetrock and repaint," added Wood.

Asbestos exposure, in some cases, causes mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer. Mesothelioma originates in the lining of the lungs, abdomen, or even the pericardium. Mesothelioma affects thousands of new patients each year in America and all over the world. Chemotherapy, surgery, and radiation therapy can all help a patient battling mesothelioma, but the cancer is incurable. The majority of patients succumb within two years.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is funding the project. Mayor Aneice Liddell is eager to get this project completed, telling reporters that "We’ve got to move and we’ve got to move quickly."

In addition to FEMA funds, the city of Moss Point is also reportedly in line to receive nearly $12 million from the Mississippi Development Authority. This money must be earmarked for downtown redevelopment projects. This could include a new City Hall and fire station, river boardwalk and marina repairs.

The Canadian province of Quebec is home to the country’s last remaining asbestos mines, despite the known health risks such as mesothelioma that are connected to asbestos exposure. Mesothelioma, a rare kind of cancer, affects thousands of new victims each year all over the world. When ingested or inhaled, asbestos fibers can lead to the manifestation of mesothelioma cancer in the lungs, abdomen, or even the lining of the heart.

This cancer can take decades to develop, but once symptoms emerge, patients often survive only a few months. An estimated 90,000 people die every year from asbestos-related lung cancer, mesothelioma and asbestosis according to the World Health Organization.

Now, British Columbia MP Nathan Cullen has introduced a bill that would ban the mining and sale of asbestos in Canada. In Quebec, a total of 7,000 workers are employed as miners, with asbestos mining being only a portion of that figure.

Total public expenditures on the asbestos mining industry were $107.7 million in 2002. The World Health Organization has condemned the use of chrysotile asbestos, the most commonly used type of asbestos. The U.S. surgeon general has also spoken out against this form of asbestos. Since asbestos was banned by the European Union in 2005, Canada has been forced to market asbestos products predominantly in the developing world, especially India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Brazil. These four countries import over $100-million worth of asbestos. Only time will tell if Mr. Cullen’s proposed ban will become a reality. If it does, it could potentially save thousands of lives.