Mesothelioma Health News

A do-it-yourselfer in England who has been renovating his flat for more than two years saw the whole project ruined when he released dangerous asbestos fibers into the air, destroying new furniture and much of his hard work.

An article in the newspaper Metro cites the story of Wayne Langley, a do-it-yourself enthusiast, who was nearing completion of his renovation when he shaved a few centimeters off a door that contained asbestos. A friend noticed the toxic mineral and the men notified the local council, who ordered Langley to vacate his flat immediately.

“It has taken me two-and-a-half years to do my flat up and buy new furniture and now it all has to be destroyed,” said Mr. Langley, who left his Corby, Northamptonshire home on Thursday. “I laid the new floor and cut the door and a friend noticed asbestos.”

Langley has no idea when he can return home, though he may be responsible for repairs on his council-owned home because he did not file the proper paperwork before making renovations inside the flat.

A Corby Council spokesman said the council was arranging for the property to be deep cleaned by a professional company.

“Asbestos which is in good condition and is not damaged or disturbed is not a health hazard,” he said. “The expansion of Corby coincided with a major period of asbestos use and so it is present in the town. This is one of the reasons why tenants who want to make improvements to their property must contact the council first. Otherwise they are in breach of their tenancy conditions.”

Officials with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrived in Vermont yesterday to assess a situation involving asbestos exposure at the Main Street Middle School. According to an article in the Times Argus, school officials met with representatives of the EPA and the Vermont Department of Health outside the school Wednesday. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) was also notified of the problem.

“We are taking this investigation seriously and we do not know the extent of the contamination at this time,” said Austin Sumner, environmental and occupational epidemiologist for the Department of Health. “Health risks in this case are most serious for the workers. They are working with this every day.”

“Vermont protocol for removing asbestos tiles requires the work area be wet down to reduce airborne particles, machinery not be used for removal, and that contaminated material be removed in the largest possible pieces,” the article notes. These guidelines were not being followed, officials note, and contracted employees from the Morrison-Clark company were not even wearing protective masks.

Chris Crothers, of Crothers Environment Group, has been working with the district for 15 years and is dismayed by this chain of events, he says. “My whole intent is people going back into this building,” explained Crothers, who is concerned about having the space ready for the start of school. “I’m here to protect the kids.”

Crothers said several school employees were in the building while the tiles were being removed. Some decided on their own to visit a doctor. The district advised all others to do the same though evidence of asbestos diseases, such as mesothelioma, usually takes more than 20 years to surface.

School is scheduled to begin on August 28 though Crothers says he is not sure whether or not that will happen. Much will depend on future air quality testing and the EPA’s assessment of the problem, he explains.

If you’d come to Eden, Vermont years ago, says homeowner Leonard Prive, you’d be able to admire the clear waters of Hutchins Brook and the many animals that frequented the area. But today, Prive says, thanks to a nasty legacy left by the now-defunct Vermont Asbestos Group’s quarries on Belvidere Mountain, the area has turned into a dangerous asbestos wasteland.

The gravel around his property is now asbestos-laced, Prive says in an article published in The Burlington (Vt.) Free Press, eroded from piles of crushed rock that sat on the land above his cabin. The crushed rock is 90 years worth of waste from the asbestos mine, he notes.

Prive recently forged a suit against Vermont Asbestos Group for 1 million dollars. While he awaits either the trial or a settlement, contractors for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are attempting to stop the flow of asbestos by building berms and digging ditches. While they work, they wear head-to-toe protective gear to keep from inhaling asbestos dust.

When the Belvidere mine closed, the article explains, they left piles and piles of asbestos rock behind. On the southwest side of the mountain, facing the town of Eden, the EPA estimates there is about 12 million tons of asbestos-tainted rock. On the other side, near the town of Lowell, there’s as much as 60 million tons.

“The EPA’s remedial work will redirect most runoff water around the piles. Ponds have been dug or expanded to hold water that continues to drain from the piles themselves,” the article explains.

In the meantime, the debris has coated the bottom of Hutchins Brook and threatens the health of humans and the stability of the environment. “The Vermont Health Department has recommended Prive not use his land if he wants to avoid all risk of asbestos-induced illness,” the article adds.

The land has been visited by asbestos experts from around the country. They shake their heads in disbelief, Prive said. He believes his only recourse will be to eventually sell his land to Vermont Asbestos, even though his lawsuit calls for funds to remediate his 158-acre property.

“Your mouth hangs open when you look at Mr. Prive’s land. It’s unbelievable,” says EPA site manager Gary Lipson.

As many as 10,000 former public housing units in the town of Carlisle, England may pose a hazard to those who have lived in the homes and were unaware of the presence of asbestos, notes an article in The Cumberland News. A tenants’ organization and a labor union have called for a major health and safety inspection of the homes in question.

The Carlisle Housing Association (CHA), which now owns the properties, has refused to do any work on them, citing the presence of the hazardous mineral, and the organization says they worry about past tenants.

“CHA has confirmed that residents wishing to work on their homes were not routinely warned of the danger – because asbestos safety regulations only covered the material in public buildings,” the article explains, noted that myriad do-it-yourself projects were performed inside the homes over the years.

The Carlisle and Rural Tenants Foundation and the UCATT construction trade union want an audit of all CHA homes to establish what asbestos is there and whether or not there is a risk.

John Scott, UCATT’s regional secretary, said that his union was now “so concerned about asbestos in CHA properties that it had asked its general secretary Alan Ritchie to investigate.”

“We have a member in Carlisle who has highlighted the fact that asbestos is being pulled out of housing association houses there [by unlicensed individuals],” he said. “CHA been given a clean bill of health by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE), but our view is that this material should be removed by specialist organizations.

“There should also be an audit of asbestos in CHA homes. If somebody decides to strip a ceiling or use a sander on a ceiling in one of these houses, they could be bringing this stuff down,” he explained. “There are tenants in houses where there is asbestos and they are not aware of it. But the legislation that covers identifying asbestos only applies to public buildings. So if you are going to work in a public building you can consult a register which will tell you exactly where the asbestos is and what kind of asbestos it is.”

Scott suffers from pleural plaques due to past exposure to asbestos developed during his work as a contractor. Contractors in England have one of the world’s highest rates of mesothelioma and other asbestos diseases.

A Pittsfield, Mass. property owner who has had a number of run-ins with city officials has now been charged with illegally removing asbestos.

According to an article in the Berkshire Eagle, Gerald F. Ely, 68, allegedly removed asbestos from an apartment building without notifying state regulators. The property owner has been charged with “two counts of an air pollution violation, one count of unlicensed removal of asbestos, and two counts of violating a workplace safety regulation.” Last week, he pleaded not guilty during his arraignment in Central Berkshire District Court. He faces a sentence of 1 year in prison and a fine of about $25,000.

Ely claims that city officials have “problems” with him and that the asbestos charges are “personal” and unfounded. However, the case was brought to the attention of the state Department of Environmental Protection after several inspections of the apartment building.

Crumbling asbestos insulation was first found in the basement of the building in March 2006 and Ely was ordered to have it removed. When the structure was re-inspected a year later, officials found remnants of asbestos that had been improperly removed as well as “significant quantities of asbestos debris” on the basement floor.

Ely claims he accidentally hired an unlicensed professional to do the job, who did not complete the work properly. He further claims that the remains are the fault of that contractor and that he tried to “do the right thing”. Ely admits, however, that he never asked the contractor for verification that he was licensed to remove asbestos.

The government of Japan is expanding their biannual checks for the management of asbestos in buildings throughout the country, increasing the number of structures on their list from 260,000 to 2 million.

An article in The Japan Times states that “The Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Ministry will examine with local officials the 2 million buildings to lessen public anxiety over health hazards caused by asbestos.” The inspections could start as early as March 2009 and will include almost all private-sector facilities nationwide, the report adds.

Buildings such as shops and hotels will be part of the inspection, but schools, private homes, and wooden buildings will not, as they fall under a different jurisdiction.

Prior to this addition of more than 1.75 million buildings, the ministry only did checks on large facilities, including factories that have a floor space of more than 1,000 sq. meters and were built between 1956 and 1989, the article points out. The ministry’s main concern has been whether asbestos is left uncovered and exposed to the air.

The increase in inspections was prompted by a study completed last December, which showed that 7 out of 42 of the inspected facilities – nearly 17 percent – left asbestos uncovered and exposed.

Mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer, has become a growing problem in Japan, particularly in certain prefectures where asbestos products were manufactured and asbestos fibers were leaked into the community, sickening not only factory workers but also those who lived near the factories.

Israel has experienced 100 asbestos-related fires in just one year, prompting the Firefighting Authority to come up with new ways to deal with the dangerous mineral in order to keep firefighters safe and to increase their life expectancy.

“Firefighters around the world have a life expectancy that is 10 years shorter than average, probably due to exposure to smoke, toxins and asbestos,” Israel Fire Commissioner Shimon Romach said in an article in Ha’aretz.

Recently, Romach called on Yitzhak Shalev, Israel’s national asbestos officer, to draw up new regulations for firefighters to follow when tackling fires where asbestos is present. Shalev said he “drafted a method to deal with asbestos fires, including using protective gear and coordinating with various bodies, such as the Environmental Protection Ministry, to remove the asbestos once the fire is out.”

“Nowadays firefighters have protective equipment and I am briefed about every event involving asbestos,” he added.

Shalev adds that there are millions of square meters of asbestos in buildings and garbage dumps around the country and that a recent report by Labor and Welfare Ministry showed that firefighters in Israel have a much higher-than-average rate of serious breathing problems.

Asbestos, a known carcinogen, can be harmless when undisturbed. However, fire causes the mineral to crumble and dangerous fibers to become airborne. The special gear now worn by the firefighters can help avoid inhalation, Shalev reports.

However, individuals living or working near asbestos fire sites should still take care to avoid the mineral, which often spreads after fires. He cited a fire at a fireworks storage house on Kibbutz Afek three years ago, which spread asbestos over a large part of the kibbutz and may have affected those living and working there.

Kyla Sentes, a public health sciences PhD student at the University of Alberta who has been researching problems with Calgary’s roadways, says many of the city’s roads contain asbestos and that roadwork on those streets poses a public health hazard to those who live and work in the vicinity.

City officials, however, maintain that there is no public health hazard. However, Sentes says road crews aren’t wearing the proper protective gear and she fears that they are inhaling asbestos fibers. Asbestos was used in asphalt in many Canada provinces until the mid 1980s.

“People should look like space men when they’re out there - there’s zero excuse for [not wearing protection],” she said, pointing to decades worth of research into the toxic substance. “I was kind of floored that some kind of assessment wasn’t made public to the people in Calgary that this was in their roadways.”

Sentes is also concerned that the city will use recycled asphalt when repaving the roads, creating the same hazards over again.

“It still tops every occupational disease mortality data every year in the country,” Sentes, a member of Ottawa-based Ban Asbestos Canada, says about mesothelioma, a serious asbestos-caused cancer. Sentes’ father died of mesothelioma eight years ago.

Employees at Australia’s Gold Coast Airport are concerned about the potential of asbestos exposure during an extensive airport renovation project even though officials tell them there are no health risks involved.

An article in the Tweed Daily News explains that the potential risk was discovered when a memo to certain employees was leaked to the newspaper. After being approached by the paper, airport officials confirmed the presence of asbestos in the terminal ceiling, which will be disturbed when reconstruction work on the terminal begins in about six months.

The Transport Workers Union of Australia (TWUA), which represents more than 50 baggage handlers at the airport, said they were unaware of the situation until contacted by the newspaper. Union officials say they will remove the handlers from the airport if they suspect asbestos contamination is an issue.

“We are going to pursue it. We will have one of our officials investigate it,” said Hughie Williams, branch secretary of the TWUA Queensland. “The airport will have to take absolute total care, or we will not be having baggage handlers at the airport if there is any chance they will be exposed.

“If there is asbestos then we will be addressing that with the airport. No one should be allowed in the terminal,” Williams added, noting that he was already concerned for the workers’ safety.

“We have a lot of members at the Gold Coast Airport. We will take it up with the Gold Coast City Council and make sure that our people in there are safe,” he said.

Gold Coast Airport chief operating officer Paul Donovan, however, maintained that there would be no risk to passengers or staff.

“No one is at risk. There will not be two million people affected by this,” Mr. Donovan said. “We will be removing it after hours so that neither staff nor passengers will be introduced to it.”

Employees and the general public have not been notified yet, Donovan explained, because it will be half-a-year before the project gets started. Notifications will go out as the renovation nears.

Road crews working on a number of streets in the Toronto area need to wear haz-mat suits and residents in the area have been warned to take precautions because the asphalt used to pave the street was found to contain trace amounts of asbestos.

According to the North York Mirror, Ministry of Labour regulations maintain that the work crews must wear hazardous material suits because the asphalt contains 1 to 3 per- cent asbestos, above the legal limit of .5 percent. The city has also passed out fliers telling residents to keep their doors and windows closed while work is in progress.

Water trucks constantly spray the streets where work is being done in order to minimize the amount of dust circulating through the air. Residents are also informed by police, who are stationed near the construction, not to return home during construction time.

Bill Mason, the city’s superintendent of technical operations in the Etobicoke/York district, says he believes the public health risk is minimal. “There is not a lot of dust involved in this operation,” he said, adding health and safety officials have tested samples to ensure the asbestos is not a threat.

However, the project has continued to upset a number of area residents. One woman was alarmed because she and her neighbors were not notified before work began. Others believe the city is taking all the necessary steps to avoid contamination.

“It’s not as bad as it sounds. They’re just resurfacing the roads,” said one resident. “We’re keeping our windows closed. We don’t go walking during the day. I think by night the dust should have settled. Right now, the water truck is going down the street so they are taking precautions.”