AboutMesothelioma.Net

By WADE RAWLINS
Residents of a Pennsylvania community would like for federal environmental investigators to remove asbestos waste from their community rather than bury it. In April, the BoRit site joined the national Superfund list, a tally by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency of the nation’s most polluted sites in need of cleanup.

EPA officials listed the site because it’s in a densely populated area near Philadelphia, and nearby residents could potentially be exposed to airborne asbestos and to asbestos contamination along Tannery Run, Rose Valley Creek and Wissahickon Creek. Microscopic asbestos fibers can be inhaled when airborne and lodge in the lungs, causing respiratory problems and various forms of cancer, including mesothelioma, decades after the initial exposure.

In a June 11 letter, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter, of Pennsylvania urged the EPA to give strong consideration to complete removal, destruction or recycling of the asbestos at the site, according to the Ambler Gazette newspaper.

“It is my understanding that EPA is in the process of shipping dirt to the BoRit site,” Specter wrote, according to the newspaper. “My constituents are understandably concerned that this dirt will be used to cap the site and have advised me that previous capping attempts have not been successful.”

Specter said it was critical that EPA carried out a cleanup plan that provided permanent protection to residents’ health and the environment.

Specter’s letter followed a petition drive organized by Citizens for a Better Ambler that gathered more than 2,000 signatures,

BoRit Site History

Starting in the early 1900s, the BoRit site was used to dispose of asbestos waste from the former Keasby and Mattison Company, Certainteed Corporation and Nicolet Industries, according to state and federal investigators. The industries produced asbestos products ranging from electrical insulation to brake linings, as well as piping, roofing shingles and laboratory tabletops. Asbestos manufacturing occurred on or near the site through the late 1980s, investigators said.

The 32-acre site includes three adjoining tracts: an asbestos waste pile, a 15-acre reservoir owned by Wissahickon Waterfowl Preserve and a former park and playground owned by Whitpain Township.

The waste pile covers about two acres and rises about 20 feet above the ground surface. The berm of the 15-acre reservoir was built of asbestos shingles, millboard and soil, and asbestos product waste such as piping and tiles is visible surrounding the reservoir and stream banks, the EPA said. The third disposal area, which covers 11 acres, was a depression that was filled and eventually used as a park and playground for a number of years. In the mid-1980s, it was closed and fenced off due to asbestos contamination.

In March, health investigators with the Pennsylvania Department of Health and federal Centers for Disease Control’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry released a study of cancer incidence in communities near the BoRit site.

Looking at cancer cases reported in three zip codes closest to BoRit, they found an elevated rate of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs linked closely to asbestos exposure, as compared to the rest of Pennsylvania. But they said the difference was not statistically significant.

Investigators said the cases of mesothelioma were most likely due to exposures that occurred in the past when asbestos facilities were operating and exposing workers and their families. They said recent air tests near the site indicated that residents were not currently being exposed to asbestos at a level of health concern. Most cases of mesothelioma occur decades after the initial exposure to asbestos.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health said former plant workers are most at risk of asbestos-related disease. Family members who lived with workers also may have been exposed to asbestos, and residents who lived near the plant.

The BoRit site is a few hundred yards from another site where asbestos waste was dumped. The EPA cleaned it up in the early 1990s.

By WADE RAWLINS
Today, millions of homes and businesses across the United States have a pebble-like insulation in the attic made from the mineral vermiculite. Once admired for its fire-resistance and insulating properties, vermiculite insulation is now considered a potential health threat because, if disturbed, it can release microscopic asbestos fibers into the air that can be inhaled into the lungs.

Breathing asbestos can cause serious respiratory problems and diseases such as lung cancer and mesothelioma. Still, federal environmental officials aren’t ready to start a nationwide attic cleaning campaign to remove the insulation.

“As a reminder, there are towns and cities across the United States with vermiculite insulation in their homes and in commercial buildings,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said recently. “EPA’s advice in those situations remains the same. That is that that insulation be left in place, that it be undisturbed.”

Do-It-Yourself Insulation

Vermiculite insulation is a pebble-like, pour-in product and is usually gray-brown or silver-gold in color. It was often sold under the brand name Zonolite and marketed as a do-it-yourself product. W.R. Grace stopped selling Zonolite in the early 1980s.

The EPA estimates there may be anywhere from 15 million to 52 million homes that have Zonolite attic insulation, Stephen J. Nesbitt, assistant inspector general at the EPA, told a congressional committee in September 2008.

Vermiculite is a naturally occurring mineral composed of shiny flakes resembling mica. A mine near Libby, Montana produced more than 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the U.S. from 1919 to 1990, when the mine closed.

In its pure form, vermiculite isn’t harmful. But the vermiculite mined in Libby was contaminated by asbestos that also occurred in the area.

Public Health Emergency

In June, the EPA declared that the widespread release of asbestos in Libby and neighboring Troy, Montana constituted a public health emergency. Asbestos contamination in the Libby area has been blamed for the deaths of more than 200 people and the illnesses of more than 1,000 more to date.

For decades, miners in Libby were exposed to asbestos in their work and brought the toxic dust home on their clothes, unintentionally exposing their families.

Asbestos fibers embedded in lung tissue over time may cause lung diseases including asbestosis, lung cancer or mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer found in the lining of the lungs and almost always linked to asbestos exposure. The symptoms of the diseases often do not appear until 20 to 30 years after exposure.

Under the emergency declaration, the EPA plans to remove all uncontained vermiculite insulation from houses in Libby as part of the broader, ongoing cleanup. But the agency says that doesn’t mean that houses around the country containing vermiculite insulation require cleanup.

As long as vermiculite insulation remains undisturbed, it poses no risk and does not need to be removed, the EPA says. If homeowners plan to remodel their houses, requiring disturbance of vermiculite insulation, the EPA recommends that a trained asbestos removal professional should be used to ensure the material is handled properly to avoid any risk the home’s residents.

“We don’t believe cleanup actions are necessary outside of Libby and Troy at this time,” said Jackson, the EPA administrator. “However, health concerns and precautions for minimizing exposures always can be better understood by the public.”

Jackson said the EPA planned a new national education program focused on vermiculite insulation to ensure the safety of all Americans.

By WADE RAWLINS
For decades, the people of Libby and Troy, Montana suffered and died at staggeringly high rates from asbestos-related diseases. Little did the townsfolk know that the vermiculite ore that workers unearthed at the local mine was spreading a pall of lung-penetrating microscopic asbestos fibers throughout the area. The fibers left scar tissue in the lungs that made it hard to breathe and caused cancer such as mesothelioma.

The asbestos contamination in these remote northwestern towns remains so widespread and the situation so dire that for the first time in history, federal environmental officials this week declared a public health emergency under the federal Superfund law.

“It is a toxic legacy, the legacy of decades of mining operations that literally contaminated these towns and put its residents at grave risk,” U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lisa Jackson said in making the announcement.

The health emergency declaration requires the federal government to provide screenings and health care for Libby residents with asbestos-related disease.

Jackson said investigations by the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry had found the incidence of asbestosis, a lung condition in the Libby area to be much higher than the national average for period from 1979-1998. “We determined that we needed to step up our efforts to protect the people in Libby and Troy,” Jackson said.

More than 200 people have died so far from asbestos-related disease–people such as Libby miner Les Skramstad, whose tragic story was recalled by U.S. Sen. Max Baucus of Montana. Like many others, Skramstad worked at the mill on Zonolite Mountain. He came home with his clothes covered with asbestos fibers and unwittingly contaminated his family.

“I come down off the mine, and I’m caked in dust,” Baucus said, quoting Skramstad. “When I come down from the mine, my wife embraces me. She is all caked in dust with asbestos I’ve brought from the mine. My kids jump in my lap. They get caked with asbestos dust.”

Skramstad died in 2007 of mesothelioma, an asbestos-related cancer. Baucus said Skramstad’s wife, Norita, was dying of asbestos-related disease and two of his children had asbestos-related illnesses like hundreds of other residents in the area.

“I cannot emphasize too strongly just what a tragic situation it is up in Libby,” Baucus said.

Mining History

Gold miners discovered vermiculite in Libby in the 1880s. In the 1920s, the Zonolite Company formed and began mining the vermiculite. In 1963, W.R. Grace bought the Zonolite mining operations and extracted vermiculite for use in building insulation and as a soil conditioner. The mine closed in 1990.

It’s estimated that the Libby mine produced over 70 percent of all vermiculite sold in the United States from 1919 to 1990, according to the EPA.

The EPA has been working in Libby since 1999 when an emergency response team was sent to investigate newspaper reports about asbestos-contaminated vermiculite and high rates of asbestosis.

Much Work Remains

Libby has been on the EPA’s “Superfund” list of polluted places since 2002, and cleanup has been under way.

As of 2009, the former vermiculite processing plants and other highly contaminated public areas have been cleaned up, and cleanups also have been completed at more than 1,100 residential and commercial properties. But much work remains.

“No community — whether it’s a big city or a small town in northwest Montana — can deal with an environmental catastrophe on the scale of the Libby disaster by themselves,” U.S. Sen. Jon Tester of Montana said. “The system let Libby down. For too long, Libby has been what newspapers described as a town left to die. The people of Libby want their future back.”

Jackson, the EPA administrator, said there are towns and cities throughout the nation with vermiculite insulation in homes and businesses. EPA’s advice is not to disturb the insulation. “We don’t believe cleanup actions are necessary outside of Libby and Troy at this time,” she said.

But she said the EPA was launching a nationwide education campaign to improve public understanding of the health concerns of exposure to vermiculite asbestos and precautions for minimizing exposure.

EPA Information about Dealing with Vermiculite Insulation

By WADE RAWLINS
People often get exposed to cancer-causing asbestos by working with building materials in construction. So the World Bank is stepping up efforts to raise awareness of the health risks associated with asbestos-containing materials such as asbestos-cement water pipe and roofing shingles to reduce their use in developing countries.

The World Bank, which provides financial aid and technical assistance in more than 100 countries, in May finalized new construction guidelines to discourage the use of asbestos in new construction projects after a letter of inquiry from Congressman Dennis Kucinich and four other members of Congress.

The good practice guidelines, which originally were commissioned in 2006, had stalled before final administrative approval. In March, Kucinich and four other members of Congress sent a letter to World Bank President Robert Zoellick questioning the delay.

Kucinich said global asbestos use was on the rise at the very time it should be eliminated.

“Asbestos is a highly toxic material that has no place in construction projects here or anywhere else, especially when viable alternatives are available,” Kucinich, an Ohio Democrat, said in a statement. “This guidance will reduce exposure and permanent lung damage to citizens and workers around the world.”

Asbestos, a group of naturally occurring mineral fibers, was once widely used to make many household products because of its useful properties including its ability to be woven, fire resistance, insulation properties and strength.

But asbestos is now recognized as the cause of various cancers.

Health hazards from breathing asbestos dust include asbestosis, a lung scarring disease, and various forms for cancer including lung cancer and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs. The disease often arises decades after the exposure.

The World Bank’s good practice guidelines present an overview of available alternatives to building materials containing asbestos. The bank said it expected borrowers to use alternative materials whenever feasible.

It said building materials containing asbestos should be avoided in new construction, including construction for disaster relief.

More than 90 percent of asbestos fiber produced today is chrysotile, which is used in construction materials made of asbestos-cement including pipe, water storage tanks and roofing. The largest users are developing countries.

Other products still manufactured with asbestos content include vehicle brake and clutch pads, gaskets and roofing.

More than 40 countries have banned asbestos, but not the United States.

U.S. Senator Patty Murray, a Democrat from the state of Washington, has led a seven-year effort to ban asbestos in the U.S. Her legislation, which passed the Senate in 2007, would authorize additional studies to determine which commercial products still contain asbestos, increase funding for asbestos-related diseases and call for a national Mesothelioma registry to help public health professional track the disease.

“While more than 30 countries have banned asbestos and protected their citizens, the United States still has not,” Murray said in a statement. “The time for Congress to ban asbestos is long overdue. Until we take the steps to ban this deadly substance, we will continue to put innocent lives at risk.”

About 10,000 people a year die in the United States of diseases related to asbestos exposure, according to the Environmental Working Group, a non-profit advocacy group. Worldwide, the World Health Organization estimates that 90,000 people die each year because of exposure to asbestos.

Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the World Bank is made up of two development agencies, the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development and the International Development Association.

World Bank Report (PDF)

Kucinich Press Release