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A Vermont flooring company faces of a penalty for failing to follow federal guidelines pertaining to removal and disposal of asbestos building materials.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Morrison-Clark, Inc., of South Barre,Vermont violated federal asbestos removal regulations when workers removed a vinyl asbestos tile floor from Main Street Middle School in Montpelier in July 2008. The company did not provide advance notice to EPA, failed to wet the asbestos while stripping it and did not properly dispose of the materials, EPA alleged in announcing the penalty this month.

The company faces a penalty of up to $32,500 per day for the alleged violation so the asbestos removal regulations.

The federal Clean Air Act and the National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutant, require contractors doing renovation work to follow certain inspection requirements prior to starting work and to follow specific work and waste disposal practices. The guidelines are designed to protect workers and the public from inhaling airborne asbestos fibers.

Breathing asbestos can cause lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs and abdominal cavity.

Earlier this year, researchers with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported that the overall annual deaths from mesothelioma in the U.S. are still increasing, though the rate as a portion of the population has been stable in recent years. More than 18,000 deaths from mesothelioma were reported in the U.S from 1999 to 2005, researchers reported.

Although asbestos is no longer mined in the United States, it is still imported and a substantial amount of asbestos in buildings eventually must be removed. An estimated 1.3 million American construction workers and general industry workers are exposed to asbestos, researchers say, underscoring the need for efforts to minimize exposure.

In the case of the Vermont school, EPA said it was not aware of any specific harm or exposure to airborne asbestos caused by the renovation.

A group of mesothelioma victims and their families are asking Indiana lawmakers to rewrite state law to allow people who get diseases that appear decades after exposure more time to sue for compensation.

Under current Indiana law, victims have 10 years to file a lawsuit after being exposed to a hazardous substance. But mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs associated with asbestos exposure, typically doesn’t appear until 20 to 40 years after exposure. It claims 2,000 too 3,000 people a year in the United States.

Loved ones of those who died of mesothelioma told an Indiana legislative panel that the current state law placed no value on the lives of those who died of mesothelioma or the economic hardships their families suffered as a result of their loss. They want the law changed to allow victims two years after diagnosis of the disease to file legal action.

The Indiana Legislature is likely to consider the issue in the session that convenes in January.

Former mine workers in the Iron Range of Minnesota have begun undergoing health screenings to help researchers unravel a medical mystery. They’re trying to understand why taconite miners have a high incidence of lung disease including mesothelioma, a cancer associated with asbestos exposure.

In recent weeks, the first wave of an expected 1,200 miners and 800 spouses received chest x-rays, had blood drawn and underwent tests to assess their lung function at the Virginia Regional Medical Center in Minnesota, according to The Duluth News Tribune. The University of Minnesota is conducting a comprehensive three- to five-year, $4.8 million study of the respiratory health of taconite workers as a follow-up to a 2003 study that linked taconite miners who had developed mesothelioma to commercial asbestos exposure in the mines.

The aim on the current study is to analyze cancer and mortality rates among taconite workers, to examine airborne particles collected from the Iron and to evaluate miners’ exposure to taconite dust on the job.

Duluth News Tribune article

Do routine homeowner activities such as raking the yard, cutting grass or shoveling dirt could cause asbestos fibers to become airborne? That is the question investigators with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are trying to answer near a former insulation factory in Spokane, Washington.

“We’re simulating what people could do on their property,” Greg Weigel, on-scene coordinator for EPA’s environmental clean-up program told The Spokesman-Review newspaper.

Weigel said even low levels of asbestos in soil pose a health risk. Breathing microscopic asbestos fibers can cause serious respiratory diseases including lung cancer, mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs, and asbestosis, a scarring of the lungs.

In June, EPA investigators found low levels of asbestos fibers in residential yards near the former Vermiculite Northwest factory in Spokane. For more than two decades, the factory produced Zonolite, a lightweight attic insulation that contained asbestos. Rail cars brought vermiculite ore from a mine in Libby, Montana to the plant where it was heated to form insulation. W.R. Grace Company closed Vermiculite Northwest in 1973.

Earlier this year, federal environmental officials declared a public health emergency in Libby, Montana where more than 200 people have died of asbestos-related disease.

Test results in Spokane should be available in about six weeks, EPA said.

Read The Spokesman-Review article