AboutMesothelioma.Net

Testing Under Way To Find Whether Homeowners Risk Asbestos Exposure during Yard Work

Thursday, October 1, 2009

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

Labels: National News

posted by Wade Rawlins at 12:10 PM
Link to this article