New Haven, Connecticut – The Mayor of New Haven, Connecticut is considering suing those responsible for mishandling asbestos during an abatement project, as problems created by the mishandling may mean the city cannot collect nearly $1 million in reimbursement for the work.

Mayor John M. Picard hopes to try and change the state’s mind about what costs the state is willing to reimburse, and plans to use litigation as a last resort to try and recoup the money spent on the project.

Picard plans to try all possible methods to ensure the city is reimbursed, saying, “I want the taxpayers to know that litigation is possible. I’m not going to stop until we get reimbursed one way or the other.”

The state has so far agreed to reimburse the city $955,000 for asbestos abatement completed several years ago at West Haven High School. However, the state has also said that $1.2 million of the $2.5 million spent is ineligible for reimbursement.

According to the state, costs are not reimbursable if there is no evidence of a public bid for the work, no plan review, inadequate documentation for the work, and no submitted charge orders.

The problem arises from the fact that the project to remove and replace the asbestos-containing façade of West Haven High School ended up almost twice as large as originally planned.

Partly due to those initial miscalculations over the size of the project, it was expanded without the extra paperwork which would have preserved the project’s full eligibility for reimbursement.  Some of the work was carried out to address air quality issues at the school.

Picard says he will first attempt to convince the state to reconsider what costs are eligible for reimbursement. To facilitate this, members of West Haven’t state delegation will ask the state to extend the deadline for seeking reimbursement for the work. The city has already sent last-minute documents which might make an additional $375,000 eligible for state reimbursement.

Litigation will be a last resort. At this stage Picard has declined to name any people or companies that might be named in a lawsuit.

However, Building Oversight Committee Chairman Kenneth Carney has said that litigation will target “whoever is responsible for allowing work to proceed without it going out to bid and without filling out proper paperwork to get state reimbursement.” Likely targets may include contractors who carried out the work, or individuals involved in bidding out the contracts.

Montpelier, Vermont – All three schools in the district of Montpelier in Vermont will open late this year, due to the asbestos problems suffered by Main Street Middle School.

Rather than opening on August 28 as planned, the schools will all open several days later on September 2. Repeated asbestos-related issues at Main Street Middle School are at the root of the late opening, and the delay in the start of the new school year will allow the complete removal of the contamination.

The problems began around two weeks ago, when Main Street Middle School was closed by the state Department of Health due to possible asbestos contamination. The school was closed on July 28 after a state Department of Health safety inspector found that workers at the school were using improper practices to remove floor tiles which contained asbestos.

Employees of the contracting company were chipping asbestos tiles off the floors to prepare for laying new tiles. The workers were not wearing face masks or using air-sampling pumps to monitor air quality while the asbestos was being removed. Classroom doors were left open, and there were no barriers around the work area to ensure that other workers were not able to enter.

As a result, the DOH shut down the project, and all contractors, employees, and any other workers using the building have been asked to vacate until it has been deemed safe to return.

Two other schools in the Montpelier district may face similar but less serious problems. Williamstown Elementary and Barre Town Middle and Elementary School both used the same contractor which was shut down at Main Street Middle School for its unsafe work practices.

Barre Town Middle and Elementary School has already voluntarily closed, and remains closed. The school was evacuated and closed on July 29, after school officials heard that the construction company they were using had already been removed from the Main Street school.

Officials of both of the closed schools are waiting to hear from the Department of Health for approval of clean-up plans to address asbestos contamination issues.

The work at Williamstown Elementary has already been completed, and it seems that there may be no safety issues at the school. According to Vermont Department of Health environmental and occupational epidemiologist Dr. Austin Sumner, the job was much smaller and mechanical tile chippers were not used.

School district officials worked tirelessly to try and solve the asbestos problems in time for the beginning of the new school year, with the district’s asbestos control officer Chris Crowther devising a plan for removing the asbestos from Main Street Middle School. Despite their best efforts, however, the schools will now be opening a little later than planned.

A man diagnosed with mesothelioma has filed an asbestos-related lawsuit in Madison County Circuit Court in Illinois.

Raymond Hostert filed the lawsuit on July 23. Hostert says he was employed as a drill press operator, machine operator, truck driver and mechanic between 1952 and 1999 in several different locations throughout Illinois, and at some point was exposed to asbestos. He has filed suit against a total of 79 defendant companies, claiming his disease was wrongfully caused.

Among the 79 defendants are Bondex International, CBS, Chrysler, Federal-Mogul Asbestos Personal Trust, Ford Motor Company, General Electric, General Motors, Goodyear, Honeywell International, Ingersoll-Rand, International Paper, John Crane, MetLife, Monsanto, Pfizer, Philips Electronics and Trane US.

Raymond Hostert claims that at some point during his employment history, or during home or automotive repairs, he was exposed to airborne asbestos fibers being emitted by products he was working with or around. Inhalation of the fibers caused him to develop mesothelioma decades after the exposure.

According to Hostert’s lawsuit the defendants either knew or should have known of the dangers associated with asbestos exposure. The suit claims that his exposure was foreseeable and should have been anticipated by the defendants.

Raymond Hostert’s lawsuit also claims the defendants continued to use asbestos in their products even though adequate substitutes for asbestos were available and could be used. The lawsuit also claims that the defendants failed to provide warnings about asbestos exposure, or any instructions on how to work safely with their asbestos-containing products to prevent exposure from occurring.

As a result, Dennett alleges, he unknowingly continued to work with and around asbestos unaware he was being exposed to a dangerous substance, and without taking any safety precautions.

Due to the alleged negligence of the named defendants, Dennett claims he developed mesothelioma as a direct result of the asbestos exposure.

Dennett is seeking damages to help pay for medical expenses, as well as compensation for physical and mental pain and suffering, lost income, and lost earning capacity. He asks for at least $400,000 in compensatory damages. In addition his lawsuit seeks punitive damages to punish the defendants for “willful, wanton, intentional and reckless” behavior.

Several months after proposing the initial fine, the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency has finally reached an agreement with the city of East Liverpool. The city strenuously opposed the EPA’s fine, claiming it had already paid for an improper asbestos handling incident.

The incident that sparked the fine came to light in May 2006, and involved Street Department Supervisor Earl Taylor, who hired a contractor to remove asbestos-containing pipe insulation from a city-owned building.

Around 500 linear feet of pipe insulation was removed from the building, which Taylor then buried at a clean landfill site on property that the city also owned. Several days later, then-Service Safety Director William Cowan notified the Ohio EPA about the asbestos removal and disposal due to safety concerns.

The removal and disposal of the asbestos turned out to be illegal. The asbestos removal was carried out with the knowledge or consent of the Ohio EPA, and the agency also says the removal did not adhere to necessary safety standards. In addition the asbestos that was removed was disposed of at a landfill site that was not equipped to safely handle asbestos waste.

Asbestos removal must be carried out carefully to prevent the spread of asbestos dust, which can cause asbestos-related cancers and other serious diseases if inhaled. Typical asbestos removal includes wet-removal procedures to dampen materials and prevent dust dispersing.

Disposing of asbestos safely is another important issue, as asbestos at landfill sites can present a health hazard to anyone working or visiting the site. Asbestos can only be disposed of at waste sites that are equipped to handle hazardous materials.

Several days after the incident was discovered, workers from Cardinal Environmental Services cleaned up the remaining asbestos at the removal site, and cleaned up the landfill.

The EPA subsequently proposed a fine of $30,000, which was vigorously opposed by the town. Officials said the fine should not have been so large, as the town had already cleaned up the asbestos, Taylor himself had been fined, and the town had voluntarily notified the EPA of the problems and made no efforts to cover up the asbestos mishandling incident.

Now, the city has formally agreed to pay a fine of $5,000, after meeting with the EPA several times to ask for a reduction. Around $4,000 of the money will go to the Ohio EPA, while the remaining $1,000 will be contributed to the agency’s Clean Diesel School Bus Program Fund.

Delaware - The federal Environmental Protection Agency has fined a Delaware charter school for violations of the Asbestos Hazards Emergency Response Act (AHERA). Pencader Business & Finance Charter High School failed to comply with several regulations required by AHERA.

Thousands of schools in America were built using asbestos-containing construction materials, due to the extremely durable, strong, and fire-resistant nature of asbestos fibers.

However, those same properties which made asbestos such a desirable construction material also make it a health hazard. When inhaled, asbestos fibers become lodged in the lungs, and the body cannot degrade or expel them.

Heavy and consistent exposure to inhalable fibers can cause a chronic lung disease called asbestosis, while a relatively small amount of exposure can cause deadly mesothelioma cancer to develop decades later.

For that reason, exposure to inhalable asbestos is an extreme health hazard, and many schools which contain asbestos materials end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on asbestos containment or removal, in their efforts to keep students and staff safe.

To deal with the problems asbestos can create in schools, the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act guidelines require schools to create and maintain asbestos management plans. In addition, schools must be inspected every three years, and asbestos management plans must be available for public review by staff and parents.

Management plans are intended to provide a written record of the steps a school takes to deal with asbestos and prevent exposure. In addition the plans are intended to help prevent accidental asbestos exposure which might occur when the location of asbestos-containing materials is not known.

The EPA inspected the school on March 1, 2007 and found evidence of three violations of AHERA. The school had failed to conduct initial inspections to locate and identify asbestos in its buildings, had failed to create and submit and asbestos management plan, and had failed to notify staff and parents of the availability of management plans.

Pencader Business & Finance Charter High School has been fined a civil penalty of $2,421.30. However, the school paid a total of $2,744 to comply with AHERA requirements, and therefore the EPA has considered the penalty to be fully paid.

Less than two weeks after Main Street Middle School was closed by the state Department of Health due to possible asbestos contamination, more schools are under examination and may face similar problems.

Closed on July 28 due to asbestos-related problems, Main Street Middle School in Montpelier, Vermont remains closed and school officials don’t know whether the school will be able to open in time for the beginning of the new school year, just one month away.

The school was closed after a state Department of Health safety inspector found that workers at the school were using improper practices to remove floor tiles which contained asbestos.

Employees of the contracting company were chipping asbestos tiles off the floors to prepare for laying new tiles. The workers were not wearing face masks or using air-sampling pumps to monitor air quality while the asbestos was being removed. Classroom doors were left open, and there were no barriers around the work area to ensure that other workers were not able to enter.

As a result, the DOH shut down the project, and all contractors, employees, and any other workers using the building have been asked to vacate until it has been deemed safe to return.

At least two other schools in the Montpelier district may face similar problems. The school district has discovered that Williamstown Elementary and Barre Town Middle and Elementary School both used the same contractor which was shut down at Main Street Middle School for its unsafe work practices.

Barre Town Middle and Elementary School has already voluntarily closed, and remains closed. The school was evacuated and closed on July 29, after school officials heard that the construction company they were using had already been removed from the Main Street school.

Officials of both of the closed schools are waiting to hear from the Department of Health for approval of clean-up plans to address asbestos contamination issues.

The work at Williamstown Elementary has already been completed, and it seems that there may be no safety issues at the school. According to Vermont Department of Health environmental and occupational epidemiologist Dr. Austin Sumner, the job was much smaller and mechanical tile chippers were not used.

Main Street Middle School has been concerned about the possibility of opening late, but Montpelier School Superintendent Steve Metcalf says if the school can get its clean-up activities underway soon it may still open in time for the start of the school year, less than four weeks away.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has announced it will provide $25,000 in technical assistance for a Brownfields pilot study in Greenville, South Carolina. The EPA will also work with the city of Greenville in developing the Brownfields project.

The city of Greenville plans to convert a contaminated Brownfields site located within the city via a sustainable redevelopment project. Currently the site of a former service station and supermarket, the city plans to convert the site into a block of affordable housing.

Cleaning up the site will involve removal of a substantial amount of asbestos and lead paint, as well as removal of old tanks and demolition of buildings.

Contaminants such as asbestos and lead pain must be removed before demolition can be carried out, due to the hazards associated with exposure to these toxins. Other issues such as the removal of old tanks from the former service station require that the project be developed and implemented carefully.

Another issue is that Greenville plans to incorporated as many sustainable features and construction materials as possible in developing the new housing, with energy-efficient designs and use of specific types of construction materials.

Brownfield is the term used to describe sites which are federally designated as being contaminated sites. The Brownfield Redevelopment Program is designed to offer financial incentives for companies to redevelop old industrial and commercial properties which are contaminated with hazardous substances.

Brownfields sites are contaminated with hazardous substances such as asbestos, lead, heavy metals, solvents, and other chemicals. Many, including asbestos, are known human carcinogens.

According to EPA web site information on brownfields, “EPA’s Brownfields Program is designed to empower states, communities, and other stakeholders in economic redevelopment to work together in a timely manner to prevent, assess, safely clean up, and sustainably reuse brownfields.”

“It is estimated that there are more than 450,000 brownfields in the U.S. Cleaning up and reinvesting in these properties increases local tax bases, facilitates job growth, utilizes existing infrastructure, takes development pressures off of undeveloped, open land, and both improves and protects the environment.”

“Brownfields grants continue to serve as the foundation of EPA’s Brownfields Program. These grants support revitalization efforts by funding environmental assessment, cleanup, and job training activities.”

Around ten days ago, the Pennsylvania Department of Health has issued a health consultation document stating that the BoRit asbestos site is not dangerous, saying the site poses “no apparent public health hazard to the community for cancer effects or no cancer effects.” However, residents of Ambler, Pennsylvania aren’t convinced, and they’re concerned about public safety issues now that work is starting at the contaminated site.

According to the results of a study recently released by the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the site is not harmful to the public. However, the document also says that “exposures to asbestos fibers when on-site soils and asbestos-containing material are disturbed are a public health hazard to area residents.”

It’s the implications of that last sentence which have Ambler residents worried, now that crews contracted by the Environmental Protection Agency have begun clearing out brush and vegetation to prepare the site for the clean-up work.

According to the document, activities such as on-site sampling may disturb soil and materials to the extent that they may become hazardous to the public. In addition, very dry weather conditions may also cause an increase in airborne asbestos.

The 38-acre BoRit site has a long history, beginning in the late 1800s. Until 1933 the site was owned and operated by Keasbey & Mattison Co., which used the site to manufacture milk of magnesia. In 1933 the site was contaminated when a number of manufactures dumped asbestos-containing waste and other industrial contaminants on the then-unused site.

By the 1980s the BoRit site was considered a public health risk due to the presence of large amounts of exposed asbestos. Now designated an EPA Superfund site, the federal agency will fund and supervise clean-up of the contaminated land.

However, the work currently underway on the site has some residents concerned over safety issues. Residents are also concerned about the safety of the workers themselves, as they have been spotted without protective clothing to prevent dust exposure and inhalation.

Asbestos is dangerous only when fibers are airborne and can be inhaled, and the activities workers are carrying out may cause asbestos fibers to become airborne. Some Ambler residents say the EPA has violated its own guidelines because it did not warn them that the work was beginning at the site.

EPA officials say there’s no danger, but residents believe even a little risk is a big enough issue. Considering that some experts say that the inhalation of just a few asbestos fibers can cause mesothelioma, its no surprise that Ambler citizens are worried.

Montpelier, Vermont - Montpelier’s Main Street Middle School is doing what it can to solve its asbestos problems—the school was quickly evacuated and closed when the problem was discovered, and federal Environmental Protection Agency officials have been in the school to investigate the possible asbestos contamination which occurred this week. Now, however, the school has learned that cleaning up the asbestos will cost around $50,000.

The school was closed on July 28, and currently officials don’t know whether the school will be able to open in time for the beginning of the new school year, less than one month away.

Main Street Middle School was closed after a state Department of Health safety inspector found that workers at the school were using improper practices to remove floor tiles which contained asbestos. DOH asbestos and lead engineer Andrew Chevrefils noticed that workers were using methods which violate state regulations for removal of asbestos.

Employees of the contracting company were chipping asbestos tiles off the floors to prepare for laying new tiles. The workers were not wearing face masks or using air-sampling pumps to monitor air quality while the asbestos was being removed, and area where the work was being done was not kept isolated or contained.

Despite the lack of appropriate safety precautions, Austin Sumner, a Department of Health epidemiologist, says it’s unlikely anyone is in great danger of developing an asbestos-related disease.

As a result of the possible asbestos contamination, the state Department of Health has shut down the project, and all contractors, employees, and other workers using the building have been asked to vacate until it has been deemed safe to return.

The district’s asbestos control officer Chris Crothers says the extent of the asbestos problems, and the measures required to solve them, may keep the school closed into the new academic year. Crothers has designed an asbestos removal plan for the school, which has received preliminary approval from the DOH.

However, the clean-up and air monitoring is expected to take at least two weeks to complete, and that’s after the plan has been fully approved, which may put an additional week or more on the total time needed to clean up the school.

Asbestos is present not only in floor tiles in the school, but also in pipe insulation in the basement. The pipe insulation is thought to be friable, making clean-up particularly dangerous and necessitating extra caution.

Aspen, Colorado - Schools all over the country are feeling the pinch of stretched budgets and hurried schedules, as they complete asbestos removal and construction programs before school begins again at the end of the month. The Aspen School District is one of those struggling to complete asbestos removal work; however this year asbestos-related problems have put the district $1.3 million over budget and forced the district to delay some of the work until after school starts.

Thousands of schools in America were built using asbestos-containing construction materials, due to the extremely durable, strong, and fire-resistant nature of asbestos fibers. Unfortunately, those same properties make asbestos a health hazard. When inhaled, asbestos fibers become lodged in the lungs, and over several decades can cause deadly mesothelioma to develop.

For that reason, exposure to inhalable asbestos is an extreme health hazard, and many schools which contain asbestos materials end up spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on asbestos containment or removal, in their efforts to keep students and staff safe.

Dave Detwiler, project manager for the Aspen School District, has said that the school has had to pay a significant amount of money to cover unexpected asbestos removal, and that the budget blow-out could prevent the district from completing some of its planned summer construction projects.

Without the asbestos removal, Detwiler said, the work would have been competed on time and within the budget.

The problems stem from asbestos removal work at the district’s middle school, which the district plans to demolish to make way for a new school. Asbestos removal work was completed there several decades ago, but the district is now having problems cleaning up the remaining asbestos. The remaining asbestos is located within interior walls in the school, meaning that the work could not be completed while the buildings were in use.

A further problem is that the state of Colorado recently implemented regulations about the removal of vermiculite, which was used in insulation in the walls of the school.

The district hired a contractor in January to remove asbestos from the middle school, hoping the work would be completed by the beginning of the summer. However the contractor has located so much asbestos in the school that the work has dragged on much longer than anticipated and the cost of removal has climbed to almost $1.5 million, with no signs of stopping.

The project now has a shortfall of $1.3 million, and asbestos removal won’t be completed until just before the beginning of the new school year, meaning the demolition will have to be carried out during the school year. Detwiler says the contractor for the demolition is willing to work during evenings and weekends, but doing so would mean more delays and additional costs.