Archive for the ‘Jobsite Exposure’ Category

Ithaca, New York - Closed since the late 1980s, the Ithaca Gun Factory is now planned for demolition and remediation, but local residents are worried that the budget for the planned project isn’t big enough to get the job finished.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation held a meeting at City Hall to discuss the project, and several community residents voiced their concerns about the budget for the clean up, which is just $2.2 million. The proposed budget will cover both demolition and remediation for the site, and locals are concerned that’s just not enough money to complete the entire project.

Local Sara Steuteville, a member of the site’s Community Advisory Group, said, “We don’t want to get halfway through and have delay. The site just can’t have it. We’ve had enough delay.”

The Ithaca Gun Factory is contaminated with a range of harmful substances, including asbestos, chlorinated solvents (including trichloroethylene), and lead. All three are known to be hazardous: lead can have a negative impact on the brain development of children, and asbestos and trichloroethylene are known human carcinogens.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency made an effort to clean up the contamination between 2002 and 2004, sinking a total of $4.8 million into its efforts to remove the contamination. However, some areas of the former gun factory still remain heavily contaminated.

In response to residents’ concerns over the size of the budget for the present project, Kenneth Lynch, director of DEC Region 7, said the DEC is “very aware of the possibility of additional funding being necessary for this project. We do have a fairly good handle on what’s out there and what needs to be done. I will not, though, assure you that there’s enough money to complete the project.”

If necessary, Lynch says, the DEC will aid the city in identifying other sources of potential funding for the project. The worst-case scenario, he says, is that the state’s Superfund or EPA may have to step in and provide funds or complete the remediation project. “There is a contingency plan always in place,” says Lynch.

The current remediation plan involves decontaminating the site using the $2.2 million. Following that phase of the project, it is planned that developer Frost Travis will turn the site into a condominium development which will include a city walkway overlooking Ithaca Falls. This is, however, contingent on whether there’s enough money to complete the remediation.

Residents do have other concerns, in addition to the budget issue. In particular, the public is concerned about air quality during the project, and whether monitoring will be carried out while it is in progress. Susan Shearer, senior sanitary engineer with the state Department of Health, responded by saying that air monitors will operate continuously around the perimeter of the demolition zone. If the monitors detect heavy amounts of toxic dust construction methods can be adjusted to reduce dust levels.

Many companies, when faced with massive numbers of asbestos-related lawsuits, respond by setting up trust funds from which claimants can be awarded compensation for the injuries they sustain after asbestos exposure. For some companies, it is vital for their existence, and is part of their bankruptcy settlements. However, many people must wait up to twelve months or even longer for compensation money after starting a claim.

The Owens Corning/Fiberboard Asbestos Personal Injury Trust, for example, has a long list of claimants who are waiting for compensation, with many waiting for longer than a year.

Since October 2006, when the trust was set up, it has paid $390 million to cover the claims of 70,000 people, most of whom are construction workers, ship-builders, and other trades people who developed asbestos-related diseases due to asbestos exposure caused by products which Toledo-based Owens Corning and its Fiberboard subsidiary once made.

As part of Owens Corning’s six-year bankruptcy proceedings, the trust assumed responsibility for compensation of people who developed asbestos-related diseases that the company was found to be responsible for. The company funded the trust with a multibillion dollar settlement of cash and stocks.

With 70,000 claims settled already, once might think the trust has already carried out its primary function and the creation of new claims must have slowed down: but since the trust was set up less than two years ago, it has received an additional 256,000 claims, and more come in every day.

The statistics for Owens Corning’s trust are contained in the trust’s first detailed financial report, which was filed in the United States Bankruptcy Court in Wilmington, Delaware in the spring. The filing is a scant financial statement but doesn’t provide any commentary about whether the trust is meeting or exceeding any expectations in terms of factors such as claim number, size, and rate of completion.

The report says, “The ultimate number of asbestos…claims to be filed and the liability for all such claims are not determinable at this time…The net assets available for the payment of claims at Dec. 31, 2007, may or may not be sufficient to meet all future obligations of the trust.”

Currently the trust contains around $4.5 billion in cash and stocks. Around one third of that total is Owens Corning stock, and in fact, the trust holds almost a full quarter of the company’s stock, and is its biggest shareholder.

So far, most claims for compensation have been for people who settled with OC many years ago, but had their settlement payments delayed by the company’s bankruptcy. The trust normally fills claims for compensation on a first-come first-served basis, except in situations where the claimant is extremely ill.

City officials in East Liverpool, Ohio, are still trying to negotiate to avoid paying the $30,000 fine the EPA wants to collect for asbestos violations.

East Liverpool City Council Members met recently to discuss the fine, and Law Director Charles Payne says the city still plans to challenge it.

Payne said, “Their demand of $30,000 is still the issue here. During our last meeting with the EPA, the city made a counter offer of $2,000 for a fine, and we basically tied that into the fine for Earl Taylor during the initial court case.”

The incident that sparked the fine came to light in May 2006, says East Liverpool Mayor Jim Swoger. The incident 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. The agency also says the removal did not adhere to the 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 cancer 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.

Swoger doesn’t understand why the EPA has imposed the fine, because the asbestos has been cleaned up, and Earl Taylor had already been fined. In addition, says Swoger, city officials notified the EPA of the incident and didn’t try to cover it up.

“When it came to light, the city notified the Ohio EPA and spent $14,500 to remediate the problem,” said Law Director Charles Payne of the incident. The EPA has already rejected the city’s counter-proposal of the $2,000 fine payment.

Joliet, Illinois -  A full day after state health officials shut down a section of the Marycrest Shopping Center in Joliet, Illinois, some businesses were still operating in the center, unaware of the possible asbestos dangers.

One business was ordered not to open due to the possible asbestos threat, but stores on either side were not told of the danger and were allowed to remain open.

Marycrest Shopping center is made up of multiple buildings each with its own ventilation system, and all stores in one of the buildings were supposed to be ordered closed, while stores in other separate buildings could remain open.

However, it was subsequently discovered that many of those businesses were supposed to be ordered shut, but had not received the order due to an oversight.

A section of the Maycrest Shopping Center in Joliet, Illinois was closed after state health officials became concerned about the possibility of asbestos exposure. Officials ordered that work on the now-closed section of the shopping mall be stopped on Wednesday June 4, as they believed flooring was being removed without proper safety precautions being taken.

The shopping center was built in the 1950s, is now half empty, and is undergoing renovations. However, this week sees the second time that officials have ordered that renovations be stopped due to concerns over possible asbestos exposure, said Joliet director of inspectional services David Mackley.

Mackley said that a state inspector called health authorities to the renovation site on Wednesday after the inspector noticed that work had been carried out in an office area which was known to contain asbestos.

Site inspectors subsequently ordered that the work be stopped, as they believed the tiles which were being removed were of a kind that was glued to floors with an asbestos-containing adhesive. Tests carried out by the Illinois Department of Public Health subsequently showed that asbestos was in fact present in the adhesive.

An Illinois Department of Public Health spokesperson said the owners of Maycrest will be required to hire contractors who are licensed to handle asbestos. Another health department spokesperson, Melaney Arnold, said the law would require an inspection to be carried out before work could start.

Whether or not those in the stores which were supposed to be closed were exposed to asbestos won’t be known for some time, possibly decades, as asbestos-related diseases such as mesothelioma cancers have long latency periods.

Libby, Montana - Only a few weeks after the federal government announced it may finally reach a settlement with W.R. Grace & Company, Montana state officials say they are also ready to sign an agreement with the company which may see more Libby asbestos claims settled.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced in April that it had negotiated a $250 million settlement with W.R. Grace & Company. The money would be used to reimburse the agency’s Superfund and pay for the costs of cleaning up the contamination in Libby which was caused by the company’s mining operation in the town.

The Montana Department of Environmental Quality today announced a proposed $5.1 million settlement, which will provide additional money to help fund future clean-up costs in Libby. The proposal will soon be open for public comment, and it must be approved by W.R. Grace’s bankruptcy judge.

The funds allotted to the Montana Department of Environmental Quality will be separate from the $250 million settlement, and will not come from that money. The DEQ says the $5.1 million will be used only after the EPA’s main clean up project has been finished, and that the money will be used for maintenance and other operations.

DEQ Director Richard Opper said, “Since Grace is already paying $250 million for cleanup costs here, we were not going to get a lot of additional funding through the bankruptcy. We are pleased that we were able to get at least a significant sum to help ensure that there is adequate funding to do this cleanup right.”

DEQ Remediation Division Administrator Sandi Olsen said, “The EPA settlement currently earmarks $11 million for operation and maintenance. This settlement increases that funding by over $5 million. Of course, operation and maintenance comes at that end of the process, so there should be a substantial amount of interest earnings to cover these costs as well.”

The proposed DEQ settlement covers commercial and residential property in Libby and Troy, both of which are affected by the asbestos-contaminated vermiculite mine once operated by W.R. Grace & Company. The mine itself and the land around it will be addressed separately.

The proposed agreement, including information about commenting on it, can be found on the Montana DEQ web site at www.deq.mt.gov. Comments must be received by July 7, 2008.

Grayson County, Virginia - Builders working on the $100 million state prison project in Grayson County, Virginia, have hit a snag that may delay the project significantly. The snag? A vein of asbestos has been struck during digging on the site.

Grading began on the site last fall, but it wasn’t until May 2008 that a state-hired contractor noticed what appeared to be asbestos-a brown-colored substance softer than the surrounding rock.

Virginia Department of Corrections director of communications Larry Traylor says work ceased on the site on May 9. Subsequently state officials tested the brown substance and confirmed that it was, in fact, asbestos.

“Additional tests to determine if asbestos particles had been present in the air were performed and those results indicated no asbestos particles present,” said Traylor.

Asbestos veins occur naturally in certain types of rock, and in fact low levels of asbestos are thought to be present in around two thirds of the earth’s crust. The fibrous mineral is highly dangerous if the fibers become airborne, as they can then be inhaled.

Inhalation of asbestos can cause serious and lethal diseases, including asbestosis and mesothelioma. The fibers are little threat, however, unless they are airborne.

Larry Traylor says further tests and evaluation will be carried out during the next few weeks, and state officials will begin developing a strategy to manage the asbestos threat and get construction underway on the site.
Work will begin on site next week to remediate the asbestos vein, headed by contractor Balfour Beatty. Signs will be posted on site and awareness training for all jobsite staff will be performed.

County administrator William Ring says the discovery of asbestos “should not change the overall plan. They have to develop a plan to deal with what they have found. The site is still the selected site.” In addition, Ring says the delay shouldn’t affect the scheduled completion of the project, and the prison should still be open in 2010 as originally planned.

However, it hasn’t yet been determined how much the asbestos remediation will add to the cost of the project. Depending on the amount of asbestos present in the vein, and the amount which needs to be removed, a significant chunk of money could be added to the budget, due to the need for trained personnel for some aspects of the removal, and the need to dispose of the asbestos in locations which are equipped and licensed to handle it.

Investigators who are trying to determine what caused a fire which destroyed an abandoned school in SeaTac, Washington are being delayed by problems relating to asbestos which was present in the school.

The four-alarm fire began around 6PM on Saturday May 31, and around ninety firefighters from eleven different agencies responded quickly. Firefighters were unable to enter the building, however, due to its dilapidated state and concerns that the building might collapse. The fire burned for over an hour, after which the only structure left standing were the bricked sections built in 1937.

Work crews have brought a backhoe to the scene of the fire at Angle Lake School and have been waiting to use it since Monday June 2, but officials say they must wait due to environmental concerns.

The problem? Asbestos is present in the roof, and officials say that the backhoe operator must be licensed to deal with asbestos.

Asbestos was a common component of construction materials up until the 1980s due to its high fire resistance and other desirable factors, but the demolition or renovation of older buildings means the asbestos they contain must be dealt with appropriately.

Asbestos is therefore present in many schools built before this time, as well as residential, commercial, and industrial buildings. The substance was so cheap and had so many desirable properties that it was added to thousands of products, including many types of construction materials.

However, due to the hazards associated with asbestos exposure, many problems associated with its exposure are now arising. Inhalation of asbestos fibers can cause lethal diseases such as asbestosis and mesothelioma due to the chronic inflammation that the fibers cause in the lungs. For these reasons the management and disposal of asbestos-containing construction waste is tightly controlled.

Failure to adhere to laws and regulations controlling asbestos handling can lead to hefty fines, as many contractors have discovered over the past several years.

And in this case, the presence of asbestos in the Angle Lake School’s roof means delays in the investigative process while a licensed professional who can legally deal with the asbestos waste is located.

A federal bankruptcy judge has decided that bankrupt copper mining company ASARCO has until July 2 to organize its Chapter 11 reorganization plan. Currently it’s thought likely that the plan will include the sale of its working assets to Sterlite Industries Ltd for $2.6 billion.

ASARCO, which has billions of dollars worth of asbestos and other environmental liabilities, had originally asked to be given until August 1 to organize the plan, but Judge Richard Schmidt decided on the July 2 deadline.

After the deadline passes, outside parties, including ASARCO’s parent company Grupo Mexico, will be allowed to propose plans. Grupo Mexico has put in an unofficial offer of $2.7 billion for the company, having lost control during bankruptcy proceedings.

Grupo Mexico is a mining conglomerate headed by Chairman and Chief Executive German Larrea Mota-Velasco. The company is the world’s third largest producer of copper, and has mining interests in several South American locations.

Sterlite, a subsidiary of Vedanta Resources Ltd, is an India-based copper, zinc and aluminum producer and. The company was the winning bidder at the ASARCO auction in May.

At this stage, however, it’s unclear as to whether ASARCO will sell to Sterlite or to its former parent. ASARCO management is at odds with its former parent for many reasons, which may preclude a Grupo Mexico sale. However, if the Sterlite sale is rejected by ASARCO’s bankruptcy judge it may allow Grupo Mexico a real chance at reacquiring control over its former subsidiary.

ASARCO filed for bankruptcy in 2005, and during the process a bankruptcy judge removed Grupo Mexico’s control over the company due to allegations that the parent company was stripping ASARCO’s assets in an attempt to protect those assets from asbestos and environmental liability claims.

One of those assets was the Peruvian copper mine which was ASARCO’s most valuable asset, arguably the main reason for Grupo Mexico acquiring the company.

Among ASARCO’s claims are that Grupo Mexico systematically stripped the subsidiary of assets, including Peruvian copper mines that ASARCO once had a significant stake in and were the company’s most significant asset. ASARCO claims that Grupo Mexico did this to prevent the mines being used to pay ASARCO’s creditors.

ASARCO also claims that Grupo Mexico had full knowledge of the company’s billions of dollars worth of liabilities when it acquired the company. Grupo Mexico has denied the charges in the recent month-long trial which ended last week. A ruling on the case, in which ASARCO has asked for the return of $11.3 billion in assets, is expected some time during the summer.

Another taconite Iron Range miner is dead from mesothelioma, bringing the total number of mesothelioma fatalities for taconite workers in the area to 59. The news was announced by the Minnesota Department of Health at the third meeting of the Taconite Workers Lung Health Partnership.

Mesothelioma is a rare but deadly form of cancer that most commonly develops in the lining of the lungs of affected individuals. The only known cause of mesothelioma is exposure to asbestos.

The Taconite Workers Lung Health Partnership is working towards completing a study on the Iron Range mesothelioma issue, for which it recently received funding of $4.9 million.

In 2007, the Department of Health announced that a total of 35 Iron Range miners had died from mesothelioma. Along with several other miners previously identified as having died from mesothelioma, Professor John Finnegan, dean of the University of Minnesota School of Public Health, says that 58 Iron Range miners have died from the disease to date. Finnegan believes that this total is “clearly in excess” of that which should be expected in an average population.

According to Charlie Olson, an Iron Range steelworker who gave testimony before the House Higher Education and Work Force Development Policy and Finance Division, workers at Iron Range mines have long held suspicion that the taconite processing work they were doing was causing the release of asbestos. Fibers that closely resemble asbestos have been found in eastern Iron Range ore.

Preliminary data analysis on 58 mine workers diagnosed with mesothelioma has been carried out by the Minnesota Department of Health. The miners in the study worked at six of the seven mining operations that were active during their employment period.

Almost one fourth of the workers were employed in the mining industry for less than one year, while slightly more than one fourth were employed for thirty or more years. Almost all of the miners were diagnosed with mesothelioma at least thirty years after they had first begun work in the mining industry. In some cases, diagnosis was made more than sixty years later.

The new $4.9 million study will involve health and respiratory screening of current and former Iron Range mine workers and their spouses, as well as air testing in several different locations in and around the Iron Range area.

Air quality tests began last week at Virginia City Hall, where a $35,000 particle-sampling machine collected ten days worth of data. The machines will be set up in a variety of location to collect data which can be analyzed to determine the types of particles present.

The partnership hopes that the information they collect will eventually provide an answer to the question of why so many Iron Range workers have died from mesothelioma.

Nanoparticles are being massed produced for an enormous variety of applications and products, from performance-enhancing units for solar cells, to frames for tennis racquet’s and bicycles, to transparent sunscreen which turns opaque in the presence of ultraviolet light. However, mounting evidence suggests that nanoparticles of many different shapes and sizes are toxic, to the extent that some types are being dubbed “the new asbestos.”

Scientists have been warning that nanoparticles might be dangerous for the last five years, or longer, saying that the tiny particles have a strong affinity for animal DNA. Some types of nanoparticles can attach to animal DNA in a way that prevents immune responses to the particles, and also prevents cells from self-repairing. Cellular self-repair is an important mechanism which helps prevent cancer.

Experimental evidence confirms that long, thin, carbon-based nanotubes can cause lesions to develop in mice, giving rise to fears that nanotubes can cause mesothelioma. Other experiments show that a type of nanoparticle called a “buckyball” can clog the gills of fish and damage their brains, and that some nanoparticles, when present in groundwater, can stunt plant root growth.

While mounting evidence indicates that nanoparticles may pose a threat to human, plant, and animal health, scientists have not, until now, understood why.

A group of research scientists now claim that they have created a computer model which mimics how a type of nanoparticle called the “buckyball” invades cells and causes damage.

Buckyballs are nanoparticles which are officially named Buckminsterfullerenes, a name given to them due to their likeness to a geodesic dome invented by American architect and inventor R. Buckminster Fuller.

The leader of the research group, Professor Peter Tieleman, says, “Buckyballs are extremely insoluble, in any solvent, so they tend to stick together into clumps of a few hundred, which is too large to move through a cell membrane without damaging it.” Tieleman performed the work with Luca Monticelli, a post-doctoral fellow. Both work at the University of Calgary.

The size of the buckyballs led scientists to conclude that they damage brain cells in fish by ripping holes in cell walls and literally forcing their way through.

Due to the immense difficulty of working with the tiny buckyballs, the Calgary researchers created a computer program simulation that mimicked the way in which buckyballs move through cell walls. To create a simulation that was accurate and detailed required an incredible 1,000 processors on the West Grid, Canada’s fastest grid-supercomputer, working over several months.