Community Leaders in the Bayview-Hunters Point district of San Francisco have come together to discuss the ongoing health complaints associated with a new development being built at the site of the old Hunters Point Naval Shipyard.

An article in the Fog City Journal notes that residents and community leaders are concerned that the development company, Lennar Corporation, is cutting corners when it comes to safety issues involving air quality regulations. Asbestos is known to be present at the Hunters Point site because shipyards were one of the major consumers of asbestos before warnings were issued in the 1970s about the dangers of the toxic material.

Residents say the incidence of respiratory ailments has increased among those who live or work in the area. They contribute the rise to airborne asbestos and other leftover toxins from the shipyard, including arsenic.

“The dust particulates are being released into the air as a result of heavy equipment grading on large swaths of rock and earth in an area know as Parcel A. The area is known for swirling winds capable of carrying dust particulate matter in all directions over large distances,” notes the article.

Some community activists believe that Lennar’s shortcomings are being ignored because the project has the backing of the city’s mayor and several other political giants in the area, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who represents San Francisco in Congress.

Minister Christopher Mohamed, a well-known voice in the community, said that in May 2006, he was informed about high levels of asbestos dust in the area. He noted that area children had been complaining about breathing problems and tear-swollen eyes.

“This went on everyday practically for over a four-month period,” Mohamed said during a presentation to as many as 50 attendees.

Mohamed said that just a few months later, a worker at the construction site told him Lennar crew workers were being sent home because of high dust levels. Yet a school, located adjacent to the project, had not been informed about the health hazard. Mohamed emphasized the fence line for the school is just ten feet from the construction site and has been directly impacted by “dust clouds.”

“They were blasting the community with asbestos laden dust,” Mohamed said.

“You can’t hardly knock on a door in Bayview-Hunters Point where you can’t find a person that’s been ill-affected by that shipyard,” Mohamed said.

New York officials announced on Thursday morning, July 19th, the day after a steam vent exploded at 41st and Lexington, that air quality tests showed no asbestos in the air - as was originally reported - but they did find asbestos in some debris and dust that had settled.

An Associated Press article reported that the city Office of Emergency Management said tests were continuing in the area, but that long-term health problems were “unlikely.”

“Crews worked overnight to assess and repair the damage after the eruption that sent people running for cover as debris rained down,” said the article. About 30 people were injured, at least four seriously, officials said.

Many equated the chaos of the explosion of the 83-year-old steam pipe with the scene after the 9/11 tragedy, but on a smaller scope. “We were scared to death. It sounded like a bomb hit or a bomb went off, just like 9/11. People were hysterical, crying, running down the street,” said Karyn Easton, a customer at a salon a few blocks from the site of the blast. “It was really surreal.” But city officials quickly ruled out terrorism, reports noted.

Environment quality officials say they took eight air quality samples shortly after the explosion. None showed any significant amounts of asbestos. However, six of 10 samples of debris and dust came back positive. Residents who were already in the area were permitted to stay. The city told them to keep windows closed and air conditioners set to recirculate indoor air instead of drawing it from outside, and anyone exposed to the falling debris was instructed to wash carefully and isolate soiled clothing in plastic bags.

The city has been under fire for allegedly underplaying the poor air quality found throughout the city after the 9/11 tragedy. Many first responders and Ground Zero workers have already been sickened with respiratory diseases due to toxic dust.

A recent congressional report that criticized Louisiana officials for not doing enough to monitor the risk from asbestos in New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina has come under fire from the state’s top Department of Environmental Quality official.

According to an article by the Associated Press, Mike McDaniel, secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, called a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report critical of asbestos monitoring “riddled with unsubstantiated editorial comments, misleading statements and inaccuracies.”

He made those comments in a letter sent Thursday to the GAO, Congress’ investigative arm.

The report, which was released late last month, said that “environmental regulators potentially exposed scores of residents, volunteers and workers to asbestos fibers by not doing more to monitor the contaminant in the cleanup after Katrina.”

State officials countered, saying state that there has been an exhaustive effort to monitor for asbestos. The DEQ added that no measurable amounts of asbestos showed up in any of the more than 20,000 samples taken, mostly during demolitions.

Sickened ground workers went to court on Tuesday, July 17 to demand that the company who oversees a $1 billion 9/11 insurance fund spend the money for their health care.

The workers have already filed a class action suit claiming that toxic substances like asbestos, found in the dust and rubble of the World Trade Center site, have caused them serious harm and already sickened hundreds of them. They believe they have a right to a portion of the insurance funds.

During their court appearance on Tuesday, the workers sought compensation from the WTC Captive Insurance Co., the company in charge of many appropriated by Congress to deal with the health-related claims of September 11th workers.

“The WTC Captive has consistently refused to pay any of the ground zero workers who have become ill on the work site, including any compensation” for lost salaries, pain and suffering, medical treatment, medical monitoring, or burial expenses, according to the lawsuit, filed in state Supreme Court in Manhattan.

Several of the Sept. 11th ground workers and first responders have already died of respiratory diseases related to asbestos exposure and other toxic materials, including one female EMT who died of mesothelioma less than five years after the tragedy. Usually, mesothelioma takes 20-40 years to develop.

A recently completed research paper shows that about 1,000 of the 1,500 Canadians that were afflicted with the asbestos-caused cancer mesothelioma from 1980 to 2002 received no compensation.

An article for the Globe and Mail points out that the government for the province of Ontario considers mesothelioma a “special illness” and in accordance with provincial rules, contracting it is supposed to mean being placed on a fast track for compensation from the province’s workplace insurance plan, since there is a presumption that the asbestos exposure came from being on the job.

However, the paper points out that the province’s Workplace Safety and Insurance Board (WSIB) shortchanged victims of the disease, and taxpayers, out of hundreds of millions of dollars.

The paper, written by a research team headed by Jim Brophy, one of Canada’s top occupational health experts, said “Ontario taxpayers have been covering huge medical bills for people with mesothelioma and thousands of other asbestos-caused cancers - costs that should have been covered by fees the WSIB charges employers to cover workplace diseases.”

“In Ontario, the WSIB is legally obliged to reimburse the provincial health-care system for costs related to compensable diseases,” the paper said. “Therefore the failure to recognize the work-relatedness of many mesothelioma cases has resulted in an economic loss to the provincial Ministry of Health.”

The WSIB said in a statement to The Globe and Mail that most people with the disease don’t apply for compensation and, out of those who do, about 90 percent are compensated.

Canada does not compile statistics on asbestos illnesses and has rallied against a ban on the toxic mineral. Doctors in Ontario are not required to notify the WSIB that they are treating patients with mesothelioma. Brophy pointed out that some of those who contracted mesothelioma lived with family members who brought asbestos dust home on their work clothes, and the WSIB refuses to compensate them. Others are having difficulty proving they worked with asbestos for two years or more.

The Washington Post reports that federal prosecutors in the case against asbestos giant W.R. Grace won a small victory yesterday when an appeals court panel ruled that the U.S. attorney in Montana might be allowed to call several witnesses and use studies that a lower-court judge had barred from a pending trial over Grace’s actions in Libby, Montana, where hundreds have been sickened from asbestos-related diseases.

Though U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy had rejected the federal prosecutors’ bid to present at least nine witnesses and evidence from three critical environmental health studies, saying the government had missed several deadlines, a panel of three judges determined that the district judge had exceeded his authority in presenting such a ruling. The appeals court said that Molloy must find that the government lapse was “willful and motivated by a desire to obtain a tactical advantage” to bar the witnesses from testifying.

“We are sympathetic to the district court’s attempts to manage this large and complex criminal trial,” the appeals court wrote. The panel said the trial judge could yet find a basis to “justify excluding or limiting testimony or documents — either as a sanction or as an evidentiary matter.”

One of the studies in question concluded that 1,200 people in Libby and surrounding towns suffered from some sort of lung problem, probably caused by asbestos exposure. This included not only workers at Grace’s Zonolite plant, but community members who were also exposed to airborne fibers on a daily basis.

William W. Mercer, the U.S. attorney in Montana, said the appeals court ruling moved the government “one step closer to the ultimate goal of trying . . . W.R. Grace and the individual defendants with a full complement of evidence.”

The Washington Post reports that federal prosecutors in the case against asbestos giant W.R. Grace won a small victory yesterday when an appeals court panel ruled that the U.S. attorney in Montana might be allowed to call several witnesses and use studies that a lower-court judge had barred from a pending trial over Grace’s actions in Libby, Montana, where hundreds have been sickened from asbestos-related diseases.

Though U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy had rejected the federal prosecutors’ bid to present at least nine witnesses and evidence from three critical environmental health studies, saying the government had missed several deadlines, a panel of three judges determined that the district judge had exceeded his authority in presenting such a ruling. The appeals court said that Molloy must find that the government lapse was “willful and motivated by a desire to obtain a tactical advantage” to bar the witnesses from testifying.

“We are sympathetic to the district court’s attempts to manage this large and complex criminal trial,” the appeals court wrote. The panel said the trial judge could yet find a basis to “justify excluding or limiting testimony or documents — either as a sanction or as an evidentiary matter.”

One of the studies in question concluded that 1,200 people in Libby and surrounding towns suffered from some sort of lung problem, probably caused by asbestos exposure. This included not only workers at Grace’s Zonolite plant, but community members who were also exposed to airborne fibers on a daily basis.

William W. Mercer, the U.S. attorney in Montana, said the appeals court ruling moved the government “one step closer to the ultimate goal of trying . . . W.R. Grace and the individual defendants with a full complement of evidence.”

The Canadian Cancer Society is set to announce today that they endorse a ban on the export of asbestos and believe the federal government should stop blocking international efforts to curb the trade in the toxic mineral, which is currently banned in 40 countries.

An article in the Globe and Mail points out that this is a bold step for the organization, whose statement will be in opposition to the opinions of most of Canada’s governmental officials, who believe asbestos can be used safely and should be promoted. Along with Russia and China, Canada is one of the largest exporters of asbestos in the world, with most of its mines located in the province of Quebec.

The article notes that about 95% of Canada’s asbestos is imported to developing countries, such as India, Indonesia, and Thailand, who use it for cheap building materials despite the apparent health threats connected with the use of the mineral. Substitutes for asbestos are readily available.

The cancer society had been prepared to present an asbestos policy that would have largely backed the federal government’s position that it can be safely used provided those importing it are informed of its health risks, according to a draft of the policy viewed by The Globe and Mail.

But the positions in the draft outraged many occupational health groups and anti-cancer advocates, who believed the Canadian Cancer Society would be damaging their own credibility if they sided with the government on this issue. Instead, the group will issue a statement that says they believe the use of asbestos should be eliminated, which – in effect – is a call for a ban.

The cancer society will also recommend that the federal government stop trying to block efforts by the Rotterdam Convention, a UN-organized body, at its meeting in 2008, to place the variety of asbestos mined in Canada on the list of the world’s most dangerous substances.

As Canada does not track deaths caused by asbestos exposure, exact numbers of Canadian casualties from the mineral are not available. National health experts, however, believe there have been thousands of premature deaths from exposure, especially in and near the Quebec mining towns.

In federal court on July 13th, San Diego Gas and Electric (SDG&E) was found guilty of violating safety standards while removing asbestos from property it once owned in the community of Lemon Grove.

According to an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune, a jury found the utility company guilty of four criminal counts – three counts of improperly removing asbestos and one count of making false statements. A fifth count of conspiracy to violate safety standards was dropped before the trial began last Wednesday.

In addition, three SDG&E employees faced charges for allegedly violating safety standards. The article reports that Jacquelyn McHugh, a supervisor in SDG&E’s environmental department, was acquitted of the one count against her. David Williamson, an SDG&E environmental specialist, and Kyle Rhuebottom, the project superintendent for contractor IT Corp., were acquitted of some charges and convicted of others. The jury could not decide whether Williamson falsely identified himself as a certified environmental consultant.

SDG&E could be facing fines up to $2 million. The employees will face a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each charge for which there is a conviction. Post trial motions are set for September 6th.

The trial concerned the removal of nine miles of pipe at the Encanto Gas Holder Facility, a 16-acre site near the Lemon Grove-San Diego boundary. Charges state that SDG&E cut corners by using a cheaper machine to scrape chunks of coating containing asbestos off the pipes, causing “friable” asbestos to crumble and fibers to be released into the air.

A research team from the University of Minnesota has agreed to handle a comprehensive study into why workers exposed to asbestos in northeastern Minnesota’s iron ore mines have a higher rate of cancer than anywhere else in the state.

John Finnegan, dean of the School of Public Health at the university, said the Department of Health would still play an important role, working alongside the University, in the study that will take three to five more years to complete.

“We see this as helping out friends,” he said. “It is hard for us to see them go through this rough time.”

The University and Department of Health have had a close relationship for 130 years, Finnegan told The Minnesota Daily, the school’s newspaper. In addition, good communication between the Legislature, the University and the Department of Health is crucial to the success of the study, he added.

With the University taking over the study, it hopes to regain credibility and focus on the scientific aspects of the study, Finnegan said.

Finnegan said he spoke with University President Bob Bruininks, who promised to provide initial funds for the study. When the new legislative session begins in January, the University will introduce a bill to help further fund the project, which has a projected cost of more than $3 million, he said. Any funding from the state would fund the central parts of the study, Finnegan said.

The state Department of Health has come under fire for the withholding of more than a year of important information about cancer rates among the mine workers.