The family of a man who died of mesothelioma at age 50 has been awarded $30.3 million by a New Jersey jury. According to an article in Newsday, the award to the family of Mark Buttitta, who died in 2002, is the largest in the state of New Jersey for a mesothelioma case.

Moshe Maimon, the attorney for the Buttitta family, said his client was exposed to asbestos while working summers at “giant GM warehouses” throughout New Jersey, handling auto parts that contained asbestos. Buttitta’s brother worked at the warehouses during the summer as well and the plaintiff’s father was a full-time employee for General Motors.

According to Maimon, who specializes in asbestos cases, “the three men wore the same work clothes for several days, bringing home cancer-causing fibers every day from work, unknowingly letting the microscopic fibers fragments waft throughout their home and settle.”

“Worse yet, as a young boy Mark would sit on his dad’s lap – or next to him on the sofa – every night to watch TV, and was innocently exposed to asbestos,” he said.

The six-person jury sided with the Buttittas in a trial that ended on Tuesday but took several weeks to complete. The jury found against Asbestos Corp. Ltd. of Canada, which provided material for GM brakes, and BorgWarner Inc. of Michigan, which made clutches. The jury deliberated for four hours before reaching their verdict, Maimon said.

Both companies indicated that they would appeal the verdict.

The owner of a U.S. Virgin Islands asbestos removal company has been sentenced to three years in prison and an additional three years probation for his role in the improper removal of the material at a housing project in St. Thomas.

According to an Associated Press article, Cleve Allen George, the owner of the Virgin Islands Asbestos Removal Co., was convicted of breaking federal environmental laws, including violations of the Clean Air Act, and making false statements about air monitoring at a St. Thomas housing project that was demolished in 2001. His partner, Dylan C. Starnes of Atlanta, was given an identical sentence last July.

According to reports, the two men used a power washer to strip thousands of square feet of asbestos-containing materials from the structures. Fibers from the material washed out over the ground and, in many cases, made their way into the sewer systems. George, a licensed abatement professional, was aware that this was an illegal way to remove asbestos from the soon-to-be-demolished homes, but continued nonetheless.

George knew “how to safely remove asbestos and chose to ignore those safe methods in lieu of a bigger profit,” said Ronald J. Tenpas of the Justice Department’s environment and natural resources division before he pronounced the sentence at a court in the capital city of Charlotte Amalie.

For the last several days, investigators from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been canvassing the “Big Tex” site in San Antonio to determine how much asbestos waste was left behind at the old industrial site.

According to an article in the San Antonio Express-News, workers in “moon suits” have been all over the site, situated on the banks of the San Antonio River, making their way through dilapidated metal buildings full of debris. This is the next step, say officials, in determining what needs to be done to the site in order to begin development of a mixed-use multimillion dollar complex at the location.

Big Tex, named for a grain company that operated nearby, was owned by embattle W.R. Grace and Company, currently in bankruptcy and undergoing trial in a Delaware courtroom to determine the company’s liabilities to asbestos creditors. Grace faces thousands of lawsuits from individuals sickened by asbestos exposure due to Grace’s myriad asbestos-containing insulation products.

“W.R. Grace & Co. now is known to have sent millions of tons of vermiculite ore from its mine in Libby, Mont., to 200 locations throughout the country despite, according to federal court documents, company officials’ knowledge that the ore was tainted with tremolite asbestos,” the article points out.

The San Antonio site was one of the company’s largest plants, processing 124,000 tons of the tainted ore from 1961 to 1989, the article adds.

The EPA crews are currently taking dirt samples from 320 “holes” they’ve made at the site. Shafts underneath the facility are also being tested. The EPA estimates that testing should be done this week. After that, samples will be sent to a laboratory to be analyzed. Results should be available in three to four weeks. In addition, testers will return to the site after the results are received to measure how much asbestos dust is kicked up by normal activity.

Developer James Lifshutz hopes that all cleanup tasks will be completed by the end of the calendar year.

A small building on the east edge of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park may hold a nasty secret, one that’s becoming more and more apparent as those who work there succumb to cancer.

According to an article in the San Francisco Chronicle, in the last several years, individuals who’ve worked in the small offices at the Kezar Pavilion, all employees of the San Francisco Parks and Recreation Department, have died of or been diagnosed with cancer. The workers and their families want to know why.

“Since the 1990s, out of approximately 40 Rec and Park employees who have worked a significant amount of time in the Athletics Division offices at the back of the old gymnasium, five have died of cancer,” the article states. “Three others have developed tumors – in two of those cases the growths were malignant – and a fourth worker continues to be monitored for growths found in his lungs.”

Despite the presence of asbestos in the building, an Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) official says the toxic mineral can’t be blamed for the deaths and illnesses.

Employees disagree. The building, which hosts high school basketball games, a summer pro-am basketball league and a variety of other events, contains plenty of asbestos and was also recently found to have high levels of lead in its water supply.

“There’s something in the building, in the environment, that’s getting us sick,” said Sandoval, 48, who has been diagnosed with Stage III testicular cancer that has spread to his lungs, sternum and near his liver. “With the small staff we had, it’s way beyond normal.”

The union officials that represent the Park & Rec workers are also beginning to take notice and have told city management that they believe Kezar Pavilion is an unsafe place to work.

“We have workers in an environment they shouldn’t be in,” said Margot Reed, an organizer with SEIU Local 1021. “We don’t want our women and men working in a place that they honestly believe is unsafe, and we have language in our (collective bargaining) contract that addresses that.”

Experts tend to agree with the union’s assessment of the building. However, these same medical experts also agree that it’s difficult and rare to link cancers to a common exposure, even within a small work space.

“Anytime you see a grouping of cancers, it causes concern,” said Dr. Robert Hiatt, chair of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF. “But it’s very unusual to find a cause for a cluster of cancers. It’s one of these disconnects between public concern and scientific finding.”

Parents of children at the Gadsden Middle School in Anthony, New Mexico are alarmed about a posting that’s been in their school since 2004, warning of the presence of asbestos. But the school district maintains that the asbestos poses no danger to students, faculty, or staff, so it hasn’t been necessary to do anything about it.

According to a story on KFOX-TV, it is the material in the school’s floors that prompted the asbestos notice to appear nearly four years ago. But despite the seemingly laissez faire attitude about the dangerous material, district officials say they are aware of its presence and there’s absolutely nothing to worry about.

“The asbestos is contained, in other words, it is encapsulated. It is not exposed. It is not flying. Staff and students or anybody that walks in is completely safe in our buildings at Gadsden ISD,” said Art Ruiloba, the spokesman for Gadsden Independent School District.

But many parents believe that any amount of asbestos in their child’s school is too much. “I don’t see how they can’t breathe it in,” said parent Gabriela Marquez. “The kids are walking on those hallways all day long. It is kind of an oxymoron, they are walking down there and they are going to breathe it in.”

Mando Villalobos agrees. “I’m not sure if the kids are safe or not. It is hard to tell. How can you tell? I mean how can you be 100 percent sure that it is safe?” he added.

School officials assure parents that steps are now being taken to remove the material from the floors. A licensed abatement professional will most likely complete the job during the summer months.

The family of a New York man who once worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard has been awarded $2.25 million by a New York City jury in compensation for his pain and suffering due to exposure to asbestos at his workplace.

Leonard Shafer, who worked at the shipyard in the 1950s, died at age 73 from malignant pleural mesothelioma, an aggressive form of cancer that attacks the lining of the lungs. There is no cure for this cancer and victims usually die within a year or two of diagnosis.

“Mr. Shafer endured pain and suffering that spanned an eighteen month time period from the time he was diagnosed until the time of the death,” said Carmen St. George, attorney for the Shafer family. “Many years ago, nobody knew the affects of being exposed to asbestos in the workplace and unfortunately today, we are being faced with the dangers.”

Because Shafer was unaware of the hazards of working with asbestos, he and his co-workers never wore protective gear, St. George explained.

A press release issued by the attorney notes that the defendant, John Crane Inc., manufactured and supplied an asbestos-containing stuffing-tube packing material to the U.S. Navy for use on its ships. In this asbestos exposure lawsuit, the jury determined that exposure to the John Crane packing material caused Mr. Shafer’s mesothelioma, and that his illness was “reasonably foreseeable to the company.”

Britain’s Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL) is making an appeal for a national survey of all schools to discover the extent of asbestos use in school buildings.

According to a story aired on a British news station, an estimated 13,000 schools in the UK probably contain asbestos as a large majority of schools in the country were built between World War II and the 1980s, when asbestos use was at its peak.

The ATL claims that “slamming a classroom door or putting a pin in a wall” in some of these schools could be fatal.

ATL general secretary Mary Bousted said: “We are deeply concerned about the continuing risk to teachers, support staff and pupils from asbestos in our schools. Over 400 ATL members know they have been exposed to asbestos in their school or college. But this is the tip of the iceberg.”

But others say the ATL’s claims are something akin to scare tactics, dubbing their statements “irresponsible.”

A spokesman for the Department for Children, Schools and Families said “the health and welfare of pupils and staff [at UK schools] is absolutely paramount.”

“It is unacceptable for local authorities and other duty holders not to comply with the Health and Safety Executive’s guidance and law. HSE advice is absolutely clear that if asbestos is not disturbed or damaged then it is usually safer to leave it in place and manage it,” the spokesman added.

“This means that robust processes must be in place to control asbestos in schools, and that the risk to staff and pupils is absolutely negligible.”
ATL claims that between 1980 and 2000, 182 people working in education in Britain died from mesothelioma caused by exposure while on the job.

“Many teachers and pupils will be unaware, and because asbestos related illnesses take between 15 to 60 years to develop it is difficult to know how many will become ill or die as a result of exposure,” added Dr. Bousted. “The health of thousands of young people and those working in education is far too precious to allow this to be swept under the carpet any longer.”

Members of Station 87 in North Bend, Wash., a suburb of Seattle, were forced to move out of their building late last week when testing revealed the presence of asbestos.

According to accounts in several Seattle-area papers, including the Times and the Post-Intelligencer, the testing at the station was done as part of a remodeling project, which will serve to update the aging building.

According to reports, the station was first surface tested for asbestos last Wednesday and results came back negative. Deputy Chief Wes Collins noted that further surface testing was done on Thursday, and evidence of asbestos was found at that time, prompting the immediate closure of the station.

Collins reported that it would take several days to determine what remediation efforts might be used to address the problem. He noted that he was unsure of the age of the building but indicated that it was probably built when asbestos usage was the norm.

North Bend firefighters are being relocated to the North Bend Public Works facility and paramedics have been reassigned to the Snoqualmie Fire Station headquarters as a precautionary measure. Currently, Station 87 is home to 15 full-time and 12 volunteer firefighters as well as a crew of paramedics.

The New York Department of Environmental Quality has fined an Albany woman more than $8,000 for allowing an unlicensed individual to perform asbestos abatement at a home she owns in the state’s capital.

According to an article in the Albany Democrat Herald, the fine of $8,417 was levied in early January against Wanda Fay Scheler in regards to work done at a rental property she owns at 3755 Knox Butte Road.

“In August 2007, she reportedly hired two workers for a renovation project and they removed about 293 square feet of siding that was put into trash bags and placed into dumpsters. They also removed an old stovepipe that included insulation tape,” the article points out.

An inspection by the DEQ on August 16th revealed “pieces of siding waste scattered along the sides of the residence” and inspectors saw that the insulation tape on the old stove pipe was in “very poor condition.”

Samples taken from the site and analyzed in a laboratory showed that the siding waste contained 10 percent chrysotile (white) asbestos and the insulation tape contained 50 percent. The DEQ regulates handling and disposal of any materials that contain more than 1 percent asbestos.

The DEQ inspectors also noted that workers broke the siding while removing it from the home, creating a scenario which could include the release of small asbestos fibers into the air. The insulation tape was in a friable state as well.

The DEQ also charged that the workers did not “properly label and package the friable ACWM (asbestos containing waste material) generated by the renovation project in leak-tight containers.”

Scheler plans to ask for another hearing, claiming that the project was supposed to be painting only, but the workers “pulled off a few shingles at the top of the house.”

Asbestos-contaminated smoke from a fire at an old Boston retail landmark resulted in the closure of a nearby subway station for 2 hours and the evacuation of some 50 people.

According to an article in the Boston Globe, a fire in the old Filene’s Basement store last evening prompted the treatment of several people for smoke inhalation and caused fears about the presence of asbestos in the air during and after the fire, which is currently under investigation.

The 8-story building, which is presently being redeveloped, has been a fixture in the Downtown Crossing area for decades, notes the article, but the fact that it is quite old meant that there was most certainly asbestos inside the structure when the fire began around 7 pm on Wednesday evening, Feb. 13.

Asbestos-containing pipe insulation and other materials caught fire in one of the building’s sub-basements, said Steven MacDonald, a fire department spokesman. Authorities are investigating the possibility that asbestos was released into the air during the fire, added Deputy Chief Steve Dunbar. But for safety purposes, fire officials decided it was best to evacuate the Downing Crossing MBTA (Metropolitan Boston Transit Authority) station.

As a precautionary measure, 18 firefighters and five civilians went through asbestos decontamination, MacDonald said.
“The biggest problem wasn’t so much the fire. The problem was the smoke that it generated,” he added.