A spokesman for the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees announced today that they have filed a complaint with a state health agency on behalf of employees at a Baltimore child welfare services office, citing reports by contractors of friable asbestos found in the building over the weekend.

According to an article in the Baltimore Sun, union spokesperson Joe Lawrence says contractors were working inside the building last weekend and found what was believed to be asbestos wrapped around the pipes at the office on Guilford Ave.

However, Brian Wilbon, deputy secretary for operations for the Department of Human Resources, maintains that there were no contractors in the building over the weekend and that no asbestos was found during two separate inspections that took place over the last year. He says the results were previously reported to employees at meetings held after the inspections.

“If I felt members of our staff were in danger, I would remove them,” Wilbon said.

Wilbon says a similar complaint was filed last year in regards to water leaks and rodent infestion at the aging Guilford Ave. office, where about 350 state Department of Social Services employees work.

“That building has a history of problems, and we’re not seeing the urgency from the administration that we need to see,” Lawrence said.

Unions in Australian have called on the federal government to take a closer look at the dangers of asbestos and to work to remove it from all homes and workplaces.

According to an article in The Age, Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) president Sharan Burrow said an inquiry needed to look at “compensation, regulation, treatment and cures for those affected by asbestos-related illness.”

“This is an urgent request. You’ve got Australia with the highest rate of mesothelioma deaths anywhere in the world,” Ms. Burrow told the newspaper.

Even though asbestos was banned in Australia in 2004, the number of deaths from asbestos diseases continues to climb, primarily because it takes between 20 and 50 years for such diseases to develop. Experts expect the number of asbestos-related diseases among Australians to peak within the next decade. As a matter of fact, 30,000 Australians are expected to die of malignant mesothelioma and other similar diseases during the first half of the 21st century.

“While there is a ban on [asbestos], clearly it still lives amongst us,” Ms. Burrow said. She believes there needs to be a national plan to remove asbestos from homes and workplaces and has called for consistent regulation on compensation for those suffering from asbestos-related diseases.

According to records, in Australia, asbestos use was rampant and it is believed the toxic mineral was used in about a third of homes built before 1987.

“As these buildings get older, the deterioration will become even more prevalent. That, of course, increases the risk for Australians, whether they are handling asbestos or not,” Burrow stressed.

The campaign by the ACTU was announced to coincide with International Workers’ Memorial Day, a day set aside to remember those who died in work-related accidents or due to work-related illnesses. For the past decade, asbestos exposure has been the primary cause of work-related deaths in Australia.

Dangerous asbestos is keeping tenants from claiming their belongings more than two weeks after a three-alarm fire destroyed part of their apartment building in Framingham, Mass.

According to an article in MetroWest Daily News, more than 100 apartment dwellers have been prevented from re-entering the building and collecting their property because the fire left dangerous asbestos dust on the premises at Edgewater-1 Jefferson Village, built in 1966.

“I still haven’t been allowed back in,” said Laura Fritz, who lived in the apartment building for 3 years. She’s anxiously awaiting the opportunity to claim that $20,000 in belongings she says are inside her unit. Her insurance adjuster, she says, can’t get in either.

Fritz said an official told residents of the complex, “If you go in, you’ll be arrested.”
According to the state Department of Environmental Protection, the complex has been granted an asbestos abatement permit to clear several thousand square feet of asbestos from the building. Asbestos was found in the ceilings, pipe fittings and other areas of the structure, according to DEP spokesman Joe Ferson.

“As a matter of public safety, you can’t have people going in that area,” said Ferson, who noted the permit is valid until June.

Ferson added that before the building will be declared safe for residents to re-enter, air quality tests will need to be completed.

Parents who are concerned about asbestos abatement at the Hammarskjold Middle School in East Brunswick, NJ shouldn’t be worried about exposure, district officials say.

According to an article in the Home News Tribune, asbestos will be removed from the school while the students are off for spring break. There will be no safety hazard to students and staff when they return to school next Monday and no work will be done while school is in session, district spokeswoman Patricia LaDuca told concerned parents, faculty, and staff.

“The contractors are certified and experienced in this type of work, and licensed professionals will oversee the removal and monitor and test air quality to ensure that the regulatory standards are met,” she said in an e-mail.

Parents found out about the abatement on April 15 via a letter that went home to all families. Some expressed immediate concern about potential contamination, calling the newspaper with questions about the process.

LaDuca told the Home News Tribune that “the process is highly regulated by federal, state and OSHA, or Occupational Safety and Health Administration, standards.”

The asbestos is being removed in preparation for a total demolition of that particular wing of the school, which will occur during the summer. New additions will be built and should open by September.

Most laws governing demolition demand that asbestos be removed before a building is demolished. If asbestos is not removed, the damaged material could result in the spread of dangerous asbestos dust during the demolition process. The inhalation of asbestos fibers is known to cause mesothelioma cancer and other pulmonary diseases.

San Antonio residents that live near the city’s Blue Star Arts Complex think their neighborhood may be contaminated with dangerous asbestos and will find out for sure when the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) begins conducting soil and air testing in the area.

According to an EPA spokesperson, the tests to be conducted by the agency involve creating dust at the site and collecting the airborne fibers for testing. KSAT-TV reports that initial tests conducted on the soil have indeed showed the presence of asbestos, a toxic mineral that can cause serious pulmonary diseases, such as malignant mesothelioma and asbestosis.

“People have gotten sick (and) I’ve heard of cases where they’ve died of cancer,” Helen Garza said. “Is it related? We don’t know.”

A local geologist believes his neighbors shouldn’t be so worried about the tests. “You hear asbestos, you hear cancer, you hear the boogeyman and it’s become sort of, ‘The boogeyman is out for me,’” Jerry White said.

The EPA told residents that if unacceptable levels of asbestos are confirmed, they will begin replacing the tainted soil with clean soil.

“It’s basically a dig-and-haul process,” EPA spokesman Erik Delgado said.

Test results are expected in about two weeks.

A British woman who recently died from the asbestos cancer mesothelioma played as a child in asbestos ashes “like they were snow” after a fire at a nearby Army base, reports a story on BBC News.

Before she passed aware, Ellen Paddock, age 31, told her doctor and family members that she believed her cancer was a result of the blaze near her home in Donnington, Shropshire, in 1983. Her father, Alan Bush, concurred with her beliefs, saying he remembers her catching some of the ashes in her mouth while playing outside after the fire.

At an inquest in Shrewsbury, a consultant pathologist told those gathered at the hearing that the odds of her tumor forming without the presence of asbestos were a “million to one”.

Family members said the only known exposure to asbestos that Paddock may have experienced was indeed the blaze. It was confirmed that the Ministry of Defense building on the army base contained asbestos and that fibers were released into the atmosphere and remained on the ground after the fire.

A preliminary inquest hearing was told that Ms. Paddock, who had started legal action against the Ministry of Defense before she passed away, died of broncho-pneumonia and an asbestos-related cancer last July. Other people who felt they were affected by the fire were asked to attend a public meeting last year. The hearing continues.

Union leaders and asbestos victims groups are up in arms about James Hardie Industries’ proposed move from Australia to the United States, asking the company to provide assurances that the move won’t adversely affect their members.

According to an article in The Australian, many fear that Hardie’s plan for “global restructuring” is just a way for them to get out of a deal forged late last year, which demands that, for the next 40 years, they compensate victims of asbestos diseases caused by exposure to Hardie-produced products.

Union leaders also fear that Hardie’s exit from Australia will mean the loss of hundreds of jobs. ACTU president Sharan Burrow and Asbestos Diseases Foundation president Barry Robson said they were “prepared to renew the campaign to ensure the global building materials company met its responsibilities.”

According to the article, under Hardie’s so-called Project Red, the company plans to liquidate its Dutch parent, transfer assets to a new U.S. company and to an international tax haven, and sell off its Australian and New Zealand operations, or reincorporate them as independent local companies.

“These issues raise serious concerns and the ACTU can guarantee it will stand up for asbestos victims,” Ms. Burrow told The Australian. “We seek an assurance from James Hardie that in the move to the US there will be no adverse impact on the asbestos compensation and also that the jobs of Hardie’s workers in Australia will be preserved.”

Hardie finalized the compensation plan with the New South Wales (NSW) government last year, to the tune of about $4 billion. However, Hardie signed the deal only on the basis that it was “voluntary” and did not accept legal liability, and stated at the time that “no absolute assurance can be given that funding is sufficient”.

NSW Premier, Morris Iemma, told the paper she had no knowledge of the matter. “However, the final funding agreement was drafted to last 40 years and it provides a process to manage issues such as change of country and change of parent company,” she said. “We’ll look at the details of any proposal James Hardie puts forward to ensure future claimants’ rights are protected.”

Still, others believe Hardie is trying to wiggle their way out of taking responsibility for hundreds of asbestos-related deaths. “They are still doing anything to stop paying victims,” said Robson, a long-time advocate for asbestos disease sufferers.

An asbestos consultant who was hired by the Muncie, Indiana school district to oversee asbestos concerns during renovations of a local high school has been fined for violations of the state’s Occupational Health and Safety Act.

According to an article in the Muncie Star Press, ACM & Environmental Services, Indianapolis, has been accused of committing eight “serious violations” last year during the renovation of Central High School.

Reports filed in regards to the incident indicate that the alleged violations are as follows:

• Employees performed spot abatement of spray-on fireproofing without using
respirators.

• No written respiratory protection program for employees who voluntarily wore
full-face, tight-fitting respirators to protect against asbestos exposure.

• Employees performed spot abatement of asbestos-containing material without
establishing a regulated area.

• The wrong kind of monitoring was done when employees cleaned up spray-on
fireproofing that had fallen to the floor. Sampling and analysis was not done
according to approved methodology.

• Employees scraped sprayed-on fireproofing off of the ceiling and I beams
without using plastic dropcloths on the floor.

• Untrained employees scraped small spots of spray-on fireproofing off of the
ceiling and I beams.

• Basic information about respirators was not provided to employees who
voluntarily wore respirators.

Sean Keefer, spokesman for the Indiana Department of Labor, said ACM was expected to sign an expedited informal settlement agreement (EISA) that calls for the proposed penalty to be lowered to $975.

Sater Electric, Daleville, the project’s mechanical-electrical contractor, already has signed an EISA to resolve eight separate serious violations it was accused of committing while assisting with the job at Central. Sater’s alleged violations included “disturbing spray-on fireproofing without establishing a regulated area, failure to reduce dust emissions, lack of dropcloths and lack of respirators, safety glasses, protective clothing and training for employee.” The contractor paid a penalty of $796.25.

“We are no longer working in areas designated by the owner that contains asbestos and we will not return to any areas until written proof is provided that a competent person has conducted an exposure assessment,” Jack Sater wrote in the EISA.

School Supt. Marlin Creasy has said there was no reason to believe students were exposed to asbestos during the renovations.

W.R. Grace and Company lawyers have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review pretrial rulings in the government’s case against them, which charges that the company and its executives tried to hide the health risks associated with its asbestos-tainted vermiculite mine in the small town of Libby, Montana, where several hundred individuals have already been stricken with or died from mesothelioma, an asbestos cancer.

According to an Associated Press article, the chemical manufacturer filed a petition this week asking the high court to evaluate a decision by a federal appeals court involving the type of asbestos found at the Libby mine.

Grace attorneys have maintained that the types of asbestos found in the Libby mine – winchite and richterite – were not regulated by the federal government during the years that the company operated the mine. That means, they say, they can’t be prosecuted for violations of the Clean Air Act.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy of Missoula agreed with the company. However, his decision was overturned by an appeals court. Grace attorneys hope the Supreme Court will side with Molloy and reverse the appellate court decision.

According to the company’s petition, the government “is trying to convict defendants of violating the Clean Air Act by releasing substances that the government itself has excluded from the list of substances covered by the act.”

Andrew Ames, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Justice, said Wednesday he could not comment, “as this is a matter in ongoing litigation.”

Attorneys for the U.S. government have 30 days to file a response to Grace’s petition. After that, the Supreme Court will decide whether or not to hear the case. If they deny the request, the appeals court decision will stand. If they agree to listen to arguments, the oral portion of the hearing will probably begin in October.

Newton, Massachusetts’ Fire Station Number 3 is still dealing with the potential of asbestos contamination, more than a month after it was first discovered that fallen ceiling tiles may have caused asbestos dust to gather in the station’s wire room.

According to an article in the Newton Tab, FLI Environmental, contracted by the city, returned to Fire Station 3 to do another round of testing for asbestos. The environmental specialists found asbestos in the rug of the weight room and in the clothing of one of the workers. FLI Environmental recommended disposing of the clothing and removing the rug in the weight room.

This was the third study completed at the firehouse. The first one that concluded that there was no detectable asbestos in the firehouse and the second discovered asbestos in the ceiling. The first study, also conducted by FLI Environmental, tested only the air and dust from debris that had fallen.

The second study, performed by the state, found asbestos in the ceiling from where the debris fell.

The final study, which examined the entire station, detected asbestos in the rug of the weight room and in the clothing of an employee, the article explains.

Because of the incident at Station Number 3, the city has decided to conduct preconstruction surveys in all five stations scheduled for renovation to ensure areas containing hazardous materials are handled properly.

“We are going to continue to [take] precautions as we do additional work in the fire stations to make sure that our workers are not exposed to asbestos and that we are making the work as safe as possible,” Mayor David Cohen said. “The first priority of the city is the safety of the inhabitants of the fire stations.”