Currently, the EPA appears to be planning to simply cap the asbestos-contaminated area. “Capping” is considered to be a cost-effective way to manage asbestos-contaminated soil, and involves covering the toxic earth with a non-contaminated material, such as fresh, clean soil and vegetation. This is most often done in landfills that have sections specifically for asbestos waste.

Asbestos exposure can cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, and other medical conditions in some people.

The BoRit site, as it is more commonly known, was added to the EPA’s Superfund list in April of this year. In Specter’s letter to Acting Associate Administrator Joyce Frank of the EPA’s Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, he wrote, “It is my understanding that EPA is in the process of shipping dirt to the BoRit site,” he wrote. “My constituents are understandably concerned that this dirt will be used to cap the site and have advised me that previous capping attempts have not been successful.”

Specter went on to ask the EPA “to give strong consideration to removal, destruction and/or recycling of this waste…It is absolutely necessary that all citizens in the communities surrounding the BoRit site are assured that EPA implements a remediation that provides maximum and permanent protection of their health and environment.”

The petition mentioned in Specter’s letter was organized by Citizens for a Better Ambler (CBA). According to CBA member Judy Baigis, getting the signatures took a lot of work. “You have to do a lot of petitioning on many levels to get anyone’s attention,” Baigis said. “The letters have to keep going out to the top people. We have inched our way up, rung by rung by rung.” Baigis went on to explain why the site needs attention so desperately. “The site has been ignored for three decades now,” she said. “This is something so big and beyond regular council members and even the borough management. It’s a project all its own.”

Asbestos exposure is linked to diseases like asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma. A local doctor that testified during the environmental crimes trial stated that he continues to diagnose Libby-area residents with asbestos diseases on a weekly basis. Some residents have developed an asbestos illness due to secondary asbestos exposure.

Libby residents had hoped that Grace would finally be brought to justice during the federal trial, but the company and former executives were all acquitted. Analysts are trying to understand why, in part so that future asbestos lawsuits may be more likely to succeed. Some analysts blame the prosecution. Andrew Schneider, a journalist who was one of the first to report on the Libby contamination back in 1999, argues that the prosecution was simply outnumbered.

“It had fewer than a dozen lawyers, investigators and support personnel. Grace fielded 50 or more and almost daily swamped the court with motions and briefs cranked out by their paralegals and junior lawyers. The prosecution had most of its team working to midnight and beyond almost every night just to respond to the avalanche of paper.”

Others blame U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, who oversaw the case. Andrea Peacock, reporter for the Missoula Independent argues that “Molloy allowed the tenor of the case to be debased. Defense attorneys mocked their opponents outright, and called the government’s attorneys and witnesses alike liars…Molloy called the prosecutors ‘bullheaded,’ and berated them for putting Locke on the stand, parroting the defense’s accusations against their witnesses and tactics.”

Now Libby residents must live with the fact that Grace was acquitted. It is a fact that Montana Senator Max Baucus is not pleased with, either. “The company W.R. Grace, in my judgment, knew what it was doing. It knew it was contaminating the town,” Baucus said. “The trial didn’t conclude like it should have.”

Exposure to asbestos can, in some cases, prove deadly. Asbestos is linked to such conditions as lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare but aggressive form of cancer.

DES spokesman Jim Martin said, “The contractor did testing [for the asbestos material] and it came up positive,” said Martin. “They will be proceeding per DES rules and will report back with how much was collected and where is was disposed.” Martin went on to say that most of the asbestos was likely incinerated during the blaze. The DES began cleanup efforts last Friday, and work is scheduled to be completed by Wednesday of this week.

The cabins were used as seasonal homes for vacationing families. Conference Center Executive Director Richard Smith explained that each homeowner had cleanup coverage, which will cover the cost for cleaning up the site. “We’re doing general cleanup this week, cleaning up the burned remains,” Smith said.”[Then] we will reassign a reconstruction task force to find the possibilities of rebuilding and to see what fits into the code requirements today.”

Falls Community Development Director Sue Truby said 14 companies are expected to place bids on the project. picked up bid packages for the project. ”We’ve established an aggressive timeline to meet the ultimate goal of redevelopment by 2010,” Truby said.

The asbestos abatement is scheduled to begin on August 3. Asbestos abatement is a costly but necessary measure to protect workers and nearby building occupants from inhaling the toxic substance during demolition. Asbestos can cause lung cancer and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma, a rare cancer, moves aggressively through the body. Mesothelioma can kill victims within mere months after diagnosis. There is no cure for mesothelioma cancer, although several treatment options are available. Oncologists like Dr. Stephen Yang of Johns Hopkins University continue to work on discovering a cure, with the hope that this aggressive and painful cancer can be eradicated.

Prior to asbestos abatement, utilities will need to be disconnected. Demolition is expected to begin after the asbestos abatement has been completed, ideally sometime on August 21.

The city bought the plaza last year for the princely sum of $10.2 million. The property will be developed by Cleveland’s Stark Enterprises. The new project, known as Portage Crossing, will be a retail marketplace. Developers hope that an upscale grocery store will move into the space.

However, the new figures estimated by the state contractors were made without talking to the future tenants or developer Gary Gorman. Gorman first arrived at the $3.4 million price tag last summer. Gorman proposed using about $3.4 million in affordable housing and historic preservation tax credits and traditional financing to renovate the former hospital.

In January of 2008, state officials approved the demolition of the building. In October of the same year, Gorman submitted his proposal. In April of this year, officials postponed the demolition to further study the issue. The independent contractors hired by the state worked through May and June to create a new proposal, ultimately offering the $6.5 million figure.

Once known as the Wisconsin Memorial Hospital, the aging building was built in 1922 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. The state was prepared to spend $541,000 this spring to tear down the building.

The building posed various risks. It was a fire hazard after being abandoned for 15 years, and contains toxic asbestos, known to cause lung cancer and mesothelioma in some cases. “The state hasn’t made a decision to demolish or to rebuild,” one official said Thursday. “We had our doubts (about Gorman’s proposal). This independent analysis seems to back up some of those doubts.”

Officials are critical of Gorman’s proposal, which seems to be missing some key components. For example, the new $6.5 million estimate includes a budget of $300,000 for removing asbestos. Gorman’s proposal has no cost allowance for asbestos abatement.

Mesothelioma – often referred to as asbestos cancer – is diagnosed in less than 3,000 individuals annually, and because it has no cure, is always fatal. Currently, mesothelioma treatment methods, such as chemotherapy and resectable surgery, are only temporary means of controlling the disease and associated side effects. One of the more popular chemo drugs, Alimta, is often administered to those suffering from asbestos cancer.

While doctors have made advancements in treatments and have a better understanding of asbestos disease within the last decade, oncologists like Anne Tsao MD of M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Texas continue to research mesothelioma cancer and hope that a cure is not far off.

Superintendent Bill Trankina is looking forward to the day when early dismissals due to heat will be a distant memory. According to Trankina, between 150 and 160 students are taking part in summer school classes through the July 4 weekend at Broadmeadow Elementary School. None of the elementary schools in the city of Rantoul have air conditioning, and only a few classrooms at J.W. Eater Junior High School have air conditioning.

“When the weather turned really hot, we felt it would be prudent to dismiss the students at 12:30 p.m. (Wednesday),” Trankina said. “Not only was the temperature high, but the heat index was also high.” Summer classes generally run until 2 pm, but Trankina and other school officials decide each day whether it will be too hot for students to attend school.

With the recent approval of a Champaign County sales tax for local schools, funding is now being raised to purchase and install air conditioners. The school district plans to spend $12.5 million to $13.5 million on the building improvement project, which will cover the four elementary schools and the junior high school. In addition to the air conditioners, new windows will be installed, and thermal asbestos will be removed from the walls. Asbestos is a carcinogen that may cause lung cancer or mesothelioma cancer.

The problem of asbestos materials in aging US school buildings is nothing new – but due to the generally high cost of asbestos abatement and the replacement of asbestos materials, like floor or ceiling tiles or insulation, school districts often delay asbestos removal for as long as possible due to budget constraints.

The dirt bike trails have been closed, and the public has been warned to stay away from the area. Asbestos is a naturally occurring mineral, with deposits all over the United States. Clear Creek is home to one the largest asbestos mineral deposits in America. In May of 2008, the Bureau of Land Management shut down the site after a study by the EPA found dangerously high levels of a particular type of chrysotile asbestos in the air. According the EPA study, hiking the area once a year could increase the risk of developing an asbestos-related illness, with the odds being about one in a million. The EPA calls that level of risk acceptable. However, with activities that kick up more debris into the air such as dirt biking or riding an ATV, the risk jumped to 1 in 100, assuming the riders visited the area 12 times a year in a 30 year period.

Local bikers argue that the study exaggerated the risks, and want to return to the trails. In an attempt to discredit the EPA study, a coalition of bikers got together and hired Ed Ilgren, a pathologist from Pennsylvania, to testify that the chrysotile at Clear Creek is nontoxic. Ilgren argues that chrysotile is short-fibered, unlike amphibole asbestos, which is the form of asbestos that has sickened residents of the town of Libby, Montana.

EPA Region 9 toxicologist Arnold Den of San Francisco argues that Ilgren is wrong, stating that all kinds of asbestos can be dangerous. The EPA only tested for fibers longer than five microns at Clear Creek, and it is known that fibers of that length can cause asbestos-related diseases.

“When the board sat down with our buildings people, they decided to put their greatest efforts into the oldest schools, but also those where student achievement needed a boost,” said district spokesman Steve Mulvenon. One such school is Alice Maxwell Elementary in Sparks, Nevada. The school qualified on both counts. The aging school is 51 years old, and has started showing it. Construction workers at the school have begun to remove old carpets, gutting parts of the building, and removing deadly asbestos debris.

Asbestos was once commonly used as insulation and fireproofing, and can cause lung cancer and mesothelioma. Mesothelioma is a rare cancer that manifests initially in the lungs, heart, and/or abdomen.

School officials believe that making these renovations will protect the health of their students. In addition, studies have shown that improvements such as updating the heating, air conditioning and lighting in a school can have a positive impact on student test scores.

For school districts nationwide, the problems surrounding asbestos in school buildings is not new. Millions of structures, including again schools, that were built before the 1980s contain asbestos products like ceiling tiles, floor tiles, and insulation. Due to the high cost of asbestos abatement, coupled with the cost for permits, labor, and replacement of asbestos materials with safer alternatives, school districts often delay abatement for as long as possible because there is not enough funding within their budget.

If school-aged children are exposed to asbestos, they may not exhibit any symptoms of asbestos disease until they are well until adulthood. However, in recent years, some individuals as young as 13 have been diagnosed with pleural mesothelioma, and a woman aged 28 recently passed away in the UK due to complications stemming from asbestos cancer.

Generally, people who are diagnosed with this disease are in their sixties or seventies.

The red brick building was purchased by the city for $38,000. Pearson revealed that the price the city paid for the building was reduced after asbestos was found to be present in the building’s drywall during a pre-purchase inspection of the property. Pearson said the asbestos abatement and demolition cost $22,000. “Some Community Development Block Grant money was used for the demolition,” he said.

Asbestos removal is a crucial step prior to demolition. Demolition could easily disturb the asbestos particles, shooting them into the air and creating a public health risk. Airborne asbestos particles can be inhaled, causing serious health problems for workers, building occupants, and neighbors. Asbestos exposure may cause lung cancer, mesothelioma, and other medical conditions.

The new empty lot where Annie’s once stood will help solve the city’s lack of downtown parking. “Our parking on Main Street has been a problem for 20 years since we went to three lanes on Main Street,” Pearson said. “That expansion to three lanes eliminated parallel parking and forced the city to look into the creation of off-street parking.”

“At the start of the program, I believed I shouldn’t walk more than 50 yards at a time. By the end of the course, I had the confidence to walk a quarter of a mile around the field behind my house,” says Breathe Easy group chairman Barry Chawner, who is also a COPD sufferer.

Chawner describes COPD as a burden, saying “It’s difficult as you can’t necessarily do the things you used to do and if you can do them, they take a lot longer. It is restrictive. A lot of people suffer from anxiety as a result – that feeling of being breathless and not being able to catch your breath can be scary. It’s frightening when you can’t breathe, but my way of coping is not to accept it is frightening, but is simply your brain telling you need to breathe.”

Thousands of UK citizens live with the disease, but some estimates believe that thousands more are living with undiagnosed cases of COPD. The Breathe Easy campaign has local chapters throughout the UK. As part of the British Lung Foundation’s Breathe Easy Week, medical professionals are urging people to consider the health of their lungs. COPD can be caused by smoking, exposure to industrial environments, carbon, and asbestos. Asbestos is also linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fatal cancer that is also a very serious health concern in the UK.

The profile of a typical COPD patient does not necessarily mimic that of a mesothelioma cancer sufferer. Mesothelioma is most commonly diagnosed when an individual is well into their sixties or seventies, and few women develop the disease, although the rate of mesothelioma in women has increased in recent years.