In several articles here at Asbestos.net, we have reported that doctors have made a solid, documented connection between amphibole asbestos fibers and cancers such as mesothelioma; however, the exact mechanism by how these fibers cause cells to become malignant has not been well understood… until now.
Recently, we reported that W.R. Grace and Company–the corporation responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people in Libby , Montana –agreed to pay a mere $250 million “… for the investigation and cleanup of asbestos contamination around Libby , Montana .” That figure represented only about 16% of its total net worth, which has been reported to be in the neighborhood of $1.5 billion.
Most American’s do not realize that the Founding Fathers considered a free, unbiased press so vital to democracy that it was actually mentioned in the Constitution–and long considered the unofficial “fourth branch” of government.
In almost all areas, Canada is far ahead of the U.S. when it comes to progressive policy. The Canadian government does a far better job of providing safety nets for its citizens; Canadians enjoy a high level of prompt healthcare when needed at no charge, and there is far less of the “off-shoring” of factories and jobs to China and Mexico.
While it appears that the amount of asbestos litigation has leveled off, the fact is that the economic, social, and medical costs of nearly one hundred years of asbestos use will continue to grow for the foreseeable future.
With the recent federal bailout of Bear-Sterns–a finance company that made billions of dollars on bad mortgages–when ordinary citizens are being offered “counseling” then left to fend for themselves, it would be easy for average Americans to believe that their elected representatives no longer represent their interests or even give a proverbial “tinker’s damn” about the hard-working constituents who vote for them. It doesn’t help when Congress goes to great lengths to protect the interests of wealthy, predatory corporations, the board members and CEOs of which all too often finance their elections.
A small amount of asbestos led to the evacuation and closure of a county government building in Wisconsin earlier this month for half a day.
Is there any place free of this insidious, destructive substance?
In the case of older and historic buildings, the answer is no. For most of the twentieth century, asbestos was the inexpensive cure-all for everything from fire danger to structural weakness, and for much of Corporate U.S. and Canada, a source of great profit.
Judge Judith Fitzgerald, who is presiding over the ongoing case of W.R. Grace and Company–the corporation largely responsible for the plague of asbestos disease that has afflicted the workers of Libby, Montana–has determined that the State of Montana also bears responsibility and has refused to grant immunity from lawsuits.
Some 1,500 years after the native Britons–whose struggle against Angle and Saxon invaders in the fifth and sixth centuries formed the basis of the Arthurian legends–were named “foreigners” in their own country and pushed into the remote western mountains of the island, their descendants now have to fight for their rights yet again. Instead of Mount Badon, however, this battle is taking place in the British courts.
” Shortcuts make for long delays…” so said Samwise to Frodo in the first part of Tolkien’s epic trilogy. The corollary to this statement might be that cheap dumping–especially of toxic asbestos waste–can make for large expenses…
Andrew Manuel was 42 years old when he died from mesothelioma a few years ago. Before that time, neither he nor his family had even heard of the disease; all they knew is that it was a form of lung cancer, and was mystified about the diagnosis since Andrew had never smoked in his life.
In an act of sheer, purposeful incompetence, Japan’s Environment Ministry made a recent announcement declaring that nationwide levels of airborne asbestos posed no hazards to human health–despite the fact that the air tests measured only one type of asbestos, and not the most deadly one.
Imagine six victims of asbestos disease in one family. This is what has happened to Raven ThunderSky of Brantford, Manitoba.
Regular readers may recall the name of Dr. Michael Harbut, the Detroit physician who runs a storefront clinic while serving as co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers, part of the Karmanos Cancer Institute.
As if the nation’s cash-strapped schools haven’t got enough to worry about, Homer Community Consolidated School District 33C must now spend $200,000 for asbestos removal from one of its buildings.
Recent floods in the Australian town of Mackay, Queensland, were described as “ticking asbestos time bombs” by a local contractor.
Management of a Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, Food Lion grocery store located on So. Kings Highway has voluntarily closed its doors pending the outcome of an asbestos investigation
Joan Mahoney, a former film actress and USO entertainer, is suffering from mesothelioma. According to her legal counsel, the asbestos fibers to which she was exposed came from a compound used to fill cracks in gypsum wallboard and plaster.
A child of deregulation, the Atlanta-based Mirant corporation, which has taken over formerly publicly-owed power generation facilities in California as well as several Eastern states, has in seven short years become the 63rd worst corporate polluter in the nation. This information is from a report by the Political Economy Research Institute, first released in 2006. According to the report, this company is responsible for the release of nearly 10,000 tons of toxic waste into the atmosphere every year.
“It’s deja vu all over again…”
So said famed ballplayer Yogi Berra, and it seems applicable in this case–albeit on a smaller scale. Back in the 1960s, the late asbestos disease researcher Dr. Irving Selikoff reported seeing “showers of asbestos” falling from the towers of the World Trade Center as workers applied liberal amounts of Monokote to the girders. Selikoff’s report to NYC health authorities led to a ban on the substance in May of 1970.
If you live in a house that was either built or last remodeled during the late 1960s or early 1970s, chances are good that you are living under “popcorn” ceilings–which contain asbestos.
This type of ceiling texture–which resembles cottage cheese more than it does popcorn–was considered the height of modernity during the Age of the Rat Pack, the Nixon Administration and the Disco Era. Since it has been known to contain asbestos, and since the health hazards have become well known since the corporate conspiracy of silence was exposed in 1977, many people have been uneasy about having lived under these asbestos ceilings for so many years.
Does this mean that you are destined to die from asbestos cancer?
The popular myth in Washington D.C. that has been foisted upon the American public since 1981 is the idea that government is somehow inefficient and incompetent, and that guided by free market forces and motivated by profit, the private sector can do everything better and for less…saving you, the taxpayer, money.
Ironically, William Russell Grace, born 10 May 1832 in the village of Ballylinan in County Laois, Ireland, was the epitome of the American Dream. He arrived in America during the first potato famine in the 1840s when hatred of and discrimination against Irish immigrants was at a fiery intensity; he eventually became the first Roman Catholic mayor of New York City, and acquired enough wealth to be able to contribute 25 percent of all the charitable aid given to Irish victims during the second famine of the 1870s.
“Suppose you were an idiot, then suppose you were a member of Congress–
ah, but I repeat myself…”
- attributed to Mark Twain
“Every time Congress makes a joke, it’s a law! And every time they make a law, it’s a joke…”
- Will Rodgers
A bizarre and twisted case that we have been following since last September–in which a Cayuga County ( New York) employee exposed an inmate offender work crew to deadly asbestos fibers–has at long last been resolved.
This week’s “Asbestos School” is Bethel High School in Danbury, Connecticut.
On a Tuesday evening early in March, employees of Eagle Environmental Inc. were engaged is an asbestos abatement project in a science room on the second floor of the school building. Science labs are traditionally “hot spots” for asbestos because of the use of chemicals. The type of asbestos used in chemical labs is usually crocidolite–an especially deadly kind of amphibole asbestos, the fibers of which are hard, rigid and needle-like, but is nonetheless exceptionally resistant to caustic chemicals. Amphibole asbestos is the type mainly responsible for mesothelioma.
Earlier this month, we reported that DuPont Chemical, which by most accounts is one of the worst corporate polluters on Earth, is currently facing a corporate death sentence.
The current ongoing asbestos trial, Whisnat et. al. v. DuPont Nemours is as of this writing entering its fourth week. The suit is on behalf of Willis Whisnat Jr., who died from cancer about ten years ago–and therein lies the other side of the story.
Regular visitors to Asbestos.net are aware that the legal issues related to asbestos are highly complex–particularly when the plaintiff is in one state, the defendant is in another, and the cause of action (the event that is grounds for the lawsuit) has taken place in a third state–and that event is years, even decades in the past.
Given the behavior of large corporations and extremely wealthy individuals over the past several years, perhaps it’s not inappropriate to consider money and power as narcotics. After all, the length to which many of these people and institutions go in order to acquire more and more is certainly indicative of addiction…and has had similarly destructive effects on those around them.
In an all-too-common story, the owner of a building in Bloomington and a developer decided to cut corners on asbestos removal by undertaking a job for which neither had the training or credentials–and now, both of them are looking at paying out as much as ten times what it would have cost to do the job properly in the first place.
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