The maintenance manager for a Portland, Oregon property management company that’s been under fire for asbestos violations told a local news station this week that he has been fired from his job, several months after ordering asbestos testing to verify the presence of the toxic mineral.

Jason Eaton spoke with a reporter at KOIN 6 News and said he was fired last Wednesday, about six months after discovering asbestos during renovations at the Commons at Sylvan Highlands, a large apartment complex operated by Tandem Property Management.

Eaton said he had directed an employee to have the building material tested by a licensed company, a process which he said showed there were unsafe levels of asbestos throughout various places in the complex.

Eaton is the third employee of Tandem Property Management to be wrongfully terminated after blowing the whistle about the presence of asbestos.

He told KOIN 6 News that he would now be joining a lawsuit being brought by the other two former employees, Khataun Thompson and Alyssa DeWeese.

Thompson worked in maintenance and DeWeese in the rental office. The latter was fired after she was asked to engage in “intimidation and retaliation” against another employee who knew about the asbestos problem. She refused.

Eaton claims similar tactics. He says that within minutes after he participated in Oregon OSHA’s investigation into the asbestos, he received two inaccurate write-ups about his work performance.

Prior to that, however, he had been the recipient of multiple promotions and was lauded several times for his exemplary work.

Other staff members witnessed the harassment and reported it to the Bureau of Labor and Industries. One colleague of Eaton’s stated that vice-president of apartment operations Tonya Tiedemann “began to bully and threaten Eaton, creating a stressful work environment for Eaton and the rest of the staff.”

In the meantime, while the renovations that revealed the asbestos were going on, none of the tenants in the complex knew they were at risk for exposure.

A complaint seeking a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the residents of Commons at Sylvan Highlands who may have been exposed to asbestos has since been filed.

Though Oregon OSHA hasn’t definitively revealed the presence of the toxin because the investigation is ongoing, it seems that employees were quite sure that there was a problem and did the right thing by alerting the higher-ups, who they thought would care about the situation.

Little did they know that it would turn into a mean and nasty battle with management, a battle from which they hope they will emerge victorious…simply because they know they did what was right in order to protect others.

NY Appeals Court To Decide Asbestos Exposure Issue: Just how much exposure to asbestos will make someone sick? Is that a question anyone can answer? Well, the New York Appeals Court thinks so.

That’s why they’ve taken up the case of Arthur Juni Jr. vs. Ford Motor Company et al, determined to decide how to measure whether an individual’s particular level of exposure to asbestos is enough to cause a diagnosis of mesothelioma.

Juni brought the case against Ford and others in 2012, claiming his four decades of exposure to asbestos at Ford plants in Orange and Rockland were responsible for his malignant pleural mesothelioma.

The plaintiff claimed that he worked without benefit of a respirator for his first 25 years as an employee for the automobile giant, inhaling chrysotile asbestos fibers from products the mechanic encountered each day on the job.

This included items such as brakes, brake pads, gaskets, and clutches.

The original suit found in favor of Juni’s widow (he died in 2014) in the amount of $11 million but Ford’s attorneys appealed on the grounds that the jury’s decision could not be upheld because the experts at trial failed to quantify the mechanic’s exposure to asbestos, and therefore could not directly link Ford’s products to his disease.

Attorneys for Juni had called two expert witnesses that testified as to the link between Juni’s consistent exposure to the toxin and his mesothelioma diagnosis, but in a decision offered last year by the Appellate Division it was opined that the testimony wasn’t enough to hold Ford Motor Company liable for Juni’s disease.

“Plaintiff’s experts effectively testified only in terms of an increased risk and association between asbestos and mesothelioma but failed to either quantify the decedent’s exposure levels or otherwise provide any scientific expression of his exposure level with respect to Ford’s products,” the appellate court wrote.

Of course, there was no way that attorneys for Mr. Juni and his widow could provide details on the exact amount of exposure the Ford employee was subjected to for more than 40 years, but it is likely that the amount was quite substantial.

That much exposure on a consistent basis, experts argued, surely contributed greatly to his risk of developing asbestos-caused cancer.

A decision by the Appellate Court is expected to be handed down in November. No doubt other employees who worked for Ford and other carmakers who are now sick with mesothelioma cancer will be keeping an eye on the case and its outcome.

Canadians Fear Tornadoes Raised Asbestos Exposure Risk

A tornado in the Mont-Bleu area of Gatineau in Western Quebec has locals thinking about the risks of asbestos exposure associated with natural disasters such as severe weather events.

“The tornado has lifted the lid off an old hazard that usually sits quietly in older buildings without bothering anyone: asbestos,” proclaimed a local newspaper, the Ottawa Citizen, referring to a twister as well as severe winds that whipped the region just last week, causing damage to the walls and ceilings of an abundance of homes and commercial buildings.

Though spokespersons for local government agencies appear not to be concerned about exposure – calling the risk to clean-up workers “almost non-existent” – others are concerned that tiles, shingles, siding, and other building products that contain asbestos are lying around where they are still exposed to the elements as well as to human hands.

When these damaged items are disturbed, dangerous fibers can be released into the air.

Most citizens, of course, are eager to have the materials removed from piles of debris and to start renovating homes and other buildings that were damaged in the tornado, which is a rare occurrence for Western Quebec and for Canada in general.

“It’s nothing to fool around with,” but at the same time, it is a manageable renovation problem, said Gary Sharp, director of renovator services with the Canadian Home Builders’ Association, of the asbestos issue.

“If the asbestos is contained — if it’s in a building material (such as) exterior siding or shingles or floor tiles” then it stays relatively safe, Sharp said. “It’s when the asbestos is loose and floating around in the air” that it becomes dangerous, “for instance if it’s in floor tile and somebody took a sander to it.”

Still, the Association stated that they are currently preparing a renovator’s manual that includes a chapter on asbestos and are eager to distribute this to homeowners and others impacted by last week’s vicious storms.

In the Canadian province of Quebec, asbestos was mined for more than 100 years. As such, the material – chrysotile asbestos – was used abundantly and can be found in just about every structure built prior to about 1990.

The last mine in Quebec closed about 6 years ago, continuing to operate even after Canada began phasing out use of the mineral in building and other products. After that, the mine imported tons of chrysotile to Third World countries that continue to use the toxic mineral.

Similarly, storms in the U.S. can cause asbestos concerns like those in Gatineau. Homes in the United States built prior to about 1980 may contain asbestos, and when they are damaged by storms and tornadoes, similar concerns may be present.

That’s why after-storm clean-up should always be done by those wearing protective clothing, including respirators, so as to avoid exposure.

EPA Says New Rule Would Close Door on Asbestos

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says they are moving forward with a new proposal that would demand that companies get EPA approval to manufacture and import asbestos/asbestos products.

This rule, they say, would essentially “close the door” on asbestos use which, advocates of the proposal point out, could resume at any time under the current laws.

ABC reports that under this new law the agency has identified several areas where asbestos is no longer in use (i.e. roofing) and, as such, they would require any company that wants to manufacture or import asbestos for that purpose to notify the EPA at least 90 days in advance.

At that point, they say, they can stop the wheels from turning and prevent these new uses.

It’s important to remember that most asbestos products were never officially banned in the U.S., except for a few of the most toxic, like spray-on insulation.

A ban proposed in 1989 that would have covered many other hazardous asbestos products was later overturned by an appeals court.

Many companies ceased using asbestos in their products because of the health hazards and the legal ramifications. However, without the rule, the EPA points out, those uses could start again without any oversight by government agencies.

Nancy Beck, deputy assistant administrator in the EPA chemical safety office, believes the proposal is absolutely essential, as do many others who’ve campaigned for a ban of the hazardous mineral.

“If somebody wanted to start doing it there’s nothing preventing them. So, we wanted to sort of look at the whole landscape and make sure that if anyone started a use we would be able to evaluate it,” she explained.

But many believe that the proposal simply does not go far enough. Technically, under the law, the EPA could give the go ahead to a company that notifies them of their intent to manufacture or import asbestos.

“Asbestos is a carcinogen regardless of whether it’s in building material that was installed 40 years ago or whether it’s in a newly manufactured product,” said Melanie Benesh, legislative attorney for the Environmental Working Group, which has been very outspoken about Trump’s lackadaisical view on asbestos use.

“Cancer doesn’t distinguish between these two uses so when EPA is evaluating asbestos we think they should take a comprehensive look.”

Could Cannabidiol Help Mesothelioma Patients?

It’s long been understood that marijuana and some components of the plant can assist cancer patients in tolerating pain and dealing with treatment side effects such as nausea and vomiting, but a group of researchers in London are suggesting that cannabidiol, a non-psychoactive compound found in marijuana, may just help lead towards a cure or – at the least – an extension of life for victims of aggressive cancers, perhaps including mesothelioma.

Scientists from Queen Mary University in London recently completed a study using laboratory rats with pancreatic cancer, treating them with a combination of cannabidiol and a standard chemotherapy regimen.

Survival rates for the animals tripled with the use of the combination therapy and there have been suggestions that the combo might work for other hard-to-treat cancers, such as mesothelioma.

Indeed, this new research suggests that the compound cannabidiol may possess some anti-cancer properties as well, though more research will be necessary, report the study authors in the journal, Oncogene.

Lead researcher Marco Falasca elaborated: “Cannabidiol is already approved for use in clinics [in the UK], which means we can quickly go on to test this in human clinical trials.”

Unfortunately, cannabidiol is still an illegal substance in the United States though there is hope that its status will change somewhere in the near future.

The FDA recently approved an epilepsy drug that contains cannabidiol and it is likely that more pharmaceutical companies will begin to consider cannabidiol as an ingredient when possible, especially since it has demonstrated healing properties for issues such as stroke recovery and migraines.

In the meantime, American researchers remain inspired by the results of the UK-based study and will continue to watch as the clinical trials move towards including human cancer patients in upcoming studies.

Study Shows Heavy Asbestos Exposure May Prompt Earlier Disease Development

Scientists have long proclaimed that any amount of exposure to asbestos can cause mesothelioma – even just short, casual exposures. That’s certainly been proven to be true.

Nonetheless, it still often takes decades for the disease to appear.

But a recent joint study by Italian and American researchers has shown that heavy exposure may indeed prompt a diagnosis of mesothelioma at a much earlier age than if the exposure was small.

Researchers at Duke University Medical Center in North Carolina and the National Tumor Institute in Milan, upon studying multiple cases, came to the conclusion that victims of mesothelioma who are diagnosed at a younger age are more likely to have suffered heavy exposures to the toxic mineral.

When examining nearly 600 cases of individuals with malignant pleural mesothelioma, the researchers also took into account factors such as gender, tumor location and type, and whether they had been exposed to asbestos as children.

However, those factors didn’t seem to change the obvious conclusion for the study authors.

“For both measures of asbestos in lung tissue, younger age at diagnosis was associated with higher internal measures of exposure to asbestos,” states Italian researcher Tommaso A. Dragani, lead author of the paper that was recently published in an issue of the journal, Carcinogenesis. “None of the other variables considered was associated with age at diagnosis.”

Those facts also led the researchers to believe that heavy exposure may do more than “plant the seed” for mesothelioma. They came to the conclusion that such exposure may also “drive the growth” of the disease, prompting individuals to develop mesothelioma much more quickly than someone who only suffered short-term or very small amounts of exposure to the carcinogen.

“Our finding that tumors become clinically apparent at a younger age in heavily exposed subjects suggests that asbestos is involved not only in malignant mesothelioma tumor initiation but, somehow, also in the progression of the disease,” the authors emphasized.

Such a study demonstrates that individuals who worked in industries such as construction, steel mills, textile factories, chemical plants, and other places where asbestos was abundant are perhaps more likely to be diagnosed at an earlier age.

While mesothelioma is often thought of as an old man’s disease, there are indeed victims who have been diagnosed in their 50s or 60s rather than their 70s and 80s.

If their work-related background and habits were to be studied, according to this most recent research, it is likely that their exposure was extensive.

Dragani, TA, et all, “Malignant mesothelioma diagnosed at a younger age is associated with heavier asbestos exposure”, June 30, 2018, Epub ahead of print

Asbestos Concerns Continue After Deadly Apartment Fire

A fire that killed two women in Westminster, Colorado about 10 days ago is still causing plenty of angst for those who live in the neighborhood. That’s because there was an abundance of asbestos on the property and it may still be lurking on the premises.

People living near those units that caught fire in the late July blaze have seen asbestos warning signs go up around the perimeter of the complex, and a letter from the local fire chief to residents confirmed the presence of the toxic mineral.

The letter also confirmed that toxic smoke and debris permeated the air that night and is likely still on site.

“I knew the night of the fire … that we have asbestos in the walls,” resident Sierra Shears recently told Fox 31 News, confirming that she and others are following the rules and staying away from the apartment complex, despite the fact that their belongings remain there.

In the meantime, city leaders confirm that testing was ordered to be completed at the location.

“We’ve heard the testing has been done,” said Laura Shumpert, spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. “We don’t have any confirmation yet that it’s been done.”

Until testing is complete, Fox 31 reports, state health investigators have refused to talk to the media about the investigation. The tests, they say, should give officials a better idea of the scope of the problem and how to handle abatement of the toxic material.

The units that caught fire were indeed constructed after the 1970s federal asbestos regulations were issued but it’s important to remember that this particular ban did not outlaw all asbestos.

Many building products containing asbestos were still in use at the time and some are still in use today.

The United States government continues to avoid a total ban on asbestos, despite the efforts of previous administrations. That means individuals will continue to be at risk in a number of scenarios, including when buildings containing asbestos burn.

This is why firefighters are amongst those most likely to develop asbestosis or mesothelioma due to on-the-job exposure, though fires at properties containing asbestos put everyone in the vicinity at risk for exposure.

NH Gets Money to Address Asbestos in Schools

Lately, it seems that when you plug in the word “asbestos” on your favorite search engine, you find a myriad of articles about the presence of the toxic mineral in schools throughout the United States and – indeed – the world.

It’s an issue that puts our youngest and most vulnerable in danger as well as the devoted adults that teach and care for them all day long.

Some school districts seem to adopt a lackadaisical attitude towards the problem while others – thank goodness – have begun to take it seriously.

Recently, the state of New Hampshire appealed to the Environmental Protection Agency for funds to address the problem in their schools and it was announced this week that they’ll be receiving $140,000 in EPA dollars, which will be added to their New Hampshire Asbestos in Schools program fund.

According to a brochure about the program, its job is to review school asbestos management plans to ensure they comply with the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, maintain an asbestos accreditation and certification training program, and provide educational outreach to parents, teachers, and school maintenance personnel on the dangers of asbestos exposure.

The money will help fund training courses for maintenance staff and custodial workers throughout New Hampshire and will provide other resources to the community to help address the concerns of asbestos in school buildings in that state.

New Hampshire’s Democratic congressional delegation pushed for the funding, likely concerned that the importance of monitoring asbestos is becoming less important under the Trump administration and the current EPA leadership.

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, part of the delegation, said that it was “critical for the health and safety of the children that the state combat asbestos.”

The grant, she added, “would provide critical information for all stakeholders in the event of asbestos exposure.”

Many American schools are ripe with asbestos materials, especially those built in the early decades of the 20th century.

Asbestos can be found in floor and ceiling tiles, drywall and drywall tape, cement, boilers, insulation products, and many other building materials.
Schools MUST, according to law, know where these asbestos products are located, must have them labeled, and should offer a map available to the general public that shows the location of any toxic materials within each school building.

Will Asbestos Return During Trump’s Presidency?

With Donald Trump as president, a lot of things have changed, and many Americans believe that many of the policies and laws we’ve taken for granted for years – or even decades – are in danger.

One of those “things” concerns the way the EPA has cared for the environment since, under Trump’s EPA, the high regard long shown for the health of the planet and the health of Americans, in general, seems to be going down the tubes.

Under the Trump-run EPA, “the agency has significantly narrowed the way it evaluates the risk of potentially harmful chemical substances, all but making these two safety measures moot, and signaling a win for the powerful chemical lobby,” opines the news outlet FastCompany.

And, indeed, their opinion has plenty of fact to back it up. Under a new EPA framework for evaluating risk, put into effect this month, the agency explained how it would no longer “consider the effect or presence of substances in the air, ground, or water” when making risk assessments of various types.

“[That is] effectively turning a blind eye to improper disposal, contamination, emissions, and other long-term environmental and health risks associated with chemical products, including those derived from asbestos,” adds FastCompany.

“The Trump administration rewrote the rules to be dramatically less protective of human health … experts who have looked at [the document] have said that in the end, it pretty much gives EPA discretion to do whatever it wants,” says Bill Walsh, board president of the Healthy Building Network, an organization formed in 2000 to promote greater transparency to the building products industry.

“The EPA’s failure to further regulate asbestos continues to provide a green light for its continued use in the U.S., even as it has been curtailed overseas,” Walsh added.

In fact, 55 countries have issued total bans on asbestos, included all the countries of the European Union and many Asian countries as well. The holdouts – aside from the U.S. – are primarily Third World countries – which make abundant use of asbestos as cheap building material, and countries that still mine the toxic mineral, like Russia, China, and some African nations.

In those countries, the rate of asbestos disease is high. But it’s nothing to cough about here in the U.S. either. An estimated 40,000 asbestos-related deaths happen each year in the United States, recent health-related data shows, more than twice as many as was reported for decades.

So, how do we counteract that while dealing with a president who thinks asbestos is safe for use?

It’ll be up to the consumers, says Walsh, who has been an environmental advocate for years, originally working with Greenpeace. He believes it all needs to begin with architects and others in the building industry, which is where we find the bulk of asbestos-containing products.

“Architects really set the pace of design, in terms of aesthetics and materials that we like,” Walsh offers. “If they start to incorporate health-based criteria into their palette, it could really have an influence on what the manufacturers produce.”

Asbestos Clean-Up Continues in Manhattan

It’s been nearly a week since a steam pipe exploded at Fifth Avenue and 21st Street in Manhattan’s Flatiron District, but the sight of police officers wearing protective masks is still a common one and will likely be for at least a few more days, officials say.

According to a New York Times article, Fifth Avenue from 19th Street to 22nd Street is still closed to pedestrian traffic, and access to 20th Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues is restricted. Bus service along busy Fifth Avenue, a major Manhattan thoroughfare, was restored on Monday.

So far, the Emergency Management Department reports that they have washed the exteriors of all buildings in the three-block area that has been dubbed “the hot zone.”

However, there’s still lots of work to be done in regards to inspecting and monitoring the interior of many of those structures, the department reports. Many workers in that area remain idle and some of them are losing pay because of the incident.

Nancy Silvestri, a spokesperson for the department, told the media that she believes the remainder of the clean-up will occupy at least a few more days and perhaps take as long as until the end of the week.

In the meantime, the Times did some investigative work as to the extent of the asbestos contained in steam pipes city-wide. The answers will likely startle many readers.

“We would rationalize that most of the 104 miles of transmission pipe that make up our steam distribution system would contain asbestos,” said Philip O’Brien, a spokesman for Con Edison.

But that system only operates in Manhattan below 96th Street to the Battery on the West Side and below 86th Street to downtown on the East Side, he added.

O’Brien explained that the age of New York City’s infrastructure has a lot to do with the fact that asbestos is so rampant.

The first underground steam pipes were installed in the city in 1882 and asbestos may have been used back then but, if not, the toxic material was certainly used after the turn of the 20th century.

Though asbestos use was phased out in the 1980s, utility companies did not generally make it a rule to replace old asbestos. Hence, much of it still remains.

But O’Brien adds that those facts shouldn’t be cause for concern. The asbestos in question is usually undisturbed except when an explosion like the one last week occurs.

“The way the infrastructure is designed, it is underground in its own casing and not subject to much, if any, disturbance,” he added.

“You don’t want to disturb the asbestos, once you know it’s there, because it may be released into the air. So, you leave it there so that it stays contained.”