Bethlehem Steel Workers Gather About Asbestos Woes

Work at a steel mill certainly includes plenty of dangers. Though the work environment in existing mills has improved over the decades and workplace safety rules written back in the 1980s made the job a little less hazardous, there is/was still a sizeable risk of getting hurt or even dying on the job.

However, many steel workers of the past didn’t die from accidents or other plant mishaps. They died as a result of the “invisible killer” – asbestos – and last week more than 200 former employees from Bethlehem Steel in Upstate New York gathered to discuss their fears about exposure to the toxin during their years – and often, decades – of employment with the steel giant.

The men and women came together at a hotel in the town of Lackawanna, NY in Erie County (near Buffalo) to ask questions about the cancer already raging in their bodies, or simply to talk about what may lie ahead for them, even if they’re healthy now.

The Buffalo News reports that many came to learn about the compensation available to them as victims of negligent asbestos exposure.

“It was flying all over the place and I was inhaling it,” said Gerald Noznisky, 83, a former blast furnace laborer and crane operator, of the dust he believes contained asbestos and other toxic materials.

He breathed in the toxins daily.

Many of Noznisky’s co-workers have already filed claims alleging exposure to radioactive material at the mill, and they or their survivors have received compensation for their suffering, thanks to a federal program designed to benefit former employees of the Department of Energy and its contractors, of which Bethlehem Steel was one, working with the atomic bomb program.

Now, it’s time to focus on the horrors of asbestos exposure, the (mostly) men said as they sat awaiting information on their plight. And as they spoke to each other it became clear that, regardless of their length of time of employment at the steel works, many were suffering due to their past work.

Joseph Georger only spent seven years at Bethlehem Steel, for example, but can find no other reason for his recent diagnosis of asbestosis other than those years he worked there as a “helper”, insulating pipes with asbestos-containing wrap.

Frank Kwiatkowski, who – on the other hand – spent 30 years working in Bethlehem’s coke ovens, can still vividly describe his work as a millwright, pipe fitter and welder.

“Some days, you would walk in and it was like it was snowing,” said Kwiatkowski, who is 66 years old and worried about his health. He had plenty of direct contact with the toxin as he would grind and shape the asbestos so that it could be molded as insulation onto pipes.

Dust was everywhere, he noted.

Now, he and other former employees must decide how to move forward and whether to seek compensation for their illnesses, which range from COPD to mesothelioma.

It’s a personal decision for each though it’s not hard to comprehend that they simply aren’t to blame for the diseases they now face.

Peacetime Veteran with Asbestos Disease Gets No VA Care

Anyone who’s served in the U.S. military at any time is a veteran, right? So that means that veterans of all ages have equal access to care through the Veterans Administration, correct?

Apparently not.

Consider the story of Richard Cook, who served in the U.S. Navy from 1958-1961. Cook has terminal pulmonary fibrosis, which was more than likely a result of his exposure to asbestos aboard the USS Willard Keith, where he served as a radioman.

But because Cook is a “peacetime veteran” – serving at a time when the United States was NOT at war – his status has prevented him from seeking VA hospital coverage, which also has prevented him from collecting any documentation the VA required to file for service-related disability benefits, reports WJLA-TV in Washington D.C.

Unless they can prove financial destitution, peacetime veterans – the story explains – are not eligible for free VA medical center care though they can seek help at state-run veteran centers and can request home and business loan assistance and property tax exemptions.

That certainly seems unfair to Cook and his family and others like him. After all, 6 million of the country’s 22 million veterans served during peacetime.

“I was just like everybody else. I wasn’t in during war. I tried to do my job,” said Cook, who explained that his job often involved spending a fair amount of time in a crawl space, where he operated the emergency radio. There was asbestos fire retardant in that space and in other places throughout the ship.

“It was dusty and dark and confined,” recalled Cook, who was originally diagnosed with heart blockage after complaining of severe shortness of breath.

After some time, doctors discovered that the former sailor was not getting enough oxygen to the heart and had developed pulmonary fibrosis. He now uses a breathing machine and, as such, his life has changed drastically.

“I really can’t do anything. I read the paper. Drink a cup of coffee,” Cook told reporters.

When the Cooks were denied coverage, they reached out to the local WJLA investigative team, which contacted VA Assistance Benefits Director Kenesha Britton for answers. They were shocked at her response.

“The VA is typically very liberal giving the benefit of the doubt if the veteran’s MOS [Military Occupational Specialty] is considered high risk for asbestos exposure,” she explained. “Radio operators were not considered high risk for asbestos exposure, despite his constant time below decks and crawling against asbestos coated wiring during emergency combat drills. Only Congress can declare radio operators high risk for asbestos exposure, according to Britton.”

There it was. It would take an act of Congress for Cook to get the benefits he deserved. In the meantime, the couple was falling behind on their mortgage and other bills.

Thankfully, however, the bank heard their case and is allowing them to live in their home free of charge for a year. The Cooks hope they can have things straightened out by then as they are now taking their case to the Board of Veterans Appeals, hoping that a recent statement made by a VA doctor they visited – “Asbestos exposure could have been the triggering factor” – will make a difference.

Mesothelioma Not Just a Disease of the Elderly

While it’s true that the majority of mesothelioma cancer patients are over the age of 60, younger individuals who were exposed to asbestos shouldn’t just automatically assume that they are immune to the disease.

Consider the case of 30-year-old Brit, Liam Bradley, who has been recently diagnosed with the aggressive cancer. For Bradley, it was a surprise diagnosis that seemingly came out of nowhere.

Bradley was told he has pleural mesothelioma about a year ago and, at the time, doctors told him that his disease was “extremely rare” in individuals below the age of 50 and “unheard of” in people his age and – quite honestly – in anyone under the age of 40.

Still, Bradley must now face the reality that, though he’s in the minority, he’ll need to deal with the disease just like anyone else who’s unfortunate enough to develop it.

Luckily, however, for Liam Bradley, youth is on his side. Though doctors found the disease after a series of events following a fall from a roof, he is currently symptom-free and the tumors on the outside of his lung are the size of a grain of sand, reports the Nottingham Post, noting that Bradley is able to carry on with life as normal for now.

“The prognosis, at the moment, is really good. I could be alive for another 50 years, but I could be alive for another year. It’s so weird,” the husband and father on one added. Currently, he doesn’t require any treatment and, so far, the cancer hasn’t appeared to have grown.

Still, Bradley has no idea where he was exposed to asbestos but only knows that it happened somewhere, likely while he was growing up or during time spent working as a roofer.

But, nonetheless, the scenario is unusual. Generally, those who might be exposed to asbestos in their 20s or 30s won’t develop any sort of related disease until decades later.

Obviously, however, there are exceptions to the rule.

But while he’s healthy, Bradley is taking the time to give back to other, less-healthy mesothelioma patients by trying to raise money to fund a new clinical trial in the United Kingdom. Mesothelioma UK, a local organization that aids meso patients, is helping him as he undertakes a variety of fundraisers, including a 1400 km bike ride from his home in Lincolnshire to Alicante, Spain.

“Sadly, asbestos is the only known cause and it’s completely preventable,” stresses Liz Darlison of Mesothelioma UK, explaining that though Bradley is a rarity, there are others like him and there will be more until all countries ban the use of the toxic mineral.

Asbestos Displaces West Los Angeles Residents

When Los Angeles County Health Department hazmat officials arrived at an apartment building in West Los Angeles earlier this week, the tenants there realized their fears that something was amiss. And when the hazmat folks called in the Los Angeles Fire Department for their help, it was evident that the tenants couldn’t stay there any longer.

That’s when more than a dozen residents were told they needed to evacuate – at least overnight, all due to the fact that their property manager began renovations on the building without first checking for asbestos.

After contractors removed a popcorn ceiling, a type of structure which nearly always contains asbestos, the toxic dust permeated the building, prompting the alarm.

As a result, fifteen residents had to be decontaminated and the Red Cross swooped in to provide lodging assistance and temporary transportation for the residents in this lower-income area.

“Most property managers know that if you’re going to do construction, you have to do it properly and dispose of [asbestos] properly,” one resident, who was not named, told a reporter from CBS Los Angeles. “Unfortunately, they just hire whoever.”

And that’s where problems arise.

Each year in the U.S., tenants are unknowingly exposed to asbestos by landlords and building managers who are eager to cut corners as to the costs involved with renovating or remodeling old structures.

So, instead of doing things the correct way, including hiring inspectors to seek out asbestos before work commences, they either engage in shoddy DIY practices or hire unlicensed workers to get the job done quickly and cheaply.

That puts everyone at risk.

Tenants who believe they have been exposed to toxins like asbestos shouldn’t hesitate to contact the authorities – like local EPA offices – to report their suspicions.

In many cases, they may have a right to relocation or even to compensation for their troubles.

Most of all, anyone who has been negligently exposed to asbestos in this manner should keep an eye on their health, including submitting to periodic lung testing to be sure that they have not developed an asbestos-related disease.

The landlord responsible for the exposure may be required to pay for such testing.

Employees of Drug Treatment Facility Exposed to Asbestos

The Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Administration has determined that employees at OnTrack, a drug rehabilitation facility in Medford, were exposed to asbestos while rehabbing a nearby property…and it’s possible that superiors knew there was asbestos present but did nothing to prevent exposure.

According to an article in the Mail Tribune, OSHA inspected the building on various dates in May and determined that OnTrack “failed to follow proper procedures, provide protective equipment and communicate about the proper handling of asbestos with employees.”

As a result, OSHA distributed 10 citations, issued for scraping the acoustic ceiling without wetting it first, for workers not wearing protective gear, and for failure to properly dispose of the hazardous material, including not placing it in air-tight containers.

Eddie Wallace, the communications director at OnTrack, claims that the company followed all the rules when they sent their employees to work on the Hamilton Street building.

However, he claims, part of the ceiling was “mistakenly scraped” by employees who did not recognize that it was a so-called popcorn ceiling, which often contains asbestos.

“OnTrack immediately reported this episode to the DEQ (Oregon Department of Environmental Quality) and engaged in the cleaning and repair of the area according to strict DEQ guidelines,” he added.

However, when employee Andy Scott filed the complaint, he noted that supervisors were “dismissive” when he questioned them about the presence of asbestos in the ceiling.

“I knew there was a risk there,” said Scott, who added that he is seeking whistleblower protection from the Bureau of Labor and Industries, which will keep him from being dismissed or harassed by OnTrack. “They were minimizing that there are known carcinogens in there.”

He claims that when he entered the structure he saw two piles of material on the ground, and a section of the ceiling had already been scraped off.

At this point, Scott said, he expressed his hesitancy to enter the building because he surmised that the dust would likely contain asbestos.

After being dismissed on other occasions, Scott said he finally contacted OSHA.

Analysis of the debris did indeed prove Scott to be correct. Testing showed it contained about 10 percent chrysotile asbestos, a known carcinogen.

Alarmingly, there is another OnTrack family living inside that same building but in a different apartment. There was no word as to the possibilities that they were exposed as well, though it appeared that no precautions were taken nor were they warned that renovations that may have disturbed asbestos were taking place in the building where they live.

Fire at Old Mill Could Mean Danger for Oregon Community

The old Whitsell Mill in Saginaw, Oregon recently burned to the ground in a massive fire that local environmental officials say could cause huge headaches for locals, including exposure to toxic asbestos debris that could be found in the ash that remains after the blaze.

Though the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency says they have collected ash samples that tested negative for asbestos debris, the agency notes that they can’t be sure that all the ash is safe, especially since there was likely an abundant amount of asbestos materials inside the mill, which manufactured wood products.

They’ve warned residents who are south or southwest of the mill, which puts them in the direct line of any lingering smoke, to use caution when outside and certainly when handling any debris from the fire.

“It’s an older building, and we want to be cautious,” said Jo Niehaus of the Lane Regional Air Protection Agency. “There could be asbestos in some of the debris.

That’s why we went ahead and tested some of the samples. We are really happy to see the samples came back negative, but at the same time, we can’t be 100 percent sure that 100 percent of the materials are free from asbestos.”

Niehaus is right to be cautious and to warn area residents of potential dangers. Mill workers were long exposed to asbestos products while on the job, including items such as pipe insulation, gaskets, ovens, tiles, and more.

Asbestos was used in an abundance of products that were regularly used inside mills and other manufacturing plants because asbestos is highly heat resistant and its presence meant that fires were less likely to occur.

However, the use of asbestos products also meant that mill workers were being exposed to the toxin on a daily basis, which put mill workers high on the list of those tradesmen likely to develop asbestosis, mesothelioma, or other related diseases.

Today, many are fighting for their rights as victims of mill owners who knew asbestos was harming workers but continued its use anyway.

Woman Steals Funds Meant for Mesothelioma Patients

A woman from Arnold, Maryland who worked for a large Annapolis law firm has been sentenced to two years in prison and ordered to pay back $1.1 million to her victims after she pleaded guilty to stealing from a fund designated to benefit those sickened by asbestos exposure.

Devonne Evans pleaded guilty to theft and forgery charges earlier this year, and yesterday the 53-year-old law office employee received her sentence, which was related to a nine-year scheme to steal money from mesothelioma victims and their families.

In 2002, three years after she was hired by the firm, Evans was charged with the task of overseeing an account that included settlement money for the plaintiffs. Her theft from the funds began in 2009.

Anne Arundel County State’s Attorney Wes Adams revealed that Evans was diverting funds into her account from checks that hadn’t been cashed and forging client signatures on documents.

By all reports, she began living a “lavish lifestyle”, said Adams, including making huge purchases at upscale department stores, buying fancy cars, and taking expensive trips.

The law office for whom Evans worked reported that money was stolen from as many as 167 clients between 2009 and 2016. The attorney in charge of the practice didn’t realize what was happening until he returned unexpectedly to his office one weekend and found a check from the asbestos victims’ fund made out to Evans.

It prompted him to then spend the next year-and-a-half reviewing some 20,000 checks…and what he found disgusted him.

“She targeted the sickest (and) the most confused of my clients,” said the attorney, who has since reimbursed the fund with his own money.

Sadly, however, many who were entitled to money before the scheme was revealed went without. An article in the Capital Gazette mentions the plight of Barbara Ditch, whose husband died of mesothelioma in 2011.

She should have received about $166,000 in funds but never got any of it. Instead, she was forced to work three jobs to make ends meet and eventually had to move in with her children.

“I cannot return to the independent life I had to give up,” Barbara Ditch wrote in a victim impact statement read at the plea hearing.

Training Exercises Expose Firefighters to Asbestos

The Virginia Beach (Virginia) Firefighters Association has recently filed complaints with both state and federal agencies, alleging that its members were exposed to hazardous asbestos during training exercises. It’s a scenario that’s all too common among fire companies throughout the United States.

The agency, which is the union for local firefighters, claim that fire officials knowingly exposed its members to the hazardous material when it burned an empty house that contained asbestos as part of a training exercise for members of the department. The city denies mistakes were made but has downplayed the incident.

“The city and the firefighters group agree the house contained the material, but how much was there and when fire officials learned of its existence is in dispute,” writes firehouse.com.

Apparently, the home was donated to the fire company by its owner, who knew one of the officials. It was built in the 1930s, which should have been a red flag since most homes built prior to the 1970s contained at least some amount of asbestos.

When the incident was discovered, the VA Beach Firefighters Association filed complaints with a number of different agencies including the FBI, the Environmental Protection Agency and the state departments of environmental quality, labor and industry, as well as the local branch of OSHA. They also informed the city’s auditor.

“This act appears to be a clear violation of federal and state environmental laws and cannot be tolerated or ignored,” Bill Bailey, a retired Virginia Beach firefighter and president of the organization, wrote in a statement released Monday to the group’s members.

“This incident was reported so that the appropriate city, state, and federal agencies could fully and thoroughly investigate this incident and take appropriate action.

The trust of the public as well as the firefighters has been damaged and can only be regained by a complete, transparent, and thorough investigation along with appropriate consequences.”

What made the training burn especially suspect was the fact that union officials learned that a particular battalion chief had cancelled the first burn scheduled at the home because he feared that the exterior included siding that contained asbestos.

But city officials say that wasn’t the case. They maintain that only small amounts of asbestos were contained inside or outside the house, limited to an area near the fireplace.

They also claim the asbestos wasn’t discovered until weeks after the exercise concluded.

Nonetheless, experts have long stated that any amount of exposure to asbestos is too much. Even minute, brief exposure can cause disease.

None of the firefighters that were involved in the exercise that day knew asbestos was present nor did the dozens of people that watched the burn, including about 30 children, the union reports.

Hence, no one would have taken the precautions necessary to avoid inhaling the toxin.

Meso Patients at High-Volume Hospitals Receive Best Treatment

A new study published in the journal Lung Cancer maintains that mesothelioma patients who have lung-related surgery for the treatment of their disease have better outcomes when their surgery is performed at a facility that is considered “high-volume”.

That is, a hospital that does a large number of mesothelioma-related procedures.

The study, conducted by the radiology oncology department at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, showed that patients who had procedures such as the pleurectomy or decortication left the hospital sooner and had fewer complications when their procedures were done at facilities that performed many of those types of surgeries.

A synopsis of the study showed the following:

A little more than half (52%) of the patients who were followed in the study had surgery at hospitals considered high-volume facility, while 48% had surgery at low-volume facilities.

Both types of facilities favored the lung-sparing surgery known as pleurectomy/decortication for the treatment of pleural mesothelioma, though more of the high-volume facilities performed the more radical procedure known as extrapleural pneumonectomy, which removes the entire lung, the pleura, and portions of the diaphragm and pericardium (lining of the heart).

In all cases. the patients who were treated at low-volume facilities tended to stay in the hospital longer and more of them were likely to be readmitted due to complications within 30 days of their release.

In addition, the patients treated at low-volume facilities had a greater likelihood of dying within 3 months of surgery, though the median overall survival rate for patients treated at both types of facilities was between 15 and 18 months.

According to study authors, their results show that where surgery is done has the most impact on post- operative management, patient counseling, referring providers and cost effectiveness rather than for overall survival rate.

Nonetheless, mesothelioma patients should be encouraged to seek care from hospitals and oncologists who offer a wealth of experience treating their disease rather than at a small or non-busy facility that rarely sees mesothelioma patients.

Hence, patients may find it advantageous to travel to a major cancer center rather than to stay in their local area where no such facility is available.

Some insurance policies will cover the cost of travel so patients should always check with their provider first before scheduling appointments.

Philly School Cleans after Outrage Over Asbestos

After it was announced that millions of asbestos fibers permeated a busy hallway and other locations in aging Olney Elementary School in the Philadelphia School District, the teachers’ union, along with parents, demanded a clean-up. And, surprisingly, the district complied, though the solutions aren’t likely permanent ones.

Yesterday, “students and teachers arrived at their school to find that areas had been vacuumed, and damaged asbestos accessible to children and staff had been sealed off. Students with special needs were moved from a classroom that had damaged lead paint and perilous levels of asbestos into a portable classroom,” reports the Philadelphia Inquirer, the newspaper responsible for reporting the travesty.

The clean-up came three days after the newspaper, along with its sister paper – The Daily News, reported about the conditions found at Olney Elementary. Olney was part of the papers’ Toxic City: Sick Schools series, which examined environmental hazards inside 19 older district buildings. Testing there showed 10.7 million asbestos fibers per square centimeter were present, which is 100 times the legal limit for safe exposure.

Most of the errant fibers were concentrated in a hallway near an asbestos-insulated pipe that was supposedly fixed by the district in February.

Results of the testing showed otherwise. However, when students and teachers arrived at their school the other day, they found that areas had been vacuumed, and any damaged asbestos accessible to children and staff – including that aforementioned pipe insulation – had been sealed off.

Still, the conditions in many Philadelphia schools are alarming. After the Inquirer published the Olney-related report last week, City Councilwoman Helen Gym and Jerry Jordan, president of the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, visited the school to view the problem.

During a tour, Jordan said he was “aghast” at the conditions he found inside Olney Elementary, particularly inside the “autistic support” classroom.

“I was absolutely horrified by the lead paint on the ceiling in the bathroom that the children use,” he said. “There were sheets of it hanging. You could see lots of pieces that had fallen down.”

After refusing to comment on these and other problems at Olney earlier in the week, District spokesman Lee Whack finally reported that licensed and trained asbestos workers would remove or encapsulate pipe insulation and thoroughly clean the areas with a HEPA (high efficiency particulate air) vacuum this weekend.

After the cleaning, the air will be tested for asbestos fibers to ensure that the building is safe enough for students and staff to return, he added.