Residents concerned over ithaca gun factory remediation

Ithaca, New York â€" Closed since the late 1980s, the Ithaca Gun Factory is now planned for demolition and remediation, but local residents are worried that the budget for the planned project isn’t big enough to get the job finished. The state Department of Environmental Conservation held a meeting at City Hall to discuss the project, and several community residents voiced their concerns about the budget for the clean up, which is just $2.2 million. The proposed budget will cover both demolition and remediation for the site, and locals are concerned that’s just not enough money to complete the entire project. Local Sara Steuteville, a member of the site’s Community Advisory Group, said, “We don’t want to get halfway through and have delay. The site just can’t have it. We’ve had enough delay.” The Ithaca Gun Factory is contaminated with a range of harmful substances, including asbestos, chlorinated solvents (including trichloroethylene), and lead. All three are known to be hazardous: lead can have a negative impact on the brain development of children, and asbestos and trichloroethylene are known human carcinogens. The federal Environmental Protection Agency made an effort to clean up the contamination between 2002 and 2004, sinking a total of $4.8 million into its efforts to remove the contamination. However, some areas of the former gun factory still remain heavily contaminated. In response to residents’ concerns over the size of the budget for the present project, Kenneth Lynch, director of DEC Region 7, said the DEC is “very aware of the possibility of additional funding being necessary for this project. We do have a fairly good handle on what’s out there and what needs to be done. I will not, though, assure you that there’s enough money to complete the project.” If necessary, Lynch says, the DEC will aid the city in identifying other sources of potential funding for the project. The worst-case scenario, he says, is that the state’s Superfund or EPA may have to step in and provide funds or complete the remediation project. “There is a contingency plan always in place,” says Lynch. The current remediation plan involves decontaminating the site using the $2.2 million. Following that phase of the project, it is planned that developer Frost Travis will turn the site into a condominium development which will include a city walkway overlooking Ithaca Falls. This is, however, contingent on whether there’s enough money to complete the remediation. Residents do have other concerns, in addition to the budget issue. In particular, the public is concerned about air quality during the project, and whether monitoring will be carried out while it is in progress. Susan Shearer, senior sanitary engineer with the state Department of Health, responded by saying that air monitors will operate continuously around the perimeter of the demolition zone. If the monitors detect heavy amounts of toxic dust construction methods can be adjusted to reduce dust levels. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)

Asbestos troubles close oakland school permanently

June 10, 2008, Oakland, Pennsylvania â€" Students at Schenley High School in Oakland won’t be returning after the summer: the school is closing down, forever, due to the need for repairs which would cost more than the school can afford. The renovation costs have been driven up significantly by the presence of asbestos which needs to be removed, and there just isn’t enough money in the budget to repair the 92-year-old high school building. Many students are upset that they won’t be returning to the high school after the summer. Instead, they’ll be temporarily relocated to another nearby school. Use of asbestos in construction and renovation materials was widespread between the 1940s and 1980s. Older buildings, including schools, which undergo renovation or demolition must be treated with caution due to the likelihood that asbestos is present. Due to the health risks involved in asbestos exposure, work with or around the substance is tightly regulated and there are several laws and requirements that control how asbestos-containing materials and buildings must be handled. These requirements tend to significantly increase the costs of any renovation or demolition involving asbestos. In the case of the Schenley High School and other buildings which contain asbestos materials, there are two factors that significantly increase the costs of renovation. The first is that the asbestos must be treated with extreme caution, and special procedures must be used when handling or removing the substance. This requires licensed professionals who are trained to handle asbestos, and often means tight school budgets are stretched even further by the need to hire licensed asbestos contractors. The second factor is that disposal of asbestos-containing construction waste is up to three times more expensive than disposal of non-hazardous waste, due to the necessity of disposing of the material at a landfill that is equipped to handle hazardous materials. If asbestos waste must be removed, its disposal pushes up the costs of renovations hugely. The issue of asbestos in schools is likely to become an increasingly widespread problem. Asbestos was used in a variety of building materials between the 1940s and 1980s, due to the substance’s excellence as a fire-retardant, insulator, and acoustic barrier. As asbestos-containing materials age, repairs and renovations may cause disturbance to asbestos materials. These types of disturbances can potentially present a health hazard if proper procedures are not followed to limit exposure. To deal with asbestos in schools, the EPA requires that all schools that contain asbestos maintain a management plan that details the location of asbestos, its condition, and the measures taken to prevent exposure. In schools where asbestos is present, parents and school employees can request to see a copy of the asbestos management plan at any time. For some schools, such as Schenley High School, however, simply managing the asbestos just isn’t an efficient way to deal with the problem. Many more schools are likely to face similar issues in the future, as the costs of managing asbestos become prohibitive. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)

Is killdeer erionite dangerous? two months later, epa still not sure

More than two months ago, at the end of April, state and federal health officials discovered that an asbestos-like mineral that is present on around one hundred miles of road in Dunn County, North Dakota, can be inhaled when airborne. Environmental Protection Agency officials still aren’t sure whether the dust poses a risk to locals, but some residents of the area claim that the attention the erionite is getting is simply a storm in a teacup. The erionite mineral is a residue of volcanic ash. Health officials have been aware since 2006 that the mineral, which may potentially cause cancer, can be found in locally-mined gravel that has been used on public roads and in parking lots. A map published by the State Health Department indicates that erionite deposits can be found in the Killdeer Mountains, the White and Chalky buttes in Slope County, the “little Badlands” southwest of South Heart in Stark County, and in other locations in southwestern North Dakota. The Environmental Protection Agency collected and tested samples of the erionite-containing gravel from Dunn County, and found that it has a “complete exposure pathway,” meaning that particles are of a size that allows them to collect in lung tissue. Dunn County and the State Health Department subsequently recommended that use of the erionite gravel be discontinued. The EPA has also been trying to determine what the effects of long-term exposure to the Dunn County erionite might be, but an EPA On-Scene Coordinator, Joyce Ackerman, pointed out that it’s difficult to determine what the true long-term effects might be because it’s difficult to estimate how much erionite locals have been exposed to. Inhalation of erionite has been linked to lung diseases, including some mesothelioma-like cancers in Turkey, however the substance is not regulated by the EPA. Some of Killdeer’s local residents are nervous about the possible risks of breathing in erionite dust. Rick Rice, a rural mail carrier who frequently drives over the erionite gravel roads, is worried about breathing in the dust and would be happy to undergo EPA tests to help the agency determine whether there are risks present. Rice is 62 and has been delivering mail on the dusty gravel roads for around 35 years. Rick Rice is just one of around fifty locals the EPA wants to carry out some simple tests on to determine if exposure to erionite has caused any health changes. The protocol for the tests is currently under development, and the EPA hopes to be ready to start testing this summer. Some residents, however, aren’t worried at all. Terrald Bang is sixty years old and has been living at the end of a white gravel road for decades. He says he’s lived near the “good old mountain gravel” all his life and he has no lung problems. Art and Viola Lundberg, who live nearby, say the same. Lungberg, at eighty years old, says the EPA’s concerns over the gravel is “a bunch of baloney…I’ve been in this dust all my life…I’m not worried about it.” EPA On-Scene Coordinator Steve Way says it’s too soon to tell whether or not the gravel is a health risk, “We’re trying not to make a big deal out of it, because we don’t know if it is a problem.” (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)

Should california follow in texas’ tort reform footsteps?

With 324,000 jobs gone in the first five months of 2008, some are expecting the government to introduce legislation to help alleviate the problem and bolster the country’s economy. In places such as California, however, the suggestion has been made that legal reform would accomplish better results, with longer-lasting benefits. University of California-Berkeley economist Lisa Kimmel examined six tort reforms which were adopted by other states between 1970 and 1997, and found that states which instituted the reforms experienced significant benefits.  In California, up to 152,000 jobs could be created if the state instituted similar reforms. Currently, California ranks 34 out of 50 states in terms of the quality of its tort liability system, according to the “U.S. Tort Liability Index: 2008 Report.” California is known as a state with weak tort rules, high costs, and high litigation risks, and is particularly vulnerable when it comes to “abusive” asbestos-related lawsuits. The Civil Justice Association of California has noted that California is often targeted for asbestos-related suits. The trickle-down problem is that new businesses tend to avoid setting up in states with weak tort rules, because they’re more vulnerable to litigation. That means fewer jobs and a weaker economy in states with weaker tort rules. Texas is an excellent example of what can be accomplished by strengthening tort rules. A recent report released by economist M. Ray Perryman indicates that legal reforms in Texas which limited civil litigation have resulted in a big boost for the state’s economy. In the report entitled “A Texas Turnaround: The Impact of Lawsuit Reform on Business Activity in the Lone Star Sate,” Perryman says that the boost is to the tune of $7.88 billion in annual spending, and almost 40,000 permanent jobs, in the city of San Antonio alone. The study examined the impact of legislative measures that limit the damages that can be awarded in liability cases against Texas businesses. The liability limits include damages awarded in asbestos-related lawsuits as well as other civil damages suits. The report notes some interesting facts about the relationship between civil litigation and the local economy. For example, Perryman’s report says that between 1999 and 2003, medical insurance premiums doubled for many doctors in Texas-because of excessive litigation and excessively large jury awards. The result, said Perryman, was that many medical insurance carriers had begun to exit the market, and medical specialists-including neurosurgeons, orthopedic surgeons, and obstetricians-had begun leaving the state. As a result, the shortage of qualified health professionals throughout the state had become severe. In 2003, however, Texas lawmakers adopted a constitutional amendment that capped ‘non-economic’ damages in medical cases to $750,000. The legislature also moved to reduce what Perryman called “abusive” asbestos and silica-related lawsuits. As a result, Perryman says, the entire state has benefited from a substantial economic boost. The report says that medical insurance rates became more competitive as a direct result of the reforms, and that doctors and hospitals used their liability insurance savings to expand and improve healthcare services. The lawsuit reform had the net result of creating hundreds of thousands of new jobs in Texas, and that around 8.5% of the state’s economic growth over the past decade is a direct result of the lawsuit reforms. Proponents of similar tort reforms in California say that such reforms could not only mean thousands of new jobs, but could also improve the state’s healthcare system and make health insurance more affordable. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)

Sanitation company warns of dangers of dumpster diving

Dumpster diving is a pastime practiced by a wide variety of people, but the founder and president of a Michigan sanitation company warns that it can be a dangerous practice when people choose to search for items in dumpsters where toxic waste has been disposed of. Sherman Rogers is the founder and president of All Waste, a leading garbage removal and dumpster rental service. According to Rogers, “Dumpster diving is searching through industrial commercial or residential dumpster trash to find items that have been discarded by their owners that may be of value to the dumpster diver.” While traditionally people who engage in dumpster diving do so purely due to economic necessity, there are people who make their living sorting through trash and collecting salable items. Still other people engage in the practice for environmental reasons. So-called “freeganists” believe that it’s more environmentally sound to use waste products than to buy new items. Often, supermarkets and other stores which sell perishable goods are forced for a variety of reasons to throw away food and other items which are still usable, but which are close to expiration or are otherwise not salable. That’s where the freeganists come in: by choosing to dumpster dive for food and other items instead of buying new, they believe that they’re reducing their impact on the environment According to Sherman Rogers, however, dumpster diving can be dangerous for people who aren’t aware that toxic waste might be lurking in the dumpsters they search through. “In common cases people will use the cover of night to raid the trash which increases their risk of injury. Many times sites will have dangerous chemicals such as battery acid or lead and even toxic material like asbestos in their rubbish.” While it’s highly unlikely that the average supermarket or retail store will be dumping toxic asbestos or other chemical waste in their dumpsters, it’s not unlikely that dangerous waste might be present in dumpsters from construction sites, and industrial locations. One of the most dangerous aspects of asbestos is that diseases resulting from exposure, such as mesothelioma, generally take between three and five decades to develop noticeable symptoms. It’s impossible to tell immediately whether asbestos exposure has occurred, unless you actually know that asbestos was present and that you inhaled fibers: that means would-be dumpster divers need to be doubly careful when practicing their art. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)

Preliminary results of new chemo drug show promise

Biotechnology company MolMed has issued a press release stating that it will present key findings about two ongoing Phase II trials with Arenegyr at the next American Society of Clinical Oncology Annual Meeting. The results will be presented at the meeting over June 1 and June 2. MolMed is a biotech company which focuses on research and development of new anti-tumor therapy. Arenegyr is one a relatively new class of anti-cancer drug called a “vascular targeting agent.” These types of drugs selectively target the vascular system of tumors, and prevent cancer cells from receiving vital blood, oxygen, and nutrients. Arenegyr is currently undergoing clinical trials both as a single chemotherapy agent and in combination with different drugs. The new chemotherapy drug is being trialed for mesothelioma and colorectal cancer treatment. MolMed has said in poster sessions that their preliminary results show that Arenegyr has demonstrated both safety and efficacy, has promising survival rates, and may provide substantial clinical benefit. In addition, the drug appears to have low toxicity. In the company’s malignant plural mesothelioma trial, Arenegyr was tested as a “second line therapy” in patients who had received prior chemotherapy treatment. MolMed claims its results show that 41 patients in the trial have overall improved survival rates, and almost doubled progression-free survival rates. Malignant plural mesothelioma is a type of asbestos cancer which develops in the lining of the lungs as a result of exposure to asbestos. The cancer is relatively rare but highly lethal, as the cancer is both aggressive and resistant to treatment. The company has also trialed Arenegyr for the treatment of colorectal cancer, which has a variety of different causes, one of which is known to be asbestos exposure. Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in the world, with one million new cases diagnosed every year, and is the second most common cause of cancer deaths in the Western world. Most patients with advanced colorectal cancer develop resistance to commonly-used therapies, and there is therefore a strong need for new treatments. MolMed’s colorectal cancer study included 43 patients, all of whom had received other types of prior treatments which had all failed. MolMed claims the preliminary data shows a fifty percent relative improved overall survival rate. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MolMed Claudio Bordignon said of the results, “These encouraging preliminary results provide further evidence to support our program of full clinical development of Arenegyr in both indications.” (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)

Epa may fine ohio city $30,000 for illegal asbestos handling

East Liverpool, Ohio â€" The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to issue a $30,000 fine against the city of East Liverpool as a penalty for improper removal and disposal of asbestos from a city building. Ohio EPA director Chris Korleski sent a letter to East Liverpool Mayor Jim Swoger indicating that the city has 14 days in which to respond with details of the city’s willingness to accept the EPA’s findings, recommendations, and fine, or to respond with suggested modifications. The incident that sparked the EPA’s fine came to light in May 2006, says Jim Swoger. The incident involved Street Department Supervisor Earl Taylor, who hired a contractor to remove asbestos-containing pipe insulation from unused water piping at a city-owned building. Around 500 linear feet of pipe insulation was removed from the building. Taylor buried the asbestos waste at a clean landfill site on property that the city also owned. Several days later, then-Service Safety Director William Cowan notified the Ohio EPA about the asbestos removal and disposal. As it turned out, both the removal and the disposal were illegal. The asbestos removal was carried out with the knowledge or consent of the Ohio EPA. The EPA’s findings also indicated that the removal did not adhere to the necessary safety standards. Removal of asbestos is a procedure that must be handled carefully to prevent the dispersion of asbestos dust and fibers. Breathing in even a small amount of dust can potentially cause cancer to develop three to five decades later. The risk of dispersing dust and fibers is high when removing asbestos, particularly insulation or older materials that are friable and prone to crumbling or breaking. To reduce the possibility of generating asbestos dust, a procedure known as wet removal must be carried out. This involves thoroughly wetting asbestos containing materials to prevent dust being dispersed. In addition to illegal removal of asbestos from the East Liverpool building, the asbestos that was removed was disposed of at a landfill site that was not equipped to safely handle asbestos waste. Several months later, workers from Cardinal Environmental Services cleaned up the remaining asbestos at the removal site, and cleaned up the landfill. The EPA’s proposed fine of $30,000 will be split. A proposed $24,000 will go to the EPA and $6,000 to the Ohio EPA’s Clean Diesel School Bus fund. The fund helps cover the cost of retrofitting school buses with equipment to reduce diesel emissions. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)