Author: Nancy Meredith
Illegal Asbestos Removal Burns New York Contractor
A New York businessman has pleaded guilty in federal court to failing to conduct an inspection before an asbestos removal project, exposing workers and neighbors to deadly asbestos fibers. Breathing asbestos is linked to development of mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen and other serious respiratory diseases.
Daniel Black, 56, president of Blackstone Business Enterprises Inc., a sheet metal and structural steel fabricator in Jamestown, New York, faces up to five years in prison, a $250,000 fine for the Clean Air Act Violation. Blackstone Business will also pay a $205,000 penalty to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for citation related to improper asbestos removal and an additional $25,000 to the New York Department of Labor. Black also pleaded guilty to tax-related violations that came to light during the asbestos investigation.
In 2008, Black hired four temporary workers to remove asbestos insulation from steam pipes and cut down the steam pipes as scrap metal as part of a renovation of a four-story building at 100 Blackstone Avenue in Jamestown. The four men were exposed to asbestos during the renovation work, U.S. Attorney William Hochul, Jr., told The Post-Journal.
Asbestos was once used in a wide variety of building materials including insulation and tiles. Renovation and demolition activity is a common way that unprotected workers are exposed to asbestos today. For that reason, New York and federal laws strictly regulate the removal of asbestos and require contractors to conduct asbestos surveys to identity the material and contain it to prevent the potential release of toxic asbestos dust. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Black knew asbestos was present in the building because of prior asbestos projects conducted at Blackstone.
Investigators with the New York Department of Labor Asbestos Control Bureau and the Occupational Health and Safety Administration began investigating Blackstone in 2008 after being told that an asbestos disturbance project had occurred. They took samples and determined that asbestos was present at the site.
“These cases are very important to prosecute because the air we breathe, it’s critical that it remain untainted with asbestos,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Aaron Mango. “As renovation of older buildings occurs, it has the potential to be released into the environment, and it is the U.S. Attorney’s position that whenever such renovations may release asbestos into the atmosphere, everything needs to be done to appropriately handle the asbestos. Asbestos is very dangerous.”
Approximately 2,500 to 3,000 Americans are diagnosed each year with mesothelioma. People with mesothelioma typically develop symptoms 20 years to 40 years after exposure to asbestos.
Quotes for Mesothelioma Patients to Offer Hope and Inspiration
Mesothelioma is a serious cancer, most commonly found in the outer lining of the lungs called the mesothelium, that occurs in individuals exposed to airborne asbestos fibers. Mesothelioma is highly aggressive and is resistant to many standard cancer treatments making it a difficult disease to treat effectively. The prognosis for mesothelioma patients is usually grim: the average survival time varies from 4 – 18 months after diagnosis.
While many factors determine survival for a patient, such as treatment plan, age, overall health and fitness of the patient and the extent of the disease, physicians also believe that a positive outlook and affirming thoughts can result in the improvement in a patient’s health.
If someone you know is battling mesothelioma, offering them some words of encouragement and inspirational quotes from others who have faced cancer can raise the patient’s mood, lower the anxiety level and help them feel better emotionally.
One of the most popular poems often carried by patients to chemotherapy treatments to give them strength is entitled “What Cancer Cannot Do.”
What Cancer Cannot Do (Author unknown)
Cancer is so limited…
It cannot cripple love.
It cannot shatter hope.
It cannot corrode faith.
It cannot destroy peace.
It cannot kill friendship.
It cannot suppress memories.
It cannot silence courage.
It cannot steal eternal life.
It cannot conquer the spirit.
Other popular quotes, such as those offered below, can provide inspiration when mesothelioma treatments seem endless.
Anything is possible. You can be told that you have a 90-percent chance or a 50-percent chance or a 1-percent chance, but you have to believe, and you have to fight. ~ Lance Armstrong
The greatest discovery of my generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. ~ James Allen (British author and poet)
Once you choose hope, anything’s possible. ~ Christopher Reeve
Never, never, never give up. ~ Winston Churchill
Asbestos Fuels Mesothelioma Epidemic in Hong Kong
With a booming Asian economy, Hong Kong used asbestos extensively in the 1950s and 1960s, particularly in the shipyard and construction industries. Asbestos exposure is closely associated with asbestos-related respiratory diseases such as pleural mesothelioma that often appear decades after workers inhale asbestos fibers.
Since 2000, Hong Kong has experienced an epidemic of malignant mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lungs or abdomen, according to a recent article in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives. The epidemic parallels the peak usage of asbestos in the early 1960s since symptoms of asbestos-related disease typically take 30 to 40 years to appear.
Researchers from Australia and China predict that the number of cases of mesothelioma in Hong Kong will peak around 2014, then slowly taper off based on data from the Hong Kong Cancer Registry.
Malignant mesothelioma was rare before the 1950s, but has increased sharply since the 1970s in many parts of the world. Exposure to asbestos in the workplace is considered the highest risk factor for developing asbestos cancer.
The researchers observed a notable increase in incidence of mesothelioma from 1976 to 2006 in Hong kong. The highest incidence was among males 70 years or older.
The increasing incidence of mesothelioma in Hong Kong is similar to trends observed in many countries including France, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Australia and Japan. The number of cases of mesothelioma in the United States, which restricts asbestos use, has increased to 2,500 to 3,000 a year. The incidence of mesothelioma in many South American countries such as Brazil is expected to keep rising for 10 to 20 more years because of later restrictions on asbestos use.
Hong Kong banned the import and sale of blue asbestos (crocidolite) and brown asbestos (amosite) in 1996. But the country has allowed the continued use of chrysotile asbestos in various industries. While the asbestos industry has claimed that chrysotile asbestos is less toxic than other forms, health organizations have said chrysotile asbestos is a human carcinogen and also causes malignant mesothelioma.
Asbestos Exposure Still Experienced by Majority of World’s Population
The use of asbestos has dropped from more than 4 million metric tons to 2.1 million metric tons in the past 25 years as one country after another has banned the cancer-causing mineral fiber. Yet, a majority of the world’s population still lives in countries including the United States that do not ban asbestos or asbestos-containing products. And demand for asbestos is surging in industrializing countries such as China and India where safeguards on worker exposure are weak or non-existent.
Today, the top users of asbestos are China, Russia, India, Kazakhstan and Brazil. These countries export asbestos-containing products to other countries including the U.S. where the products are used in the automotive and construction industries and pose an ongoing threat of asbestos exposure. Asbestos causes about half the of total deaths from workplace-related cancers such as mesothelioma, a cancer of the lining of the lung or abdomen, according to the World Health Organization.
While the U.S. stopped mining asbestos and producing asbestos in 2002, according to a recent article in Environmental Health Perspectives, a peer-reviewed scientific journal, U.S. companies imported more than 1,400 metric tons on chrysotile asbestos, primarily from Canada, in 2008. Much of it is used for roofing products. In addition, the U.S. imports large quantities of asbestos-containing products such as cement pipe, asbestos-lined brake pads and gaskets.
According to global estimates reported by the World Health Organization 125 million people are exposed to asbestos in the workplace and more than 107,000 people die each year from asbestos-related mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis resulting from occupational exposures. Many experts believe current estimates of asbestos-related disease and deaths understate the actual numbers. Since mesothelioma did not receive its own classification in the International Classification of Diseases until the mid-1990s, many asbestos-related deaths were not classified as such.
Given the decades-long latency period from exposure to asbestos to development of mesothelioma, the epidemic of asbestos-related diseases is still spreading and will for decades to come, particularly in countries still heavily using asbestos.
Proposed Factory Demolition Underscores Ongoing Risk of Asbestos Exposure
The owner of a former West Virginia pottery factory is at odds with state environmental regulators over the demolition of crumbling buildings that contain toxic asbestos.
The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection has gone to court to bar contractor Nick Masciarelli from demolishing the former Taylor Smith & Taylor pottery factory, contending that he has refused to remove the asbestos properly, according to a report in The Charleston Gazette.
Demolition and remodeling activities are a primary source of exposure to asbestos today. If demolition workers, asbestos removal workers and construction workers are not equipped with proper safety gear or don’t employ techniques to suppress and contain asbestos fibers, the toxic fibers or fine dust can disperse in the air and be inhaled and trapped in a worker’s lung. Over time, the fibers can cause scarring and inflammation, affecting breathing and causing serious respiratory disease including mesothelioma, an incurable cancer that affects the lining of the lung or abdomen. Pleural mesothelioma is the most common form.
Masciarelli, who purchased the property about 18 months ago, with plans to demolish the buildings, said he can’t remove the asbestos the way that state environmental regulators want because the crumbling factory buildings are dangerously unstable and unsafe for his workers to enter. A hearing is scheduled on Aug. 24.
A manufacturer of dinnerware, Taylor Smith & Taylor began in Chester, W. Virginia in 1899. TS&T was bought out in the early 1970s and closed in 1981.
While use of asbestos is limited today in the United States, new cases of mesothelioma can occur through exposure to asbestos during remediation and demolition of buildings containing asbestos if controls are insufficient to protect workers and the surrounding community. An estimated 1.3 million construction and general industry workers potentially are being exposed to asbestos today, according to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health.
Free Mesothelioma Patient & Treatment Guide
We’d like to offer you our in-depth guide, “A Patient’s Guide to Mesothelioma,” absolutely free of charge.
It contains a wealth of information and resources to help you better understand the condition, choose (and afford) appropriate treatment, and exercise your legal right to compensation.
Download Now