Document 7ZQ1deqZp9qEx7jZ6qEMDD46

POLITICS & POLICY __________________________________ The construction industry was besotted with the miracle mineral, which cost just 25 cents a square foot when it became popular in the early 1960s. Asbestos was used for fireproofing and to insulate heat pipes, ducts, and boilers. Workers, often with cigarettes poking out from holes punched through thin protective paper masks, sprayed or troweled 1.4 billion square feet of asbestos onto struc tural beams and roof decks. Like a genie turned against its master, as bestos is now recognized as an especially sinister carcinogen. It has been implicated in tos fibers are impervious to the body's natu the deaths and disabilities of thousands of ral defenses. He concluded that no level oi shipyard workers, miners, and industrial la exposure could be considered safe. But nc borers. Fibers that lodged in their lungs from solid evidence has since turned up to support massive exposure to airborne asbestos in the that thesis. The latency period for the deadly 1930s and 1940s led, decades later, to asbes- diseases that afflicted the World War II ship tosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma--a rare yard workers averages from 20 to 30 years. killer that attacks the lining of the lungs and Office workers and custodians, too, have intestinal tract. been exposed through decades of building As the deaths mounted, the U.S. Environ renovation and dusty demolition. Epidemiol mental Protection Agency (EPA) and state ogists have yet to record a rise in asbestos- environmental agencies added asbestos to related deaths among these populations. their long lists of hazardous substances and The victims Selikoff studied inhaled levels restricted its use as a building material in the of airborne asbestos at least 10,000 times early 1970s. Over the past decade, roughly higher than those found in normal indoor 90,000 exposed asbestos workers have sued room air. Research by British epidemiolo makers of asbestos-containing products, gists Richard Doll and Julian Peto puts the forcing Manville Corp. and some half-dozen lifetime danger of exposure to room-air as other manufacturers to seek refuge in bank bestos so low that it has been likened roughly ruptcy court. to the risk of inhaling one drag of cigarette smoke per day. In the U.S., comparably low OMMERCIAL property owners, risks to workers in asbestos-laden office Clenders, and tenants are worried buildings emerge from studies by Dr. Robert about becoming targets in the next Sawyer, a member of the University of Penn round of suing. With age, normal sylvania medical school's oncology depart maintenance, and continued building renomvaent. Sawyer, a leading researcher on tion, "friable" asbestos--so called becausaesbitestos health effects and an occupational crumbles easily when disturbed--will flake health adviser to the EPA and a list of corpo off the surface on which it was applied. As rate clients including Bechtel and Perkin- building workers snake telephone and com Elmer, concludes that maintenance workers puter cables along ceiling beams and tenants who are exposed to asbestos and also smoke move in and out, asbestos fibers are re cigarettes may be especially susceptible to leased. The fibers are just half a micron long lung cancer. For all other office workers, he (a human hair is 80 microns in diameter) and says, "There is no epidemiological evidence can stay airborne for weeks. that shows a health hazard. Period." In recent years, insurance companies have made it increasingly difficult for building HE EPA'S ATTEMPTS to quantify owners to protect themselves from lawsuits by occupants who claim exposure to asbes tos has damaged their health. One suit has already held a building owner accountable. Tthe risk of low-level exposure paint a reassuring picture. In a study it pre sented to Congress in February, the agency reported that the worst airborne Last year a jury in Cleveland awarded bestos levels in a sampling of 43 fed $400,000 to a 47-year-old woman who said buildings were no higher than the levels she contracted mesothelioma from breathing found in outdoor air. EPA analysts tried to asbestos fibers in her job as a clerk in a fed compute the total asbestos-related deaths eral office building. Some 20 other personal- from lung cancer and mesothelioma that damages suits against landlords are pending. commercial building occupants and mainte How deadly is the asbestos that may be in nance workers will suffer over the coming your office building? The answer: The risk is 130 years. The numbers are ludicrously barely detectable. low. The study estimated that asbestos- In his pioneering research on U.S. ship containing buildings accommodate some yard and asbestos industry workers, pub 22.5 million office workers and 369,200 lished in the mid-1960s and 1970s, Dr. Irving custodial staff, and that the buildings have Selikoff, an epidemiologist at New York's an average useful life of 60 years. Among Mount Sinai Hospital, observed that asbes the tens of millions of people who will revolve through these buildings, the EPA Wearing disposable protective suits, predicts that 3,300 asbestos-related fatali ties will show up by the year 2118--an av cleanup workers at New York's LaGuardia erage of 25 deaths per year. Driving a car Airport scraae off achoctnc !i< k --L HWBUI0006569