PSA
January 13th, 2005Since Heather is out with some friends, I’m watching my version of reality TV–documentary film. Imagine my surprise when scrolling through the premium channels and coming across Dust to Dust, a documentary released in 2002-03. This film deals with the residents of Libby, Montana and how asbestos has destroyed their lives. It deals with the W.R. Grace & Company and their vermiculite mine which supplied millions of homes throughout the U.S. and Canada with Zonolite, an insulation made from vermiculite. Vermiculite itself isn’t bad, but the mine in Libby was found to have naturally occurring asbestos.
In the film, people with children are told to not let their kids play near anything that came from the mine. People talk about working for years in the mine and losing spouses and family membes and neighbors. It’s some heavy stuff, and makes me wonder what it will cost to have our vermiculite abated.
Seeing the faces of those who have been affected by asbestosis is devastating. I know there are other, greater tragedies in the world, but in the film, the arrogance of W.R. Grace and their intentional omission of warning labels on their products and not informing employees when they knew that the mine and their product contained a deadly substance is staggering. The company has reformed, reorganized and is currently in Chapter 11. In Libby, it is known that 200 people have died from asbestos poisoning, with as many as 2,000 more with lung abnormalities. Many people had already died before W.R. Grace admitted that there was asbestos present in the vermiculite so the real number is hard to know. Their trucks would drive from the mine through town untarped and vermiculite could be found everywhere.
I’m glad that someone has made a documentary, but the story no one is covering is just how much vermiculite is in the attics of the world? How much of it contains asbestos? How great is the risk to the general populace? If you own an older home, what is your recourse?
Our home inspector informed us of the EPA party line, which is, don’t disturb it and told us we’d probably want to put another layer of fiberglass insulation over the layer we already had; not for protection from the vermiculite, but to make the house warmer in the winter.
After watching this film, any other renovations we do involving our attic will mean we remove the vermiculite by paying an expert and vacating the premises during the abating process. There’s no way I’d ever expose Leta to the dust, just to be safe. Frankly, I’m more worried about lead in the paint than anything else. That’s one reason we primed the shit out of our walls when we moved in.
In the film, they show dust tests and I never stirred up the vermiculite to the degree that a mine would or even close to the dust test, which makes me feel better. Plus, I wore a major respirator. The point is made by experts in the film that when it’s undisturbed, it can test negative for asbestos, and then when it’s stirred up carelessly show very high levels of asbestos.
Dust to Dust is a pretty good documentary, but it gave me renovation flashbacks. o
January 13th, 2005 at 9:48 pm
We live in an old house too. You can have Leta tested for the lead. It’s simple and inexpensive. Your pediatrician can do it. The health department does it too. Gives you peace of mind.
January 13th, 2005 at 9:57 pm
just recently redid the kitchen floors and found underneath the old asbestos vinyl. AAAAACK! It’s still there, covered over by two layers now. Skeery thang…
January 13th, 2005 at 10:30 pm
When I pulled the carpets in our house I found asbestos tile in the dining nook. Put on a resperator and pulled it out. Course I sent the wife and kids out of state first….
January 13th, 2005 at 11:50 pm
That’s scary. And tragic. Generally, it seems that the people who get asbestosis are people who had lots of exposure–although yes there are those other cases…It’s bad stuff, though. In college, I worked in a law firm where we did asbestos cases.
I know that worried feeling though. We live in an ancient apartment building and when I was pregnant we found out there was lead and a gas leak. And worried about lead in the water also. But all was well. Still, there’s that scary “I’ve been exposed, now what?” feeling.
On a kind of unrelated note, that type of company is the kind the Republicans want to shield from liability. Just to make sure they don’t have to suffer economically for all the damage they cause. I’m sure all those conservative voters out there will be all for it until they are the ones suffering damages.
January 14th, 2005 at 7:21 am
IMHO… as an historic building specialist…don’t loose it over the vermiculite. Leave it and all will be good. Abatement of the material is likely a good idea in the future, especially if you want to improve the insulation. Be much more cautious with the lead…that stuff is bad news. Painting over the old is a very good step, but there are other sources that are often overlooked (cheap vinyl blinds,for one)…make sure your water supply isn’t using lead pipes…meaning the main from the street…not the ones in the house.
BTW. Asbestos tile is relatively inert…I wouldn’t eat the stuff, but its pretty safe in this form…its just plain ugly
January 14th, 2005 at 8:21 am
I read your vermiculite story just before I cracked open my kitchen ceiling. My house is sixty years old, so I was scared as shit of what was going to come out.
Luckily, no vermiculite. Just about thirty pounds worth of broken glass.
January 14th, 2005 at 8:33 am
we all know what a shit show renovations are. Makes me glad I have a super.
January 14th, 2005 at 8:49 am
GOod morning,
Sort of on topic, this article and it’s subsequent clarification regarding Nalgene water bottles (of which I slurp out of daily, in two sweetly jeweled tones):
http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2004/08/02/umbra-bottles/index.html
http://www.grist.org/advice/ask/2005/01/10/umbra-bottles2/?source=umbra
Dust to Dust I don’t think I have seen, there is another good one about Butte, MT and the electric company… oh nevermind, I can’t rememeber enough about it.
I wish all of you health and happiness, I am leaving for overseas travel, my debut. Sort of nervous, certainly excited.
Take care all and thanks for providing the space for community and sharing thoughtful observations, Jon.
All my best,
Kahli
January 14th, 2005 at 9:58 am
Thank you, Kahli! On my to do list for the day was to go out and buy a nalgene bottle. Now I know what to avoid.
Speaking of dangerous chemicals. Its very important to keep them out of our landfills. Check out these cool new sites:
http://www.ebay.com/rethink
http://www.badapple.biz
January 14th, 2005 at 10:40 am
W.R. Grace is also one of the companies involved in A Civil Action - they are truly horrifying…
January 14th, 2005 at 10:46 am
Like you, we also have an older home (built in the teens or twenties). We’d like to do some renovating but have similar concerns about stirring up lead paint, asbestos, etc.
To me, one of the scariest things about asbestos is that you can be exposed and then not have the disease show up for 20 or 30 years. Yikes! I remember as a kid playing with the fake embers in our gas fireplace. Turns out that those fake embers were commonly made with asbestos!
I’m sure once we have kids I’ll become much more concerned about the lead paint in our house too.
January 14th, 2005 at 11:05 am
Further reading about WR Grace in Libby Montana: The Seattle Post-Intelligencer did a special report about the long-term effects of asbestos mining in Libby Montana in 1999. There are several links to later stories regarding this case though they seem to have stopped compiling them in an index in 2002. It’s still very compelling reading even 5 years later.
January 14th, 2005 at 11:11 am
There is a Canadian town named Asbestos where, not surprisingly, an asbestos mine was their main economy until it shut down fairly recently. My husband was there on a work trip, and while he was being shown around, he was encouraged by his guide to touch asbestos. The guide claimed that it was completely safe, but then, safety is relative when your town is situated right on the edge of an open asbestos mining pit. I assume that town has not fared too well health-wise, either.
January 14th, 2005 at 12:37 pm
just checking in…..
I am a fellow father and a fellow BLOGGER
the other day I did GOOGLE on the topic of “people who have been fired from their jobs for BLOGGING”
when I came up with your wife’s blog
she is very clever and very cute
I like her posts and her photos
shared her link with another blogger who does the Photo A Day thing
oh well
nothing really to say
keep blogging
enjoy
gwadzilla
January 14th, 2005 at 2:15 pm
As a native New Englander I’ve heard of W.R. Grace and Co. before. They are one of a few companies being held responsible for a $50+ million dollar clean-up of water and soil in Woburn, MA. (a la A Civil Action)
It amazes me that these companies can pollute and kill familes all over our country and continue to do business as if there are no problems.
God Bless America….let freedom ring, eh?
Yikes!
~Mira
January 14th, 2005 at 4:59 pm
We live in a house that was built in 1912, and when my dad started renovating the attic, he found super, super, super old insulation. They called someone in to remove it, and we had to live at my grandma’s for awhile. I don’t remember if it had anything bad in it (I was 8), but I do remember my mom being really scared for me because the attic had been my room for a long time.
January 14th, 2005 at 5:02 pm
wow. yeah, that can give flashbacks. I grew up in a home that was old, and dad and I did all the renovations. I’m scared to think of what we might have stirred up. Of course, 20 or so years ago, who the hell knew any better?
January 14th, 2005 at 6:12 pm
One would wonder why such things are found underground…moreover, that they were meant to remain underground and was never supposed to be dug up to start with.
I realize this line of reasoning will lead into things like oil, coal, salt, diamonds, gold and jade. But therein lies our fallibility.
January 14th, 2005 at 8:14 pm
having grown up one town over from woburn ma, it never ceases to amaze me how many HUGE crimes w.r. grace & co has managed to commit and still operate.
January 15th, 2005 at 8:17 am
W.R. Grace was the largest privately owned chemical company. Maybe that is why they got away with so much for so long. I use to work for them years ago here in Asia.
January 15th, 2005 at 10:57 am
The most devastating consequence of asbestos is malignant mesothelioma. Its a classic lawyer gambit, but a very real complication. The lungs become encased in cancerous tumor. It takes decades to develop and usually only occurs in people who are digging around in the stuff actively all day, every day for more years than you can count. Even then, its rare, but I still can’t believe how anyone can sleep at night with such blatant disregard for an entire town. Yecch.
January 16th, 2005 at 11:48 am
wow. sounds really good.
January 16th, 2005 at 5:02 pm
hearing about documentaries like that makes me wonder how many other situations exist where people are exposed and may not know it or may not be able to do anything about it. for every documentary that’s made, how many undocumented simliar situations exist?
thanks to my paranoid brother (father of two, aged 3.5 and 2) i am now well-versed in the truths and myths of lead paint and children. there are ways you can abate on your own, ideally by sealing in the bad paint with polyurethane after youve cleaned the surface well with something like “simple green”, and as someone else mentioned, you can get your child tested for lead levels. you can also buy home lead tests to see what surfaces in your house might contain lead. dirt outside your house is a common offender, if you live in a home where the exterior can be painted (eg wood siding).
my brother and i renovated the 2-flat i now live in, and at the time (8 yrs ago) we didnt know what we were doing and stripped some wood doors in the attic. i have successfully abated the lead up there using simple green, polyurethane, and alot of sweat (wear a mask, clean in one direction.. dont stir up the dust). asbestos we had professionally removed. it cost $2000 for our entire basement (all the pipes were insulated w/it) and the guys did a great job. my basement was never so clean!
good luck with the attic, when you get to it. yeah, renovating is hard. but it’s satisfying too!
darsella
January 16th, 2005 at 5:07 pm
I used to do air monitoring for asbestos. The only way to find out if your vermiculite contains asbestos is to contact a local environmental lab. Ask them how to make a determination. They will probably give you instructions on how to collect your sample (type of container, etc) and have you bring it in to them.
Ask them what methods are available for sampling. There are cheap methods that will only count fibers, assuming that the fibers are asbestos — and there are more expensive methods that will actually identify whether or not your insulation is Asbestos Containing Material (ACM contains at least 1% asbestos by volume). Good luck.
January 17th, 2005 at 12:26 am
I am reading a book called A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Just finished the part regarding the discovery and uses of lead (many have died and denial by large corporations began way back then and continued on up to 2001)and the discover of CFC’s. In our efforts to progress and provide ourselves with creature comforts it seems we have always endangered the world. Quite an eye opener.