Washington, D.C. – The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) was on the verge of warning millions of Americans that the attics and walls that they previously thought safe might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation. But the White House intervened at the last minute, and the warning was never issued.
Homeowners aren’t the only ones at risk: Firefighters could be exposed to deadly asbestos fibers when responding to an incident at one of these contaminated homes.
The report was prompted by an EPA discovery that ore from a vermiculite mine was contaminated with an extremely lethal type of asbestos fiber called tremolite, which has killed or sickened thousands of miners and their families.
Most of those who have studied the needle-sharp tremolite fibers consider them far more dangerous than other asbestos fibers. Comparing the two groups, tremolite is 10 times as carcinogenic as chrysotile and probably 100 times more likely to produce lung cancer (mesothelioma).
Both the Office of Management and Budget and the EPA acknowledge that the White House was actively involved in the never-released finding, but neither agency would discuss how or why.
“These are part of our internal discussions with EPA, and we don’t discuss pre-decisional deliberations,” Budget office spokesperson Amy Call told Andrew Schneider, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reporter who broke the story in late December. Both agencies refused Freedom of Information Act requests for documents.
Ore from the mine was shipped across the nation and around the world, ending up in insulation that was used in millions of homes, businesses and schools in the United States and Canada. Zonolite insulation was sold throughout North America from the 1940s through the 1990s. No one knows precisely how many dwellings are insulated with it, but Schneider reported that memos from the EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry repeatedly cite an estimate of between 15 million and 35 million homes.
“Fire fighters have always faced the threat of asbestos insulation,” said Assistant to the General President for Health and Safety Rich Duffy. “The fact that millions of homes are contaminated only underscores the importance of respiratory protection during suppression and overhaul activities, the need for decontamination, and how crucial exposure reporting is when faced with chronic exposures to asbestos and other chemical hazards.”
For more information on asbestos, visit www.iaff.org/safe/health.html.
