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Global Asbestos Awareness Week

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Easily inhaled asbestos fibers

The theme of the 2021 Global Asbestos Awareness Week is “One Word. One Week. One World.” Since 2005, the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) has hosted a week of education and action to end the use of asbestos. Though the dangers of asbestos have been known for decades, there remains a need to educate the public and those in office who can make a difference in its importation and use. April 1-7 of each year we are reminded that this danger still exists and threatens lives. Since the first Global Asbestos Awareness Week in 2005 until today, it is estimated 600,000 Americans lost their lives to asbestos-caused illnesses.

U.S. Senate passed 16th resolution for “Global Asbestos Awareness Week”

The Senate once again formally recognized the need for public exposure to the dangers of asbestos. Linda Reinstein, mesothelioma widow and ADAO co-founder, congratulated the Senate for the passage of S. Res. 145. Reinstein wrote, “We are grateful to Congress for passing this resolution and once again putting the dangers of asbestos exposure on the national radar, but we must do more.” She further emphasized, “With this continuation of use and an increase in imports, awareness of the dangers of asbestos, and an eventual ban on imports and use, are more important than ever. Unlike the more than 70 countries that have banned asbestos, Americans remain at risk of asbestos exposure every day from a variety of places, including our schools, homes, workplaces, and from unsuspecting products on consumer shelves like toys and cosmetics.”

What are the dangers of asbestos?

Asbestos is a mineral that can be used in the manufacture of many products, including insulation, shingles, brake pads, tile mastic, cosmetics and hundreds of other uses. Though it’s been known for over a century that asbestos exposure can be deadly – no matter the level of exposure ­– there is still no ban in the United States.

Inhalation of asbestos causes a spectrum of diseases including asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. There is currently no cure for mesothelioma – a disease which can be caused by even brief or intermittent asbestos exposures. 

How can Global Asbestos Awareness Week help?

Each year, goals are set to push forward the asbestos banning agenda. This year there are four main points:

            • Banning the mining, manufacturing, and use of asbestos

            • Preventing asbestos exposure

            • Increasing compliance and enforcement of existing laws and regulations

            • Strengthening international partnerships

Reinstein reported, “The United States imported nearly 30 percent more asbestos in 2020 than in the prior year. With this continuation of use and an increase in imports, awareness of the dangers of asbestos, and an eventual ban on imports and use, are more important than ever.”

What can you do to help?

If you suspect asbestos in your home or business built before 1980, have an abatement professional inspect before any remodeling or disturbance of the material. If you’ve been exposed, let your doctors know so they can create a baseline and monitor you for signs of asbestos disease.

During this Global Asbestos Awareness Week, let your congressional and senatorial representatives, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), know your concerns and the need for a ban. This is long past due; let’s make it happen!

Use an Asbestos Abatement Contractor to Demo Single-Family Homes

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Hiring an asbestos abatement contractor is the safest way to contain asbestos fibers when renovating structures built prior to 1980. However, the Occupational and Health Administration (OSHA) regulations don’t apply to dwellings with under four residences. This means that homeowners considering remodeling – or clean up after a disaster – have the responsibility to protect themselves, their families, and their neighbors by following known guidelines.

Protection of a home containing asbestos

When it’s time to remodel, if you have a home built before 1980, you probably have asbestos in tiles, drywall joint compound, mastic, insulation, shingles, popcorn ceilings, or another of the many uses for asbestos in construction. It is impossible to recognize visually, so a prudent homeowner will contract with a professional abatement company. They can test and let you know if it’s safe to proceed or if abatement is necessary. Why is this important? There is no safe level of asbestos exposure. When undisturbed it poses no harm, but if it has deteriorated, or it experiences drilling, sawing, sanding, breaking – fibers are released and can be inhaled. Once in the lungs, it can cause serious diseases such as lung cancer, asbestosis, or the fatal disease – mesothelioma.

Contractors may be unaware or just not care

demolition lacking an asbestos abatement contractor
Dangerous demolition

Contractors often don’t take the dangers of asbestos seriously. They proceed to demolition without testing, personal protective equipment (PPE), or precautions. As they proceed, dust is created that may contain asbestos. This fiber-laden dust doesn’t affect only the person doing the job, but the entire building, anyone in it, the surrounding properties, as well as the clothing and vehicles of the workers.  As a famous asbestos scientist once stated “asbestos dust doesn’t recognize trade classifications” – meaning that once the fiber is liberated it poses a hazard to anyone that comes in contact with it.  For improperly demolished residences, that risk can extend to the families of construction workers, and in many cases, the neighbors of the demolished property.

Hiring an asbestos abatement contractor

While hiring an abatement company to test before that happens may seem an unnecessary expense, it can save lives and is relatively inexpensive. If asbestos is found, the abatement contractor knows the best methods to either repair damage to an asbestos product or remove it completely.

Read Before Removing A Popcorn Ceiling

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Removing a popcorn ceiling is one of the first thing a DIYer does to update a home built between the 1950s and 1978. It’s a messy job, but beyond that, it creates a likely danger to the remodeler and anyone who will live in the home.

Several products used to build homes before 1978 contained asbestos, a mineral used for many reasons. It is fire resistant, easily molded into shapes, has insulating properties and seemed to be an almost perfect addition to many building materials. Popcorn ceilings, tape & bed joint compound, shingles, and textures for walls and ceilings were all popular. Asbestos-containing drywall patching compounds were banned in 1977 by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Work that disturbs any potential asbestos materials can lead to serious diseases, such as lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma – a fatal disease that is only acquired through asbestos exposure. If the structure was built in 1978 or earlier, even 1980 to be safe, any suspicion of asbestos needs to be tested by a professional. It cannot be discerned by a visual inspection.

Why is testing so important?

Asbestos is comprised of microscopic fibers that, when disturbed, can be inhaled. These fibers can remain in the lungs for decades before showing up as a health disaster. Anyone in the vicinity of the fiber dust is susceptible to these diseases. It can circulate through air ducts, land on furniture and clothing, or carpets – anywhere the air takes it.

Testing is not expensive and results can be found within days. It is worth the time and expense to avoid a deadly disease.

What to do when removing a popcorn ceiling

The good news is that undisturbed popcorn ceilings and other asbestos materials are harmless until they are disturbed by deterioration, scraping, sawing, drilling, or any action that releases the fibers. Removing a popcorn ceiling is not a DIY project if it is shown to contain asbestos. That is when a professional and certified asbestos abatement company is required. Many people and contractors are willing to take a risk, but it is a serious and potentially deadly gamble. There is no safe level of exposure to asbestos. The CPSC gives four points to consider:

  • Asbestos is impossible for a consumer to identify without a microscope.      
  • It is not possible to know the exact degree of risk with any low-level exposure.
  • The product is not the problem, it is the release of respirable fibers.
  • Specially trained people are necessary for any removal of asbestos. An untrained person can create more of a hazard than it eliminates.

The bottom line

Asbestos is dangerous when disturbed in any way. Most countries throughout the world have banned its use. The U.S. is one of the few developed countries that has not completely banned the mineral. Removing popcorn ceilings is only one of many threats to health. If you are concerned about this danger that continues to exist, contact you senators, congress persons, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Once a ban is issued, there will still be asbestos in our environment into the next century.  We can make a difference, but only if we care enough to contact those who can add us to the list of countries banning asbestos totally.

Louisiana Asbestos Abatement Inspector Pleads Guilty

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The U.S. Attorney in New Orleans says a contractor has plead guilty to a theft charge for defrauding a Louisiana school system out of more than $200,000.   Federal prosecutors alleged that from 2015 to 2017, a Louisiana asbestos abatement inspector submitted false asbestos reports to Louisiana’s Terrebonne Parish School Board (TPSB.) The charges alleged that not only were lab reports faked, but the signature of an accredited asbestos inspector was forged.

Filing false asbestos reports is a federal crime

Prosecutors alleged this is not the first time he falsified documents. In 2013, the same individual received 12 months’ probation and was required to pay $3,040. to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality and a $100 fine when he plead guilty to falsifying documents provided to the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ.)

When the 12 months of probation were completed, the defendant began contracting work for the TPSB. Federal charges allege that fabricated asbestos laboratory reports were filed for fees totaling approximately $212,618.26. These funds came in part from federal funds provided to the TPSB.

A sentencing hearing is set for December 16, 2020..

Why is this crime important?

If the reports were falsified, that means for at least two years testing was not performed at schools in Terrebonne Parish. Many older school buildings have at least some asbestos – ceiling tiles, insulation, mastic and more. Left undisturbed, these products do not pose a health hazard. But, if there is remodeling or repair, fibers can be released into the air leading to inhalation.

There is no safe level of asbestos exposure. Over two years, there was a potential for work which disturbed existing asbestos containing products. Improper asbestos abatement with no air monitoring is dangerous and creates a health risk.  There is no safe level of exposure to asbestos and even low level exposures can increase the risk for development of mesothelioma, lung cancer and asbestosis.

What can you do to prevent false asbestos abatement reports?

Whether responsible for a school district, business, or your own home, check credentials of anyone monitoring, abating, or working on a building that possibly has asbestos. Any building built before 1980 should be tested for the presence of asbestos-containing materials before major remodeling or demolition work.

Asbestos Shingle Siding – Keep It or Not?

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asbestos siding
Asbestos Shingle Siding

Have you seen homes with asbestos shingle siding that looks like this?

It is often present in neighborhoods built in the 1920s into early 1980s. A number of construction product manufacturers found that by adding asbestos to their cement, a long-lasting, fire-resistant, attractive product could be made. One product was asbestos-cement shingles. Product manufacturers including Johns Manville, Keasby & Mattison and others mixed the asbestos mineral into their cement, pressed it into sheets, and were able to create a variety of looks, finishes, and sizes for asbestos shingle siding.  

Asbestos turns from miracle to deadly product

When the many benefits of asbestos were first discovered, it was touted as a miracle. But, after many decades, as people handling it became sick, medical literature began to establish that breathing asbestos dust posed a very real human health hazard.

By 1972, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) placed limits on the levels of asbestos a worker could be exposed to in a given day. In the following years, asbestos was phased out of many products including siding. However, there is still no outright ban on asbestos in the United States.

Asbestos can cause a number of diseases – lung cancer, asbestosis, and mesothelioma, an incurable cancer of the lining of the lung. Many homes, schools, government buildings, manufacturing facilities, and businesses built with asbestos products remain in use. This means knowing how to deal with the possible presence of asbestos extremely important.

How to handle asbestos shingle siding

Asbestos shingle siding is one of the main products do-it-yourself (DIY) home renovators of older homes may find. Because it is widely known that asbestos is dangerous, they may decide to tear it down. That would be a very bad decision. Asbestos is not harmful if undisturbed. However, since this is a fibrous mineral, it is when the tiny fibers are released into the air that trouble begins. An asbestos shingle that has no cracks, breaks, crumbles, punctures, disintegration, etc. is rarely a problem. If the shingle is damaged, stop work and hire an accredited asbestos abatement professional. There is no safe level of exposure and handling siding debris or tearing it off can expose you to harmful levels of asbestos. Some shingles may appear similar to those with asbestos but are solely cement. The abatement contractor can determine composition, but it is not discernible for a person without the right equipment. Don’t take a chance.

The problem with asbestos

These invisible fibers are easily inhaled. They can also attach to clothing, furniture, carpets, and air ducts leading to inhalation by the person who worked with the mineral. They can also be inhaled by anyone who comes in contact with that person – such as family members. The danger is very real and also very sinister as it may be decades – even 50 years – before a diagnosis of mesothelioma is made.

While it may be tempting to pull down a couple of damaged shingles from an otherwise secure wall, it is not worth the risk. As said previously, there is no safe exposure level to asbestos fibers. Bring in an expert abatement professional who knows what can be done safely with asbestos siding and protect your family and yourself.