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Care For a Nice Beach Vacation — With Asbestos?!?
By asbestoshub | August 7, 2008
It has been almost a year since the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency tested the shores of Illinois Beach State Park on Lake Michigan, but residents are still asking questions about its safety.
The media first announced the presence of asbestos fibers at Illinois Beach State Park almost 11 years ago. The beach runs along a six-mile stretch of Lake Michigan and is visited by more than two million people every year.
Signs are posted at locations where asbestos is known to have washed up on shore, warning people not to handle rocks and other suspicious material.
An investigation into the source of the asbestos has led to five possible locations, including an old industrial site located south of the park. State and federal officials have been saying for more than a decade that the beach is safe.
However, according to a news report from the Sun-Times newspaper, there are internal EPA documents that raise serious concerns about the safety of the location. A study carried out in 2006 showed there were “significantly elevated” levels of asbestos at the state park.
The EPA carried out more tests in 2007 in an effort to resolve the public’s safety concerns. Investigators performed normal beach activities such as volleyball and Frisbee-tossing to try and determine if normal activity could result in asbestos becoming airborne.
If all was well after the 2007 tests, why has the EPA continued to send out investigatory teams when state and local officials have been insisting the beach is safe for more than a decade?
The EPA claims that asbestos levels are so low that there is no cause for concern.
A 1997 publication by the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety (NIOSH) states,
“all levels of asbestos exposure studied to date have demonstrated asbestos-related disease…[and] there is no level of exposure below which clinical effects do not occur.”
Topics: Exposure |
