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EPA To Test for Asbestos In Minneapolis Homes
By asbestoshub | October 2, 2008
The air in several dozen homes in northeast Minneapolis will be tested for asbestos as part of the decade-long cleanup of pollution from an insulation factory, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced Tuesday.
From 1938 to 1989, the W.R. Grace Co. and its predecessor, Western Mineral Products Inc., processed vermiculite ore from Montana into home insulation. The factory gave away asbestos-laced waste for homeowners to use as fill in driveways, yards and gardens.
The EPA removed contaminated soil from 268 yards between 2000 and 2004. It has now decided to test the air and dust in 30 to 50 of those homes as a precaution.
“We have no evidence to suggest that indoor air of these homes has been impacted,” said Mark Johnson, chief of the Chicago office of the U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, which is a partner with the EPA in the research.
Terry Thiele, who lived around the corner from the plant during childhood, said he and many neighborhood kids played in the asbestos-laden material in the 1950s and 1960s, not knowing it was dangerous.
When told about the new study, Thiele agreed it’s probably a good idea, but he doesn’t expect officials to find much asbestos. “It came into our home through our clothing, and that was 40 or 50 years ago,” he said. “It would surprise me if there’s still traces from that anywhere.”
Thiele, 61, of Maple Grove, said that he and his siblings and mother all have asbestosis to some degree and that his father died from mesothelioma. “My whole family has lung X-rays that look like patchwork quilts because of all the scarring” from the fibers, he said.
The testing of homes will be done this month, at no cost to owners and only with their permission. It consists of running one small device for about 12 hours that vacuums air and collects microscopic particles on a filter, and a second “wipe test” that collects dust from a relatively unused area of the home to see whether it contains asbestos. Homeowners will receive the results in about four months.
EPA officials said the air sampling and analysis will cost about $200,000, and may be expanded if the results show any contamination. The cost of cleaning up asbestos-laced soils in northeast Minneapolis, including Gluek Riverside Park, has been about $14 million from the federal Superfund. An agency attorney said he expects W.R. Grace Co., which took over the factory operations from Western Minerals in the 1960s, to reimburse the EPA for most of those costs. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2001 and faces asbestos lawsuits and cleanup in Libby, Montana, where it operated an asbestos mine from 1963 to 1990.
State health officials also spent $1.1 million in federal funds to survey more than 6,700 residents, former residents and former plant workers between 2001 and 2004. Their report identified 690 individuals who said they played in the contaminated piles of waste from the plant, and 820 who lived within a block of the plant at one time or another. Many of those individuals are now participating in studies to assess their health and determine whether any problems can be linked to asbestos exposure.
Topics: Exposure |
