Asbestos

A Florida land development company filed an appeal with the state of Oregon seeking to overturn a nearly $75,000 fine related to the improper clean-up of asbestos-containing debris from a trailer court damaged during last year’s wildfires. Tampa-based Bach Development disputes the allegations from Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). The state contends that Bach [...]

The state of Oregon recently fined a Florida company more than $74,000 for failing to follow state guidelines pertaining to asbestos removal during the clean-up of a mobile home park near Medford ravaged by last fall’s wildfires. According to Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), crews from Tampa-based Bach Development removed and packaged asbestos-containing wildfire [...]

The link between asbestos exposure and mesothelioma diagnoses is irrefutable. In response to serious illnesses without a definitive cure combined with lives lost, countries around the world have implemented outright bans on importing and manufacturing the deadly mineral. While the United States implemented prohibitions on asbestos manufacturing, it continues to import it into the country. [...]

Asbestos imports to the U.S. nearly doubled last year to 300 tons compared with the previous year, according to the U.S. Department of Interior. The number represents a significant increase from the 172 tons of asbestos the country imported In 2019. The statistics come from the U.S. Geological Survey’s Mineral Commodity Summaries 2021, an annual [...]

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that swept the nation from the 1920s to the 1980s as the primary resource of fire retardant coatings, insulation, and countless other products. While industry and government knew it was hazardous from the start, it wasn’t until the 1980s that workers learned about the dangers of asbestos, and after many [...]

Sixty-seven countries around the world have banned the use of asbestos. The U.S. is not among them — at least, not anymore. In 1989, the Environmental Protection Agency banned asbestos in American products, but after the industry sued, a federal appeals court overturned the EPA’s ban two years later. Though asbestos has been somewhat regulated [...]

Most homeowners or renters do not wake up to the alarming situation that confronted a New York resident last year. Sometime after his family moved into a Long Island rental home last May, Andrew Sirico — the father of three children — found something quite troublesome in his backyard. Four trailers filled with construction debris, [...]

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a risk evaluation for chrysotile asbestos on December 30, 2020. The EPA found that there is an unreasonable risk to workers, consumers, and bystanders. Under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), the EPA’s next step will be to develop a plan to reduce or eliminate the unreasonable risks [...]

Asbestos has plagued American infrastructure for generations. At the beginning of the 20th century, laborers used asbestos liberally in new buildings as insulation, unknowingly exposing many blue-collar workers to the carcinogen. Today, many older buildings still contain asbestos in the walls, risking exposure to those who live or work there. In September 2020, inspectors found [...]