Asbestos News Roundup: 9.30.10

September 30th, 2010. By LucyC

A roundup of recent asbestos-related news and information that you should be aware of. 

Asbestos Lawsuits

Elyria, OH: The family of a Richard W. Fanslau, who died from asbestos related lung disease and lung cancer, has filed an asbestos lawsuit against Goodrich, Norfolk Southern Railway Co., and numerous other defendants. The suit claims that Fanslau was exposed to asbestos while working for the Nickel Plate Railroad and BF Goodrich, which led to his death. The family is suing for at least $25,000 in damages. (morningjournal.com)

Asbestos Hot Spots

Berkeley, CA: Children in an elementary school in California may have been exposed to asbestos while taking music and cooking classes. California state safety officials have verified reports of asbestos at the Washington Elementary School in Berkeley, and inspectors with the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA) ordered that the room remain closed until the school could make a full assessment of the level of contamination. 

The asbestos was discovered by part-time teacher Darwin Greenwell, who has a background in construction and real estate. Greenwell and other staff at the school had noticed that the carpet runners in the classroom had been removed, exposing the floor tiles underneath. The floor tiles appeared to be in poor condition, and a fine white dust covered the carpets near where the runners had been. Greenwell told a local newspaper that, when the children would dance during music class, “they would raise the dust.”  

Greenwell was suspicious of the tiles and dust because they appeared similar to other tiles in other properties and that those types of tile usually contained asbestos.

In response to the room closure, the school district contacted a local asbestos abatement contractor, RGA Environmental, to conduct the remediation project. The workers removed the tiles and the adhesive, known as “mastic”, as both tested positive for asbestos.  The room remains closed due to the dust still evident on many surfaces. (Berkeley Daily Planet.com) 

San Bruno, CA: City, county and state health officials have expressed concern that some of the smoke from the fires that raged in the tragic San Bruno gas explosion may have contained asbestos. According to an article in the San Jose Mercury News, Dean Peterson, director of the San Mateo County Environmental Health Services Division, said that the debris and dust left behind from the fires “could be a hazard.”  He also said that it would be impossible for environmental safety workers “to do 100 percent containment of the dust.” He advised families in the area not to handle the debris, although he gave assurances that the contamination “won’t be a serious health hazard” for homeowners whose properties were far from the affected areas.  (sanjosemercurynews.com) 

Asbestos Law

Washington, DC:  The Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that BP Products North America Inc. has agreed to pay a $15 million penalty to resolve federal Clean Air Act violations at its Texas City, Texas, petroleum refinery. 

The penalty is both the largest ever assessed for civil violations of the Clean Air Act’s chemical accident prevention regulations, also known as the risk management program regulations, and the largest civil penalty recovered for Clean Air Act violations at an individual facility. 

The settlement, which is subject to court approval, addresses violations stemming from two fires that occurred at the refinery in March 2004 and July 2005, and a leak that occurred in August 2005. During the three incidents, which each resulted in the surrounding Texas City community being ordered to shelter-in-place, thousands of pounds of flammable and toxic air pollutants were released. The settlement also resolves allegations that BP failed to identify all regulated hazardous air pollutants used at the refinery in plans submitted to EPA. 

“BP’s actions at the Texas City refinery have had terrible consequences for the people who work there and for those in nearby communities,” said Cynthia Giles, Assistant Administrator for EPA’s Office of Enforcement and Compliance Assurance. “Today’s settlement, in conjunction with other actions already taken by EPA and other federal agencies at Texas City, demonstrates the Agency’s continuing commitment to actively and vigorously working to hold BP accountable and to make them comply with our nation’s environmental protection laws wherever the company operates.” 

With today’s settlement, the federal government will have recovered approximately $137 million in criminal, civil and administrative fines related to process safety violations at the Texas City refinery. The events at BP’s Texas City refinery covered by today’s settlement include the following: 

• In August 2005, a stream of highly pressurized liquid and gaseous hydrocarbons leaked from a corroded valve within the refinery’s Cat Feed Hydrotreater Unit. Since 1983, BP repeatedly increased the velocity of fluid flowing through the valve without adequately evaluating the effects of the increased flow on the unit’s maintenance needs. 
• In July 2005, a carbon-steel piping elbow in the refinery’s Resid Hydrotreater Unit ruptured and caused a major fire. The carbon-steel piping elbow had been incorrectly installed by a maintenance contractor in a location that required a stronger metal in order to withstand the existing operating temperatures and pressures. 
• In March 2004 a corroded 20-inch diameter pipe at the refinery’s Ultraformer No. 4 process unit ruptured and caused a major fire that burned for several hours. Corrosion, which had gone undetected, reduced the pipe-wall thickness to the point where it ruptured at normal operating temperatures and pressures. 

BP’s Texas City refinery is the third largest in the United States, with a production capacity of more than 460,000 barrels of oil per day. (wallstreetjournal.com) 

Hopkinton, MA: Delaware-based Life Technologies Corporation, has been assessed a $7,940 penalty by the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, or MassDEP, for violationing state asbestos regulations while doing work at its former facility located at 94-96 South St. in Hopkinton.

The violations were observed by MassDEP personnel during an inspection of the site conducted in August 2009. The inspectors found pieces of floor tiles coated with asbestos-containing adhesive lying in an open-top roll off container located in the parking lot at the site—the material had not been properly contained. Life Technologies was vacating the facility and had had the floor tiles removed as part of an effort to return the leased space to its pre-occupancy condition. 

The company was cited for failing to notify MassDEP of a demolition/renovation operation involving asbestos-containing materials; improper removal, handling, packaging and storage of asbestos-containing materials; and allowing asbestos-containing materials to be handled in a manner that caused or contributed to a condition of air pollution at the site. (MetroWestdaily news.com)

Houston, TX: Property owner Scott Krzyzanowski has been ordered to stop demolition work at a former paper mill in Lockport, for the second time this month. Krzyzanowski was initially told to stop work following a visit to the mill located at 89 Mill St, on September 3. State officials said he could not resume work until the results of asbestos tests came back. 

However, on September 14, a few days after receiving the test results, the Labor Department cited Krzyzanowski with several violations, including using a non-licensed contractor and non-certified workers, starting demolition work without an asbestos survey and refusing to allow inspectors to perform their review. This time, state Labor Department officials say the owner of the property at 89 Mill St. knew there was asbestos contamination but continued to allow unprotected workers to perform the demolition. 

Krzyzanowski could face up to about $20,000 in penalties, Labor Department officials said Tuesday. (Buffalonews.com)

Tags: Asbestos, Asbestos Mesothelioma

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