Motel Mesothelioma: You Can Check-In Anytime You Like, But…

Collinsville, ILThe cough, the wheeze and the pain that appears to come out of nowhere could have come from 30 years ago—or from today, 30 years from now. That's how asbestos mesothelioma works, and mesothelioma cancer is a horrid condition for which there is no cure, and from which there is little relief. Only mystery—the mystery as to why mesothelioma and cancer takes so long to appear. Thirty years.

That's why asbestos, which is a regulated substance that is a known carcinogen, is so vilified, and so dangerous. Exposed to smoke, or a poisonous gas and the effects are immediate. Exposure to asbestos is anything but, and is one of the reasons why asbestos is treated with kid gloves.

Actually, the gloves will be part of a fairly involved protection protocol that protects workers charged with the task of asbestos removal.

Such oversight apparently wasn't the case with a now-defunct motel in Collinsville, Illinois. The owner of the older building allegedly failed to check for the presence of asbestos when he began renovations of the facility's office in 2003.

In fact, the Illinois Environment Protection Agency halted demolition of the office area when it was discovered that the owner, Vithalbhai Patel, had allegedly failed to inspect for asbestos. Further inspection found that 200 square feet of the building's ceiling area contained asbestos, and Patel was ordered to properly deal with the problem before the demolition could proceed.

It should be noted that attitudes pertaining to asbestos removal have changed in recent years. It was once a long-held policy that any kind of asbestos languishing in an older building would immediately have to be eradicated. However, it is now thought that so long as asbestos—the stuff that causes mesothelioma—can remain undisturbed, unexposed and out of harms way from people, users and passersby, it is often better to leave it lie, than disturb it.

Asbestos is thought to present little danger if it is undisturbed, and out of harm's way. However, once asbestos fibers get into the air, it immediately becomes a health issue.

In the case of the motel in Illinois, it allegedly continued as a health issue long after the inspectors left in 2003. Two years later, when the IEPA was back to inspect the building again, they found that walls in 72 rooms had been breached, copper plumbing had been removed and pipe insulation suspected of containing asbestos was strewn about the floor.

It is not known if the motel was being used for guests during the office renovation in 2003, or during the room renovations in 2005. It is not beyond the realm of possibility for a situation presenting as such, that guests staying in as-yet undisturbed rooms might be required to put up with a bit of dust and debris in an office undergoing renovations. It is also not beyond the realm of possibility that renovations to guest rooms could occur on a staggered basis, allowing some rooms to be rented while others are under renovation.

The foregoing is not known to be the case in the Patel situation, but one can see the risk in such a situation where asbestos is not properly contained. Asbestos fibers that can lead to asbestos mesothelioma can float freely in the air, and rest on an individual's clothes. Dust from a carpet, or floor can be tracked by shoes into a car, or into another building.

There have been cases where workers toiling in asbestos-laden environments wear their work clothes home, with asbestos fibers going for a piggy back ride on the fabric. In this way, entire families can be put at risk. In one case the wife of an asbestos worker died from asbestos mesothelioma after coming into contact with her husband's work clothes doing the laundry. Her husband outlived her.

It was reported that in the case of the motel in Illinois, the asbestos found in 2005 was eventually contained and safely removed, and the building torn down and demolished. The state attorney general's office filed a complaint in June 2007 against Patel with respect to his now-demolished Howard Johnson Express Inn located at 301 N. Bluff Road in Collinsville.

This week the attorney general's office filed a penalty of $30,000 with the Illinois Pollution Control Board.

The building is now gone, and the site cleaned up. But there could be a second chapter to this story, to be written 30 years from now—and that's for the potential for anyone who may have come into contact with the asbestos, either worker, guest or passerby, to contract asbestos mesothelioma. Mesothelioma cancer can take 30 years to appear, and once you have mesothelioma and cancer, you have a virtual death sentence hanging over your head.

Thus anyone who has ever recently checked into a motel mesothelioma, may wish to check their health 30 years from now…