Kohl plan sets $29M for treatment, research
Madison Capital Times, Ashtar Analeed Marcus
Published May 19, 2005
WASHINGTON - Sometime in the last 40 years, two shipments of building
materials containing a dangerous form of asbestos were delivered in Madison, and the company that shipped them is now under indictment.
Although the shipments were made years ago, contamination remains a concern because "it takes anywhere from 10 to 50 years to develop asbestosis disease, particularly the signature cancer, mesothelioma," said Richard Wiles, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group, a research and health policy group.
More than 700 asbestos-related deaths have been reported in Wisconsin from 1979 through 2001, the Environmental Working Group said. Of those, 27 to 44 were in Dane County.
The Senate Judiciary Committee is considering legislation that would create an expedited claim procedure for people with asbestos-related diseases while setting caps on damage awards.
"The response of the U.S. Congress has been to try to bail out the companies with the biggest liabilities and basically pay no attention to these legitimate public health issues," Wiles said. "(They) have not taken any of the basic steps to protect the workers."
An amendment to the bill would provide a model for cleaning up communitywide contamination, using Libby, Mont., as an example. The Environmental Working Group reported that two shipments from Libby of 189 tons of vermiculite, typically used in building insulation, that contained a particularly deadly strain of asbestos, were delivered to Madison. Milwaukee received more than 50,000 tons of the contaminated vermiculite. Exact shipment dates could not be confirmed but took place nationally between 1963 through 1991.
The disposal of asbestos is regulated by the Department of Natural
Resources.
"It's a sizable amount of vermiculite," said Mark Davis, asbestos specialist with the Department of Natural Resources, which has used the Environmental Working Group's data to identify locations with high concentrations of asbestos.
The danger level for asbestos "depends on where it's at, weather it's lying out exposed, put in a soil additive, put into attics," Davis said. "Probably the only safe place it would be would be buried, but it's hard to say where that (shipment) went to."
W.R. Grace, the company that mined and delivered the vermiculite, was
indicted by a federal grand jury in February on charges that included
knowledge of the contamination and conspiracy to conceal that information from the government, workers, public and customers.
The shipping destination address for the two Madison shipments now belongs to Findorff Development Corp. The firm purchased the property from Georgia Pacific in 1995, said Dan Petersen, Findorff's vice president of finance. Petersen denied any knowledge of such large shipments to Findorff.
"We don't have anywhere to use asbestos and we have no way to use it. If the shipment came to us, we were not aware that it contained asbestos and we will check into it," Petersen said. "We were not aware of receiving asbestos since 1972."
Georgia Pacific moved to Chicago in 1995. "I don't think we had anything to do with W.R. Grace," said Georgia Pacific spokeswoman Robin Keegan, but added the firm would investigate the shipment.
Asbestos is particularly dangerous because of its long life, but even as waste it remains deadly.
"It has to be delivered with certain protections, such as being bagged for instance," said Lynn Morgan, spokeswoman for Waste Management in Wisconsin. Only certain sites accept asbestos as waste and in limited quantities, she said.
Different versions of the Senate bill have been considered for more than four years, but Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis., said, "We're closer than we've been in several years" to passage.
Kohl and fellow Wisconsin Democrat Sen. Russ Feingold have not decided
whether to support the measure. The Judiciary Committee approved Kohl's
amendment to include $29 million for research and treatment of mesothelioma, a rare, malignant form of lung cancer.
"The bill is trying to help the victim," Kohl said Wednesday. "We're trying to find a balance between companies and their liabilities - what those liabilities mean and victims who clearly deserve to be compensated."
