News Coverage
Asbestos fund is likely to be election-year issue
Published April 19, 2004
More than 50,000 tons of asbestos-laden vermiculite from a Montana mine was shipped to Utah over the past 45 years, and environmental watchdogs are recommending that people who worked at or lived nearby the delivery points get a health checkup.
Much of the potentially carcinogenic material went to a now-defunct Salt Lake City insulation manufacturer located near where the Delta Center now stands.
The shipping data on vermiculite, an insulating material that looks like small sparkling popcorn kernels, was one of several asbestos awareness campaigns rolled out as the U.S. Senate on Monday opened what will probably be a weeklong debate over Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch's proposal to create a national, privately funded trust to pay claims to asbestos victims and their families for the next 50 years.
Supporters and opponents of the measure acknowledge there are not the 60 votes needed to break a Democratic-led filibuster and force a straight up or down vote on the bill. But like doomed medical malpractice bills and judicial nominations, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., is betting a publicized floor fight will help the GOP paint Democrats as obstructionists this election year.
Hatch raised the ante Monday, charging the "feckless filibuster" is aimed at wooing campaign contributions for presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry of Massachusetts from lawyers who make a lucrative living suing asbestos manufacturers.
"The real reason behind it, some have said, is the personal injury lawyers are prepared to put up $50 million for their presidential candidate, or more," he said. "Not hard to figure out where they're going to get the money; It's going to be right out of the hide of these asbestos victims."
Democrats have labeled the bill a "bailout" for industry and question whether the fund will remain solvent to satisfy all future claims.
The Environmental Working Group released an online database at http://www.ewg.org of vermiculite shipments between 1948 and 1993 from W.R. Grace's bankrupt Libby vermiculite mine, blamed for widespread asbestos contamination in the Montana community.
According to Environmental Protection Agency records compiled by the group, 801 shipments of vermiculite totaling 44,777 tons were delivered to three Salt Lake City locations. Most went to since-razed facilities of Vermiculite Intermountain Inc., which operated from the 1940s until the early 1980s. One of the sites, 333 W. 100 South St., is now a gated PacificCorp substation and in December 2002 loose particles of vermiculite were removed from the ground after an EPA inspection.
Another 119 loads totaling 5,562 tons were shipped from Libby to Richfield, in central Utah, but no delivery address was specified. Richard Wiles, senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group (EWG), said since the federal government only plans to notify workers or nearby residents at locations where more than 100,000 tons of vermiculite was delivered, the group launched its campaign to inform people who may have been exposed at smaller operations.
"We are not saying people who worked at or lived near these locations should hire a lawyer, we are saying they should get a medical checkup to see if they have any asbestos-related symptoms," said Wiles.