'Industrial Holocaust'

A new report being released today by the Environmental Working Group in Washington, D.C., aims to shed light on what the group says is an epidemic of asbestos-related illnesses and deaths in the United States.

One attorney for victims and families has likened the asbestos deaths to an "industrial holocaust."

The report, based on government mortality records and studies, shows that as many as 67 people have died in Bay County from asbestos-related diseases since 1979. The diseases include mesothelioma and asbestosis, a emphysema-like condition of the lungs.

Bay County, the 18th most populous in Michigan with 110,157 residents, ranks fifth in the state for asbestos-related deaths, behind much larger counties in the metro Detroit and Grand Rapids areas. Saginaw and Midland counties rank right below Bay County, with as many as 114 additional related deaths.

Since 1979, at least 1,140 people have died from asbestos in Michigan, the report states; the state ranks 12th in the nation for the deaths.

Asbestos-related diseases are killing 10,000 people a year in the United States, said Richard Wiles, the report's author and senior vice president of the Environmental Working Group. The deaths appear to be increasing, Wiles said.

"We took a look at this thing and nothing had prepared us for the magnitude of the public health disaster we had found," he said.

Wiles said Congress is considering a national trust fund to compensate asbestos victims. But he said it's underfunded and would terminate too early. His group wants to see the legislation, Senate Bill 1125, examined more closely.

Leo Van Hoof was a Munger farmer by trade, but spent his winters and some summers as a carpenter, according to family members.

That included two stints at Defoe Shipbuilding Co., which constructed battleships for the military during World War II and closed in 1976.

Bay County is high on the list of asbestos-related deaths because of the city's shipbuilding history, said Linda Teeter, executive director of Michigan Citizen Action, an independent lobbying group in Kalamazoo. Defoe employed 4,000 workers in peak years.

"They were wrapping pipes all the time," Teeter said. "It was always in the air. They also took it home, so women and children were exposed to it. It was in their clothes, in the laundry and the air."

Thousands of victims across the country have sued manufacturers of products that contained asbestos, including companies that supplied products to Defoe Shipbuilding.

Thomas E. Defoe of Saginaw, whose father was president of Defoe Shipbuilding, said the dangers weren't known at the time. Defoe, 61, worked at the company from 1964 and stayed on through its closing.

He said the materials used were specified in government contracts; some materials were even furnished by the government.

"This is what a lot of people weren't aware of," Defoe said. "A lot of the things we did and a lot of the things we purchased we only had certain people we could buy from. We were told what to use."

Thomas Defoe said he started working at the company when he was 10 years old, and hasn't had any symptoms of asbestos-related diseases.

He said he doesn't know of anyone else in his family who has, either. But he does know of former Defoe workers who have died from being exposed to asbestos fibers long ago.

"When it was really bad was during the war ... like in the '40s," Thomas Defoe said. "If you go back that far, there was no safety. There were all kinds of things that went on back in those days."

Attorneys Michael Serling and Russell Beaudoen in Birmingham have been working on asbestos-related cases for 30 years, and have represented close to 500 people, not including the Van Hoofs.

Workers in numerous trade occupations were exposed to asbestos, including pipe coverers who installed insulation around pipes in factories, commercial buildings, schools and shopping centers, Serling said.

Asbestos insulation was used up until the mid-1970s, but asbestos-related diseases have a lag time of 15 to 40 years, the attorneys said.

"Here's guys that built our country and now decades later are dying of asbestos-related diseases," Serling said. "I call it an industrial holocaust."

Asbestos was used in about 3,000 applications until it began to be phased out in the 1970s. But it was never banned; it remains in the attics of millions of American homes and is still used today in products such as brake linings and roofing materials, exposing mechanics and contractors, Wiles said.

"People will continue to be exposed to asbestos until we ban it and do a much better job of getting rid of the asbestos that's out there," Wiles said.

At Defoe, workers sprayed the hulls of ships with fire-proofing that contained asbestos, the attorneys said.

"Of all the exposure we encountered, nowhere did we come across something more lethal than working with pure, raw amosite fiber shipped in from Africa," Beaudoen said.

Leo Van Hoof worked two winters at Defoe, and also did construction work on area homes, schools and businesses, his family said. He stopped working outside the farm in 1962.

"He remembered cutting asbestos sheeting on a table saw without any mask or anything," said his wife Pat Van Hoof, 70.

She said her husband went to a Bay City doctor after the pains in his side didn't subside.

The doctor tapped his lung with a needle, sucking out a gallon of fluid, Pat Van Hoof said.

The fluid was collecting in the lining of his lung, said his son, Tom Van Hoof, 41.

At first, the doctor tapped the lung once a month, then more frequently. A biopsy confirmed mesothelioma in July 1998, the family said.

The doctors packed Leo Van Hoof's lung with powder to absorb the fluid. He went through chemotherapy, but he slipped closer and closer toward death.

"It was very painful for him," Pat Van Hoof said. "It's a terrible thing to see somebody go through when they're healthy."

The family doctor suggested the Van Hoofs contact an attorney, and the family ended up suing numerous asbestos suppliers, as other victims have done.

Pat and Tom Van Hoof said they've never added up the settlement amounts, which included payments of $3,000 and $10,000.

"It's not an astounding amount," Pat Van Hoof said.

Tom Van Hoof said some lawsuits are still pending five years later. Some companies filed for bankruptcy due to numerous claims, which has delayed payments.

Pat Van Hoof said she washed her husband's asbestos-laden clothes for years, but hasn't shown any symptoms, and neither have her four children.

Asbestos cases against employers were limited to worker's compensation, which is why suppliers are being sued.