Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Asbestos, WTC & Wellstone

by **stickdog99** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:04 am

From: <a href="http://greenvilleonline.com/news/2003/01/08/2003010834140.htm">greenvilleonline.com/news...834140.htm</a> Crash ends promising lives in an instant By Liv Osby HEALTH WRITER losby@greenvillenews.com Many were just starting their lives, like the two Clemson University graduate students, the Bob Jones University co-ed and the young father traveling with his adolescent daughter. Others, including the North Carolina computer salesman with two small children at home and three employees of W.R. Grace & Co., were just making a living when their US Airways plane flipped, crashed and burst into flames moments after takeoff Wednesday morning from Charlotte. W.R. Grace & Co. veteran Richard Lyons was global health and safety manager at Grace Performance Chemicals in Cambridge, Mass. Lyons, 56, joined the company in 1969. Married with two children, he lived in Lynnfield, Mass. Joseph Spiak, 46, also worked at the Cambridge site as general manager for specialty vermiculite (note: this includes the highly toxic, widely distributed brand of asbestos contaminated vermiculite marketed under the W.R. Grace brand name of Zonolite).[/b] A resident of Acton, Mass., he had been with Grace since 1981 and occasionally visited its Spartanburg facilities. He was married with two children. Paul Stidham was a newcomer to the company, joining last July as director of environment health and safety for Grace's corporate headquarters in Columbia, Md. He and his wife, Dora, and their two young children made their home in Howard County, Va. All three were on their way to a Grace facility in Enoree. "We are devastated and stunned by this tragic loss," said Grace CEO Paul Norris. From: <a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/gard31.shtml">seattlepi.nwsource.com/na...rd31.shtml</a> Asbestos found in many common garden products EPA tests to determine health risks Friday, March 31, 2000 By ANDREW SCHNEIDER and CAROL SMITH SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTERS b]Federal investigators have found potentially lethal forms of asbestos in several lawn and garden products that contain vermiculite, a mineral used in hundreds of such products nationwide.[/b] "I think it is cause for concern," said Dr. Christine Oliver, assistant clinical professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, who has about 600 patients with asbestos-caused diseases. "There is no safe level of asbestos exposure," she said. The EPA findings could explain some of the so-called spontaneous tumors that arise in people who have no known exposure to asbestos, Oliver said. "My contention is they are not arising spontaneously and these data support that," she said. "Who would have known asbestos was in these products?" After the first results came in, the investigators repeated the tests and confirmed the findings. The types of asbestos found were fibrous actinolite and tremolite, both classified as carcinogens by several government agencies. Concern about the safety of vermiculite was sparked by Seattle Post-Intelligencer stories in November about a now-closed W.R. Grace & Co. mine in Libby, Mont., where more than 300 miners and their family members contracted fatal diseases including asbestosis, cancer and mesothelioma because of their exposure to tremolite asbestos fibers in the vermiculite ore. The EPA's results confirm similar tests of several brands of potting soil, soil enhancers and vermiculite conducted by the P-I from December through March as part of the newspaper's ongoing investigation of asbestos dangers in the United States. "We got numerous calls from citizens who had read about the deaths in Libby and asked if there was asbestos in garden products, will they be exposed to it and will they become sick from it," McDermott says. "Yes, there is asbestos in some of the products. And, yes, in using the product the way many people do, asbestos can be released. Horticultural industry analysts estimate that at least 65 local, regional and national companies produce more then 375 lawn and garden products containing vermiculite. The world's largest vermiculite mine is in the northeastern corner of South Africa. Some U.S. companies buy it, but many say they purchase ore from the Grace mine in Enoree, S.C., or from Virginia Vermiculite's mines, owned by Robert Sansom, in Louisa, Va., and near Enoree. Officials at the EPA regions responsible for Virginia and South Carolina said there was no indication that the agency had inspected any of the vermiculite mines in recent years. EPA studies on vermiculite mines were done in 1981, 1982 and 1991. The studies showed the presence of asbestos at Grace's Enoree mine, but at levels far lower than those at Libby. "Asbestos is a toxic substance and if it's in commercial products, we have an obligation to look as far back as it takes, to get to the bottom of where it's coming from," says John Melone, EPA director of national programs, chemical division. "When that product leaves the mine, someone is putting it into commerce. Whoever that someone is, whether they own the mine or not, that person is responsible for knowing what is in the product. And we have a right to ask for that information." From: <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/080400-02.htm">www.commondreams.org/head...400-02.htm</a> Although Halliburton is an enormous operation with more than 100,000 employees in 120 countries, it is a relatively small player when it comes to asbestos litigation, at least when compared with W.R. Grace & Co., GAF and the Johns Manville Corp. Nevertheless, Halliburton has spent $99 million to settle or dispose of 129,650 asbestos suits, according to company records. From: <a href="http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2001/9/12/192330/380">www.kuro5hin.org/story/20...192330/380</a> WR Grace Asbestos containing insulation was used at the World Trade Center (WTC). James Cintani stated that Grace Vermiculite did not contain asbestos. Unfortunately this was not true; this material was 2-5 percent asbestos. 100,000 80 pound bags of this vermiculite was used in the WTC. In addition 9,150 pounds of MonoKote 3 was used at the WTC. Monokote 3 was about 20 percent asbestos. Therefore in total about 201,183 pounds of pure asbestos fiber from Grace was used in the WTC. From: <a href="http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/asbestos.nsf/0/D0064DBA4F46DAE386256CAD0076A1E9?OpenDocument">www.stltoday.com/stltoday...enDocument</a> White House budget office thwarts EPA warning on asbestos-laced insulation BY ANDREW SCHNEIDER Of the Post-Dispatch The Environmental Protection Agency was on the verge of warning millions of Americans that their attics and walls might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation. But, at the last minute, the White House intervened, and the warning has never been issued. The announcement to warn the public was expected in April. It was to accompany a declaration by the EPA of a public health emergency in Libby, Mont. In that town near the Canadian border, ore from a vermiculite mine was contaminated with an extremely lethal asbestos fiber called tremolite that has killed or sickened thousands of miners and their families. Ore from the Libby mine was shipped across the nation and around the world, ending up in insulation called Zonolite that was used in millions of homes, businesses and schools across America. Zonolite insulation was sold throughout North America from the 1940s through the 1990s. Almost all of the vermiculite used in the insulation came from the Libby mine, last owned by W.R. Grace & Co. Interviews and documents show that just days before the EPA was set to make the declaration, the plan was thwarted by the White House Office of Management and Budget, which had been told of the proposal months earlier. Former EPA administrator William Ruckelshaus, who worked for Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, called the decision not to notify homeowners of the dangers posed by Zonolite insulation "the wrong thing to do." "When the government comes across this kind of information and doesn't tell people about it, I just think it's wrong, unconscionable, not to do that," he said. " What right does the government have to conceal these dangers? It just doesn't make sense." The question about what to do about Zonolite insulation was not the only asbestos-related issue in which the White House intervened. In January, in an internal EPA report on problems with the agency's much-criticized response to the terrorist attacks in New York City, a section on "lessons learned" said there was a need to release public health and emergency information without having it reviewed and delayed by the White House." The EPA's files are filled with studies documenting the toxicity of tremolite, how even minor disruptions of the material by moving boxes, sweeping the floor or doing repairs in attics can generate asbestos fibers. Most of those who have studied the needle-sharp tremolite fibers in the Libby ore consider them far more dangerous than other asbestos fibers. In October, the EPA team leading the cleanup of lower Manhattan after the attacks of Sept. 11 went to Libby to meet with Peronard and his crew. The EPA had reversed an early decision and announced that it would be cleaning asbestos from city apartments. (NOTE: TONS OF THIS STUFF WAS IN THE WTC TOWERS!!!) Peronard told the visitors from New York just how dangerous tremolite is. He talked about the hands-on research in Libby of Dr. Alan Whitehouse, a pulmonologist who had worked for NASA and the Air Force on earlier projects before moving to Spokane, Wash. "Whitehouse's research on the people here gave us our first solid lead of how bad this tremolite is," Peronard said. Whitehouse has not only treated 500 people from Libby who are sick and dying from exposure to tremolite. The chest specialist also has almost 300 patients from Washington shipyards and the Hanford, Wash., nuclear facility who are suffering health effects from exposure to the more prevalent chrysotile asbestos. Comparing the two groups, Whitehouse has demonstrated that the tremolite from Libby is 10 times as carcinogenic as chrysotile and probably 100 times more likely to produce mesothelioma than chrysotile. (Please read. There's much, much more here.) From: <a href="http://www.msnbc.com/local/pisea/102011.asp?cp1=1">www.msnbc.com/local/pisea....asp?cp1=1</a> Murray promises to renew push for asbestos warnings By ROBERT MCCLURE SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER Dec. 30 - After revelations that the Bush administration squelched public health warnings about a widely used form of insulation that contains cancer-causing asbestos, Sen. Patty Murray vowed yesterday to renew her fight for a public education campaign. Murray, D-Wash., said she will demand an explanation this week for why warnings planned last spring by the Environmental Protection Agency were called off at the last minute by high-ranking Bush administration officials. Internal EPA documents show that about 15 million to 35 million of the nation's approximately 105 million households contain a brand of insulation known as Zonolite. Mined for decades in Libby, Mont., Zonolite contains a particularly lethal form of asbestos known as tremolite. "I just find it astounding that when this kind of information is available that can save people's lives, that this administration has decided to keep that secret and not let people know," Murray said. "Here's a health risk we can do something about." Murray's co-sponsor, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., died in October in a plane crash. W.R. Grace says the insulation is safe, and wrote a letter to the EPA in April insisting that no health warnings are necessary. In addition to its use in insulation, the brownish-pink vermiculite was contained in garden products, cement mixtures and many other products. One of those products was as fireproofing in ceiling tiles used widely in schools and federal office buildings. Helping manufacture those tiles as a side job while in college likely gave Brian Harvey of Marysville mesothelioma, a disease caused only by exposure to asbestos. Harvey criticized the Bush administration's decision to pull the public health warning. "I have a real problem with that," Harvey said. "That I consider unforgivable." "At the top levels of the Bush administration, they are maintaining this cloak of secrecy that I can't imagine the people who I've worked with at the EPA are very happy about," Murray said. "Hopefully, the public will start crying out for Congress and the administration to do something about this." From: <a href="http://www.labournet.net/world/0201/asbest1.html">www.labournet.net/world/0...best1.html</a> WTC asbestos horror from Montana vermiculite mine Report by Andrew Schneider St. Louis Post-Dispatch First Published: 01/13/02 Mining town in Montana endured the horrors of disease from asbestos LIBBY, Mont. Much of the asbestos-tainted vermiculite that spewed from the collapsing World Trade Center was dug from a mine in the Cabinet Mountains above this picturesque Kootenai River town. And in Libby, as in New York, environmental and health officials failed to disclose just how dangerous the mineral could be. Miners digging vermiculite ore at the now-closed W. R. Grace Zonolite mine in Libby breathed dust containing asbestos fibers, then carried it home on their clothes to their wives and children. Trucks carrying the dust spread it throughout the town, and trains hauled the potentially lethal cargo to almost 300 towns across the nation. The company knew it was deadly. But it did not require miners to wear respirators. Federal and state officials knew the dangers, but they looked the other way. Until, that is, the death toll began to climb. So far, hundreds of miners and their relatives have succumbed to the diseases caused by the asbestos fibers that painfully destroyed their lungs. Hundreds more are clinging to a torturous life, sucking air from portable oxygen bottles. And the federal government says its testing has found signs of the disease in thousands more who have been examined. EPA and federal health investigators have been virtually living in this tiny town in the western corner of Montana just below the Canadian border since November 1999. Most arrived three days after the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reported the deaths and contamination. They have studied the way asbestos kills - up close and far too personal. Their findings make suspect many of the absolute statements the government is making in playing down the hazards those living in lower Manhattan face from asbestos. From: <a href="http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/54382_asbestos14.shtml">seattlepi.nwsource.com/na...os14.shtml</a> NYC under an asbestos cloud SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER Monday, January 14, 2002 By ANDREW SCHNEIDER ©2002 ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Federal and state officials have grossly underestimated the number of people in lower Manhattan who are at risk of lethal asbestos-related disease because of the collapse of the World Trade Center, independent experts say. Evaluations by teams of leading asbestos researchers show the increased risk to people who live, work or study in homes or offices that have not been properly decontaminated could be as high as one additional cancer death for every 10 people exposed. These figures come as leading government officials continue to insist that there is no long-term health risk to those living and working near ground zero from the dust of hundreds of thousands of tons of asbestos-containing products used in the floors, walls, ceilings and steel frame of the twin towers. "I am glad to reassure New Yorkers ... that their air is safe," Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Christine Whitman said a week after the attacks. When the World Trade Center went down, the EPA and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration rushed teams to the site. They have gathered thousands of samples of the dust that blanketed lower Manhattan, but they used 20-year-old methods for collecting and counting asbestos fibers to assess the health risks. The agencies and their state counterparts said only low levels of asbestos were found in the air outside. "The public faces little or no danger from asbestos," numerous agency heads echoed. Civilian scientists and physicians hired by unions, tenant groups, contractors and New York political leaders found just the opposite. Taking hundreds of samples, many inside apartments, offices and condos, these experts used the newest electron microscope technology and fiber-counting protocols. They found far more asbestos fibers than did government investigators. These private experts -- all regularly used by the government as consultants -- found levels in the dwellings that alarmed many assessing the health risk faced by New Yorkers. "If people continue living and working in places that still have dust in the carpets, furniture, drapes and heating and cooling system, these fibers will continue to be resuspended," Jenkins explained. "The elevated risk could be from around one in a thousand extra cancers to maybe as high as one in 10." Four other federal health experts -- two toxicologists, an epidemiologist and a physician -- from the EPA and the Centers for Disease Control, have studied the data gathered by Chatfield, Kominsky and a team headed by Hugh Granger of HP Environmental in Virginia. They agreed with Jenkins' interpretation of the data. From: <a href="http://www.asbestosnetwork.com/news/nw_020102_nyc_wtc.htm">www.asbestosnetwork.com/n...yc_wtc.htm</a> Asbestos Remains a Problem Near Trade Center NEW YORK, NY February 1, 2002 Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ombudsman Robert Martin recently opened an investigation into how the agency has handled air quality concerns in the World Trade Center area since the September 11 terrorist attacks. The study will concentrate on the type of testing performed and the EPA procedures for informing the public about levels of asbestos and other toxic substances. Various testing laboratories hired by neighborhood tenants, labor groups, and contractors have found elevated levels of asbestos in apartments and offices, according to news sources (Seattle Post-Intelligencer, January 14, 2002; Los Angeles Times, January 18, 2002). However, EPA administrator Christie Whitman and many New York City officials have repeatedly assured Lower Manhattan residents that their community is safe. A senior EPA scientist, Cate Jenkins, thinks otherwise. The asbestos contamination in Lower Manhattan, up to seven blocks away from Ground Zero, is comparable or higher than that found in Libby, Montana, a designated Superfund site, she states in a recent report. From: <a href="http://landofpuregold.com/truth38.htm">landofpuregold.com/truth38.htm</a> A Red Flag on Air Tests at WTC By Juan Gonzalez, NY Daily News March 21, 2002 In the days after Sept. 11, EPA officials used standards to determine dangerous asbestos contamination that were never intended to measure health risks, according to a new 43-page memo by a dissident Environmental Protection Agency scientist. Cate Jenkins, a 22-year veteran with the agency's Hazardous Waste Identification Division in Washington, charged that the agency "misrepresented safety levels and standards for asbestos" and failed to accurately detect possible health risks to the public. Jenkins first criticized her agency's handling of the World Trade Center disaster in late November, arguing that EPA officials effectively "waived" federal asbestos guidelines by endorsing lenient cleanup methods. In the days after Sept. 11, federal officials repeatedly referred to two "standards," one for asbestos in dust and debris and another for asbestos fibers in air. For dust and debris, the agency standard was 1% asbestos content. For air, it was usually 70 asbestos fibers per square millimeter of a testing filter. The "EPA has performed 62 dust sample analyses for the presence of asbestos and other substances. Most dust samples fall below EPA's definition of asbestos- containing material <1% asbestos," EPA Administrator Christie Whitman announced Sept. 18. Whitman was correct about one thing. Most dust samples were below the 1% standard, but a significant portion were not. Around 35% of those taken in the first few days were above 1%. But as Jenkins explains in her memo, federal regulations never meant the 1% figure to be considered a health standard or even to be applied to measure dust. "She's absolutely correct, this is not a health-based standard," said Joel Shufrot, the executive director of the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health. "People exposed to 1% or less can have significant exposure with adverse health impacts," he said. Edited by: <A HREF=http://p216.ezboard.com/brigorousintuition.showUserPublicProfile?gid=stickdog99>stickdog99</A> at: 8/4/06 6:20 am

by **stickdog99** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:05 am

UPDATE #1 -- <a href="http://www.nycosh.org/about_NYCOSH/NYCOSHNews/2003-April-News.html#anchor79703">www.nycosh.org/about_NYCO...nchor79703</a> EPA's 9/11 Air Ratings Distorted, Report Says By Elizabeth Shogren Los Angeles Times Staff Writer August 23, 2003 WASHINGTON -- In the days after the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, White House officials persuaded the Environmental Protection Agency to minimize its assessment of the dangers posed by airborne dust and debris from the skyscrapers' collapse, according to an internal agency report. The White House Council on Environmental Quality "convinced EPA to add reassuring statements and delete cautionary ones" from news releases, said the report by the EPA's inspector general office, an internal watchdog. For instance, a draft EPA news release for Sept. 16, 2001, warned that the air near the attack site could contain higher levels of asbestos, a carcinogen, than is considered safe. After input from the White House environmental council, the release as issued by the EPA said the asbestos levels met government standards and were "not a cause for public concern." The report also concluded that the EPA lacked sufficient data and analyses when, on Sept. 18, it announced that the air in Lower Manhattan was safe to breathe. At the time, air-monitoring data was not yet available for pollutants such as particulate matter and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, the report stated. <a href="http://www.nycosh.org/about_NYCOSH/NYCOSHNews/2003-Jan-Mar-News.html#anchor358854">www.nycosh.org/about_NYCO...chor358854</a> Sept. 11 Ground Zero Air Assurances Disputed By Chris Bowman and Edie Lau Sacramento Bee March 16, 2003 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's pollution tests in the smoke-filled days following the World Trade Center collapse did not support the agency's pronouncements that the air around ground zero was safe to breathe, an independent federal investigation has found. Further, the EPA reached its conclusion using a cancer risk level 100 times greater than what it traditionally deems "acceptable" for public exposure to toxic air contaminants, according to the EPA's Office of Inspector General. The "preliminary conclusions," contained in an internal OIG document obtained by The Bee reinforce the views of many doctors and public health advocates involved in the medical evaluations of thousands of firefighters, volunteers, demolition workers and immigrant laborers who toiled in the thick of the dust, smoke and fumes. "To say that it's safe, which suggests no risk - we just knew that was wrong," said Jonathan Bennett, spokesman for the New York Committee for Occupational Safety and Health, a labor union advocacy group, which had doctors in a roving van seeing cleanup workers. "The proof of this was in what you saw in the people in the van and in people being seen to this day at the Mount Sinai Medical Center," Bennett said. More than half the Ground Zero workers screened by health experts nearly a year after the attacks continued to suffer from lung, ear, nose and throat problems, according to a study released in January by Mount Sinai, in New York. ... The EPA's ombudsman at the time, Robert Martin, said in testimony last year before a Senate subcommittee that the EPA "has provided erroneous information to the public" and has "not used the best available technology to measure asbestos levels." Martin later resigned in protest, saying EPA Administrator Christie Whitman moved to silence him. Whitman denies the charge. A U.S. Geological Survey team found shortly after the attacks that some dust from the site was as caustic as drain cleaner because of the high concentration of pulverized cement, an alkaline substance. The team's conclusion, revealed by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch newspaper, had been sent to the EPA and other government agencies, but none made the finding public. And, in February last year, scientists at the University of California, Davis, reported that dust and fumes from the smoldering rubble exposed lower Manhattan residents to some of the highest levels of air pollution ever recorded. A study published last fall in the New England Journal of Medicine reported that 332, or 3.3 percent, of the 9,914 New York City firefighters on the scene in the week after Sept. 11 developed "World Trade Center cough," a severe and persistent hacking. "Within 24 hours after exposure, all 332 firefighters with World Trade Center cough reported having a productive cough; the sputum was usually black to grayish and infiltrated with 'pebbles or particles,'" the article states. ... Thomas Cahill, a physicist and international authority on air pollution who led the UCD study, said his laboratory analyses of air samples showed that the towers' collapse spewed enormous amounts of potentially lethal, extremely tiny particles of crushed and incinerated computers, glass, furniture and other building debris unrecognized by the EPA's air monitoring. "The EPA made a series of rather ordinary measurements and made pronouncements that were not supported by the facts," Cahill said last week upon learning of the OIG report. ... Whitman, the Bush appointed EPA administrator, made repeated assurances in the first few weeks after Sept. 11 that the air around the wreckage largely was safe to breathe. "Given the scope of the tragedy ... I am glad to reassure the people of New York and Washington, D.C., that the air is safe to breathe, and their water is safe to drink," Whitman announced one week after the terrorist strikes. The OIG also is focused on the role the White House played in drafting the EPA's press releases on the fallout of the World Trade Center collapse. A former EPA chief of staff "acknowledged that the content of the WTC press releases was heavily influenced by (President Bush's) Council on Environmental Quality," the OIG report states. "Selected e-mails indicate CEQ dictated (to the EPA public information office) the content of early press releases - 100 percent of what CEQ added was added; 100 percent of what CEQ deleted was deleted," the report states.

by **stickdog99** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:08 am

UPDATE #2 -- <a href="http://www.missoulian.com/articles/2005/02/08/news/top/news01.txt">www.missoulian.com/articl...news01.txt</a> W.R. Grace, executives indicted By COLIN McDONALD of the Missoulian The U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency announced Monday the indictment of W.R. Grace and Co. and seven current and former executives for knowingly endangering residents of Libby and concealing information about the health effects of its mining operations there. "A human and environmental tragedy has occurred in Libby," U.S. attorney for the District of Montana Bill Mercer said Monday from the front steps of the Missoula County Courthouse. "This prosecution seeks to hold Grace and some of its executives responsible for the misconduct alleged in the indictment." Libby residents welcomed the announcement. "When this started, we never thought it would get into all of this," said Norita Skramstad, who suffers from asbestosis along with her husband, Les, who worked at W.R. Grace's vermiculite mine. "It is criminal how they harmed so many people - not just in Libby, but all over the county." The corporation W.R. Grace along with senior vice president Robert J. Bettacchi and present and former employees Alan R. Stringer, Henry A. Eschenbach, Jack W. Wolter, William J. McCaig, O. Mario Favorito and Robert C. Walsh each have been charged with one count of conspiracy, three Clean Air Act violations of knowing endangerment, two counts of wire fraud and four counts of obstruction of justice. Stringer is a former manager of the now-closed mine, as is McCaig. Eschenbach is a former health officer of a W.R. Grace subsidiary, Favorito is the company's chief legal counsel, and Walsh is Grace's former vice president. Asbestos contamination in Libby was brought to the nation's attention in 1999 after newspaper reports linked the vermiculite mine's pollution with the deaths of nearly 200 people and illness in hundreds more. The EPA has since declared the Libby area a Superfund cleanup site. The vermiculite mined in Libby was used in a number of household products, including home insulation and potting soil. With the vermiculite, though, came a deadly airborne byproduct - tremolite asbestos. The indictment charges that W.R. Grace executives knew the mine operations caused the airborne release of asbestos - and understood that they were placing mine workers, family members of mine workers and those living in surrounding Lincoln County communities in imminent danger of death or serious bodily injury. The indictment further claims that W.R. Grace officials conspired to defraud the EPA and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services by withholding information and delaying government investigators. "It was a purpose of the conspiracy to increase profits and avoid liability by misleading the government and preventing the government from using its authorities to protect against risks to human health and the environment," the indictment states.

by **stickdog99** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 5:25 am

UPDATE #3 -- <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2006/08/02/911_dust_may_have_aged_rescuers_lungs_early/">www.boston.com/news/natio...ngs_early/</a> 9/11 dust may have aged rescuers' lungs early Study indicates 12 years' worth of function loss By Catherine Larkin, Bloomberg | August 2, 2006 WASHINGTON -- Dust and smoke from the collapse of the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, caused the lungs of rescue workers to age by an average of 12 years and may put them at risk of developing chronic breathing problems, a study said. Tests done on 11,766 New York City firefighters and paramedics who responded to the terrorist attacks indicated that many suffered a loss of lung function in the next year that was equivalent on average to about 12 years of age-related decline. Firefighters who arrived first had more frequent and severe bouts of wheezing and chest pain than those who came more than 48 hours later. Protective equipment such as masks were used by only 22 percent of early responders the day they arrived, according to findings published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. "Initial lack of adequate equipment and subsequent compliance problems diminished any protective impact," study author Gisela Banauch said in a statement. Researchers at Montefiore Medical Center in New York compared lung functioning of firefighters who had been screened prior to the attack with tests taken during the following year. The percentage of fire personnel with below-normal lung-functioning measurements doubled in all exposure groups, even among those who arrived at the site on the third day.

by **sunny** » Fri Aug 04, 2006 9:17 am

Excellent work, stickdog99.

by * » Fri Aug 04, 2006 11:11 am

<a href="http://www.commondreams.org/headlines/080400-02.htm">Cheney's Firm Backed Bill To Limit Asbestos Liability</a> <a href="http://www.mesothel.com/pages/halliburton_jail.htm">Hatch Asbestos Bill Gets Halliburton Out of Jail Free!</a> <a href="http://www.mesothel.com/">AsbestosSolidarityUpdate</a>

Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Asbestos, WTC & Wellstone

Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Asbestos, WTC & Wellstone

Re: Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Asbestos, WTC & Wellstone

Re: Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Asbestos, WTC & Wellstone

Re: Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Asbestos, WTC & Wellstone

Re: Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Asbestos, WTC & Wellstone

Re: Plane Crashes, WR Grace, Asbestos, WTC & Wellstone

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