By Derrick Z. Jackson
In the U.S., gun violence kills nearly 40,000 people a year and has killed nearly 40,000 or so children and teenagers since 1999, and yet the nation is still without serious gun control. Another 40,000 people die each year in traffic accidents, including 1,200 children 14 and under. Yet we eschew policies used abroad that could cut the toll by half.
As the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) documents in its new report, Endangering Generations: How the Trump Administration's Assault on Science is Harming Children's Health, asbestos is a lesser known, but no less potent member of the American annual "40,000 Death Club." The current attempt by the Trump administration to severely limit research on asbestos exposure may create a whole new class of victims: today's children who attend crumbling old schools and breathe in poisonous fibers from damaged asbestos boiler and pipe insulation and floor and ceiling tiles.
Asbestos is a carcinogenic mineral now banned in more than 60 nations. But it has never been fully prohibited in the U.S. even after asbestos makers were exposed in the 1970s for having covered up the potentially lethal effects of their products in manufacturing, building insulation, and fireproofing. Raw asbestos is no longer mined in the U.S. But it is still being imported, primarily for the chlorine industry. It is also still found in automotive brakes and some building roofing and ceiling tile.
Like cigarettes, asbestos is a time bomb causing disease in victims decades after exposure in this case lung cancer and mesothelioma. Historically, the people at risk from asbestos-related disease were those who worked with asbestos in the 20th century, primarily men in the construction trades, miners, millers, auto mechanics, and ship builders. But today the toll is broadening out. As sure as our unchecked proliferation of guns haunts us with school shootings and teen carnage among the poor, the failure to ban asbestos has resulted in widespread and potentially deadly chronic risks that reach down to our youngest citizens and their teachers.
The first mesothelioma deaths have now occurred among 9/11 first responders who worked in toxic clouds at Ground Zero after the collapse and fires of the twin towers of the World Trade Center in 2001. Also, a 2017 report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that exposure continues today to workers involved in the maintenance, demolition, and remediation of buildings with asbestos. "Contrary to past projections, the number of malignant mesothelioma deaths has been increasing," the report said.
In 2018, the New York Times obtained memos under the Freedom of Information Act that exposed that officials at Johnson & Johnson were aware in the 1970s that the company's iconic baby powder talc could be contaminated with asbestos and yet worked to discredit or silence research that suggested contamination. Two years ago, a St. Louis jury awarded $4.7 billion to 22 women who claimed their ovarian cancer was caused by the baby powder, often used as a feminine hygiene product. Five months ago, Johnson & Johnson recalled 33,000 bottles of baby powder after the Food and Drug Administration found trace amounts of asbestos in samples.
Will we soon be adding children and teachers to the toll? Nowhere in America is the wholesale disintegration of asbestos installed decades ago as evident as in the nation's schools.
The UCS report notes that school buildings built from 1946 to 1972 likely contain asbestos, with the highest proportion of unacceptable structures being found in low-income communities and districts where most students are of color. All of that is on unconscionable display in Philadelphia where the teachers' union is suing the city's school board for hazardous levels of asbestos dust in decrepit buildings.
In 2018, the Philadelphia Inquirer conducted an investigation of many schools, finding levels of asbestos dust on school surfaces 11 to 1,700 times higher than the levels mandated by federal cleanup requirements for apartments near Ground Zero. The newspaper also found unacceptably elevated levels of lead.
By spring of 2019, when the Inquirer was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for its expos, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf announced more than $100 million in emergency lead cleanup and general hazardous cleanup funds for Philadelphia schools. Last month, Wolf proposed $1 billion for statewide remediation of asbestos and lead in schools.
But that could not contain the crisis in a system with $4.5 billion of documented deficiencies in its school buildings. This school year, seven schools have been closed for extensive asbestos damage. One teacher, who worked in a 90-year-old building and often swept up dust from flaking heating pipe insulation and busted ceiling tiles before class, is undergoing chemotherapy for mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer triggered by asbestos.
In at least one school closure, the stench of race and class environmental injustice was on vivid display. Ben Franklin High School, comprised almost entirely of youth of color who qualify as poor, was not closed until after it also became the home of a magnet school that is 38 percent white, with half of those students above the poverty line. As Ben Franklin teacher told the Philadelphia Inquirer, "When it was us, the district didn't feel like they needed to have any immediacy."
The lack of immediacy has existed for decades. Jerry Roseman, chief environmental science and public health expert since 1985 for the Philadelphia Federation of Teachers, said it galls him that his sense of outrage and disbelief in school conditions is the same today as it was 35 years ago. In an interview with the Union of Concerned Scientists, he said he had just inspected an overcrowded school where playful children were literally banging into damaged asbestos pipe insulation, damaging the asbestos even more, calling it a systemic failure including school district leadership and politicians.
"What is clear across the country is that school boards neither understand facility conditions and leave them alone to deteriorate and definitely don't understand the impacts on the health, safety, and welfare of children and staff," Roseman said. He noted how parents and teachers are taking things into their own hands with a mobile app to photograph and report disintegrating infrastructure. "You can have great teachers and great principals," he added, "but you do not get great or safe education if you do not take care of a foundational needthe facility."
Nationally, the threat of toxic school buildings has barely been studied despite the 1986 Asbestos Hazardous Emergency Response Act (AHERA) to address airborne asbestos in schools. A 2015 report commissioned by senators Ed Markey of Massachusetts and Barbara Boxer of California found that two-thirds of the school districts in 15 responding states had asbestos. Thirty states did not respond to the inquiry at all. Noting that the Environmental Protection Agency had not seriously analyzed school asbestos since 1984, the Markey-Boxer report said the carcinogen remains "ubiquitous" in schools, with the extent "unknown."
The EPA, under flat funding for most of the last decade, conducts so few inspections under AHERA that a 2018 Inspector General report said, "The EPA has not documented that the risk of asbestos exposure in schools has diminished significantly under AHERA."
President Obama worked with Congress to try to strengthen scrutiny of toxics like asbestos with the 2016 Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety Act. But, when it comes to asbestos, the Trump administration attempted to gut the act by trying to exclude asbestos already installed in places like schools ("legacy use") from calculations of risk assessment. Never mind that the White House understands quite well that asbestos is a major health threat. Last summer it conducted $250,000 asbestos abatement in the West Wing office areas occupied by President Trump's daughter Ivanka, presidential counselor Kellyanne Conway, policy adviser Stephen Miller, and economic adviser Larry Kudlow.
Environmental groups, including the Union of Concerned Scientists, joined with labor unions and family advocacy groups to challenge the EPA and a host of chemical industry groups and the US Chamber of Commerce in court. In November, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals declared the administration's attempt to exclude legacy use was unlawful, agreeing that workers face major risks when "equipment or structures are demolished, repaired, or refurbished."
That ruling, combined with a science-minded federal government, should easily be applied to children who currently go to schools that should have long ago been demolished, repaired, or refurbished. As it is now, Linda Reinstein, co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, which was a co-petitioner against the EPA's attack on legacy use, says America is rolling the dice by letting children study and play in asbestos dust. As Reinstein notes, health effects will not manifest themselves until these children are well into adulthood and long since removed from the source school of their disease. Reinstein lost her husband Alan to mesothelioma and an asbestos ban bill has been filed in Congress in his name.
"Even though the latency period is long, I've seen parents tearful and terrified," Reinstein told UCS, "worried that every cough is a precursor of something worse about to happen. If you're a student and you know you've been exposed, you lie with the fear the rest of your life that you've been exposed to something that is life changing. . .The fact that we haven't been studying legacy exposure should be a crime."
In 1984, the EPA found that, of the 2,600 schools testing positive for asbestos in its sample, only 500 had a plan to deal with it. Today, the Trump administration is trying to avoid testing for legacy installations altogether, in the obvious effort not to be responsible for a remediation plan. That effort was ruled illegal, but given the spiteful nature of this administration, it is more likely to respond by dragging its feet rather than leaping to protect children. That leaves the time bomb ticking, with the risk of asbestos exposure today exploding in the lungs of today's children tomorrow.
For more on this and other threats to children's health, including what you can do about them, you can read the new UCS storybook Breath in the Smog, Drink in the Lead: A Grim Scary Tale for People Who Care about Kids and its accompanying resource guide and report, Endangering Generations: How the Trump Administration's Assault on Science is Harming Children's Health.
Derrick Z. Jackson is a UCS Fellow in climate and energy and the Center for Science and Democracy. He is an award-winning journalist and co-author and photographer of Project Puffin: The Improbable Quest to Bring a Beloved Seabird Back to Egg Rock, published by Yale University Press (2015).
Reposted with permission from the Union of Concerned Scientists.
From Your Site Articles
Related Articles Around the Web
Visit link:
Asbestos, Ubiquitous and Unavoidable, Is a Deadly Threat to Our Kids - EcoWatch
- Diagnosing Pleural Mesothelioma with Lung Fluid: The Battle of the Biomarkers - Surviving Mesothelioma - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Republican Health Care Bill Includes Asbestos Exposure Funding for Libby Residents - Mesothelioma.com - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Pembrolizumab shows promise in treatment of mesothelioma - Science Daily - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Veterans with Mesothelioma Benefit from Telephone Triage - Asbestos.com - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Survival Rates Slowly Improving - Mesothelioma.net Blog (blog) - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Understanding Mesothelioma Caregiver Styles - Asbestos.com (blog) - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Patients Turn to Cannabis - AlterNet - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma | Overview, Treatment Options and Survivor Stories - March 24th, 2017 [March 24th, 2017]
- Accelerated Approval Granted to Drug in Mesothelioma Research Pipeline - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- New Study Affirms Mesothelioma Survival Benefit with Post-Surgical IMRT, According to Surviving Mesothelioma - Benzinga - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- The Key to Mesothelioma Treatment Success with Immunotherapy - Surviving Mesothelioma - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- New Evidence Supports Post-Surgical IMRT for Mesothelioma Treatment - Surviving Mesothelioma - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Shorter Mesothelioma Survival Linked to High Platelet Count - Asbestos.com - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Victims Center Now Appeals to All Diagnosed ... - Yahoo Finance - April 8th, 2017 [April 8th, 2017]
- Early research suggests first immunotherapy for mesothelioma on the horizon - Medical Xpress - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Bristol-Myers Squibb's Opdivo, Yervoy put the brakes on mesothelioma in phase 2 - FiercePharma - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Methanol from African Plants Kills Mesothelioma Cells - Asbestos.com - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Patients to be Celebrated on National Cancer Survivor's Day - Mesothelioma.net Blog (blog) - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- IO Strategy In Mesothelioma Finally Gets Mapped Out | Seeking Alpha - Seeking Alpha - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- New Blood Test Could Mean Earlier Mesothelioma Diagnosis - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Using Viruses to Boost Mesothelioma Immunotherapy - Asbestos.com - June 6th, 2017 [June 6th, 2017]
- Resilience Can Help Mesothelioma Patients and Their Families ... - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Janet Stanton Schnitzer Remembers Her Father's Mesothelioma Battle - Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center (blog) - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Treating Mesothelioma: A rare, aggressive caner - ABC2 News - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Asbestos and Mesothelioma Lawsuits: What to Expect | Nolo.com - June 7th, 2017 [June 7th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Victims Center Now Urges a Roofer/Insulator With Mesothelioma to Call About Why It Is Necessary to ... - PR Newswire (press release) - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Patients May Have Another Treatment Option With FDA Expanded-Use Approval of Lung Cancer Drug - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- A Breath Test for Mesothelioma? - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Cancer: 12 Essential Facts - Asbestos News - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma - NHS Choices - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- 15-year Mesothelioma Survivor Living Life By Design - Asbestos.com (blog) - June 9th, 2017 [June 9th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Cancer Overview | Experienced Lawyers Here to Help - June 11th, 2017 [June 11th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Victims Center Now Urges a Diagnosed Machinist to Call for Direct Access to Journeyman-Level ... - PR Newswire (press release) - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- Honeywell Fails in Appeal Against Mesothelioma Verdict - Mesothelioma.net Blog (blog) - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Patients Can See Improved Survival By Reporting Side Effects - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - June 12th, 2017 [June 12th, 2017]
- What is Mesothelioma? | Surviving Mesothelioma - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- Cases of Pleural Mesothelioma - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 13th, 2017 [June 13th, 2017]
- The Importance of Cancer Research in Immunotherapy - Mesothelioma.com (blog) - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Hopes High for Mesothelioma Immunotherapy Treatment ... - Mesothelioma.net Blog (blog) - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Asbestos Sprayers Face Higher Lifetime Mesothelioma Risk ... - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Remembering Loved Ones Lost to Mesothelioma, Looking Forward to Progress in Treatment - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - June 14th, 2017 [June 14th, 2017]
- Chicago Public Schools Ignoring Asbestos Problem - Mesothelioma.com - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Length of Time Between Surgeries a Marker for Mesothelioma Survival - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Survivor Deals with Pain 15 Years After Surgery - Asbestos.com (blog) - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Nivolumab and Ipillimumab Show Promise in Treating Mesothelioma Recurrence - Mesothelioma.com - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Patients Should Heed FDA Warnings Regarding Miracle Cures - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - June 16th, 2017 [June 16th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Patients May Benefit from Marijuana Research - Mesothelioma.net Blog (blog) - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- The Challenges of Research in Immunotherapy - Mesothelioma.com (blog) - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Despite Mesothelioma Diagnosis, Dad Loved Father's Day - Asbestos.com (blog) - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- I Want to Keep Writing About Mesothelioma and My Family's Journey Because It Matters - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Clinical Trial Opens with High Expectations - Asbestos.com - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- Cediranib May be Safe Supplement to Mesothelioma Treatment - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 17th, 2017 [June 17th, 2017]
- New Trial Finds VEGF-Inhibitor May Safely Boost Mesothelioma ... - Benzinga - June 18th, 2017 [June 18th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Symptoms - Identify Early Warning Signs - June 18th, 2017 [June 18th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Victims Center Now Urges a Diagnosed Construction Worker or Plumber to Call for Instant Access to the ... - PR Newswire (press release) - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Treatment May Benefit From New Discovery ... - Mesothelioma.net Blog (blog) - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- The Influence of BAP1 on Mesothelioma Survival - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Clinical Trial to Assess If Radiation Therapy Can Bring Effective Relief from Mesothelioma Pain - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Asbestos Exposure Attorneys - Mesothelioma Lawsuits ... - June 20th, 2017 [June 20th, 2017]
- Can a Breath Test Diagnose Mesothelioma in the Early Stages? - Asbestos.com - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Compensation Center Now Urges an Electric Utility Worker or Electrician with Mesothelioma to Aim High ... - PR Newswire (press release) - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Nurse Explains Mesothelioma Staging - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- 5 Questions: Treatment options exist for mesothelioma - Las Vegas Review-Journal - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Steve McQueen's Wife Pushes for Asbestos Ban - Mesothelioma.com - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Remembering Mesothelioma Victims in the UK - Mesothelioma.com (blog) - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Peritoneal Cancer Index: What it Means for Mesothelioma Patients - Mesothelioma & Asbestos Awareness Center (blog) - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Risk Continues to Rise for Decades After Asbestos Exposure - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 21st, 2017 [June 21st, 2017]
- Nintedanib Combination Delayed Progression in Malignant Mesothelioma - Cancer Network - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- Polish Study Confirms That Mesothelioma Risk Only Increases With ... - Mesothelioma.net Blog (blog) - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- The Mesothelioma Victims Center Now Urges a Diagnosed Navy ... - PR Newswire (press release) - June 22nd, 2017 [June 22nd, 2017]
- Targeted Therapy May Soon be Primary Approach for Mesothelioma Treatment - MesotheliomaHelp.org (blog) - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Time Between Surgeries Helps Predict Mesothelioma Survival - Asbestos.com - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Testicular and Cardiac Mesothelioma - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Veterans Center - Access Benefits & VA Claims - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Malignant Mesothelioma (Asbestos Cancer) > The Mesothelioma ... - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Law Firm | Sokolove Law - June 23rd, 2017 [June 23rd, 2017]
- MicroRNAs May Be Key to Better Immunotherapy for Mesothelioma - Surviving Mesothelioma - June 24th, 2017 [June 24th, 2017]
- Mesothelioma Survival Rate | Factors Affecting Survivorship - June 24th, 2017 [June 24th, 2017]
- Scientists "Turn Off" Tumor-Protecting Protein in New Mesothelioma Study, According to Surviving Mesothelioma - Benzinga - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]
- Symptoms of Mesothelioma - Critical Signs to Watch For - June 26th, 2017 [June 26th, 2017]