Summer Asbestos Hearing in US Congress
On Tuesday, July 31, 2001 a Senate subcommittee of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee heard testimony on the human cost of asbestos use in the US. Contributions from the Department of Labor, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and the Environmental Protection Agency were supplemented by evidence from independent asbestos experts and the personal testimony of asbestos victims and their doctors. Calls to ban asbestos were heard from victims, physicians, researchers and scientists.
Dr. Richard Lemen, a former Assistant Surgeon General of the United States, predicted that up to 330,000 asbestos deaths will occur over the next three decades in the US. These fatalities are the result of occupational exposure to asbestos. In 1990, a government agency estimated that 400,000 citizens were still working with asbestos. Lemen said: "The future mortality from asbestos related disease will continue to occur well into this new millennium." These figures do not begin to tell the whole story. The number of people working unknowingly with products containing asbestos and unsuspecting consumers using contaminated products will add to the death toll. A plastic bag with Brazilian made asbestos-containing gaskets (unlabelled) which had been purchased in Houston, Texas days earlier was a graphic demonstration of the ongoing risks to the public. Citing a long list of countries which have banned asbestos, Lemen stated: "Now is the time for the United States to join the growing list of Nations that have banned the further importation and use of asbestos."
[Text of Dr. Lemen's testimony]
Dr Barry Castleman echoed these sentiments: "If all these countries can ban asbestos, surely the US can, too." Castleman, who has studied the public health implications of asbestos as a Chemical and Environmental Engineer for over thirty years, was categorical in his view on the efficacy of regulations to control the problems caused by the use of asbestos: "nothing works better than a ban." The US is still importing asbestos-cement construction materials (50,000 metric tons last year), asbestos brake shoes and linings ($89 million worth of brake linings and pads last year) and other asbestos products (over 200 metric tons of asbestos yarn, thread and clothing and $9 million worth of asbestos goods and friction materials for use in aircraft last year).
[Text of Dr. Castleman's testimony]
The White Lung Association, which lobbies on behalf of asbestos victims, was represented at the hearing by Jim Fite, the Reverend Knight and a busload of asbestos victims. Former mineworker George Biekkola has asbestosis. This independent sixty-seven year old man loves travelling and hunting; the damage to his lungs means that he is no longer able to even mow the lawn. He said: "I’m here today to tell you my story so that maybe someone else working in a mine or brake shop or a factory won’t lose the things I have lsot. Companies will tell you asbestos is not a problem -- just like they told me. Senators, they lied. We need to worry about asbestos. And we need our government to protect us."
A vermiculite mine in Libby, Montana produced ore contaminated with asbestos exposing the miners, their families and the public to a high level of risk. Health screening carried out by the federal government on 1,067 Libby residents has revealed that 30 per cent have signs of asbestos-related diseases. Alan Whitehouse, a physician who has treated many people from Libby, told the hearing: "In the last five years I have seen an alarming number of patients from Libby, who had no direct exposure to the mine to the miners but obtained the disease from living in Libby."
Dr. Michael Harbut, a Michigan physician, has had considerable experience with asbestos victims. He urged the Senators to support a ban saying: "For decades, the society, the courts and much of the government have regarded asbestosis as a legal inconvenience. My patients and I ask you to understand that to them and their families, asbestosis means disease and death."
Senator Patty Murray, the committee member who convened the meeting of the Subcommittee for Public Health, was clearly disturbed by the realisation that in 1999, 15,000 metric tons of asbestos were imported into the country. The Democratic Senator would not commit herself to supporting a ban despite her obvious concern: "there are far too many people who believe asbestos has been banned decades ago and it’s in their homes, their workplaces, they’re being exposed to it and they have no idea. It is very disconcerting to me that people do not know about it."
August 30, 2001
