Asbestos is the only known catalyst for the lethal cancer mesothelioma.  Asbestos and asbestos products have largely disappeared from the market, but it has not disappeared from millions of American homes.  The EPA treats asbestos products as an ongoing problem because removing many of them can cause exposure to deadly asbestos fibers as older asbestos products break and crumble.

The agency notes that homes built up to 1977 may have asbestos products in them.  Their list of potential sites:

• Some roofing and siding shingles are made of asbestos cement.
• Houses built between 1930 and 1950 may have asbestos as insulation.
• Asbestos may be present in textured paint and in patching compounds used on wall and ceiling joints. Their use was banned in 1977.
• Artificial ashes and embers sold for use in gas-fired fireplaces may contain asbestos.
• Older products such as stove-top pads may have some asbestos compounds.
• Walls and floors around wood burning stoves may be protected with asbestos paper, millboard, or cement sheets.
• Asbestos is found in some vinyl floor tiles and the backing on vinyl sheet flooring and adhesives.
• Hot water and steam pipes in older houses may be coated with an asbestos material or covered with an asbestos blanket or tape.
• Oil and coal furnaces and door gaskets may have asbestos insulation.

Ironically, the EPA feels that asbestos removal from the home may be the most dangerous option, simply because disturbing it may cause dust carrying asbestos fibers.  To see the full list of their recommendations on checking and treating your home for asbestos, visit;

http://www.epa.gov/

Asbestos was a popular ingredient in hundreds of home construction products through about 1975, when asbestos was identified as the source of mesothelioma and other respiratory afflictions.  The use of asbestos in construction materials has been almost entirely phased out, but millions of homes in this country still contain materials that have asbestos as a component.

Examples include asphalt and vinyl floor tiles, sheet vinyl flooring , adhesives for securing and masking, acoustic ceiling texture, heat duct insulation, asphalt composition roofing materials, plaster, stucco, drywall and joint compound.  That’s a partial list and there are many brand names and product variations to consider as well.

Many if not most home inspection contracts will exclude the disclosure of asbestos products.  The purpose is simple: these companies do not want their inspectors and the company exposed to liability over asbestos products.  There are so many common building materials that might contain asbestos that an inspector could easily list most and miss a few, leaving the client in the position of buying a contaminated home.

There are certainly many inspectors that will point out the potential of roof tiles or flooring for asbestos content on an informal basis.  It is also important to note that the presence of asbestos per se is not an immediate health threat.

Asbestos products that have been long installed will not give off dust containing the lethal asbestos fibers unless the material is disturbed.  But if you are considering a remodel on your home and it dates back a few decades, check on asbestos content before you begin and hire a licensed asbestos removal firm if you intend to remove anything that might be a problem.

One of the more interesting recent tales about asbestos and community health has been the events that followed discovery of a mesothelioma “hot spot” in the little town of Libby, Montana.

Libby became a mining town when commercial mines opened up to dig vermiculite from the surrounding hills.  These mines became steady employment for many of Libby’s residents.  They also became a source of asbestos fibers because asbestos is a component of vermiculite.  The mines are owned by corporate giant W.R. Grace, the company that has become a target of lawsuits filed against the company by Libby residents who have developed asbestosis, mesothelioma and other respiratory damage.

A couple of facts make this story different from the many thousands of liability suits filed against asbestos companies.  The first is that seven corporate officials of W.R. Grace face criminal charges because the company knew from some point in the early 1970s that mining activities were hazardous to their employees.

The other interesting nugget is a peer-reviewed government study in which 7,300 people from Libby and surrounding Lincoln County were given chest X-rays and medical interviews. The study found more than 1,300 of those tested had lung abnormalities consistent with asbestos-related disease.

Currently, about 3,000 people are diagnosed with mesothelioma each year in the U.S.  The huge number of affected individuals in that study makes it clear that asbestos fibers can do their damage in the home as well as in the mine.  The study was a cross-section of local residents – male, female, and of varying ages.  Clearly, asbestos fibers carried home on job clothes and borne through the air by dust clouds has impacted the households that Libby’s miners were supporting.

Residents of an apartment complex in Colorado Springs have found themselves victims of asbestos pollution as the result of an arson fire at Castle West Apartments.  The Colorado Springs Gazette reports that a lawsuit representing fifty three former residents has been filed against the owners of the complex.  The suit alleges many violations of health and safety codes: one of those alleged violations is failure to advise potential tenants that the building contained asbestos, prior to signing of lease agreements.

The complaint about asbestos is based on the substantial financial impact on residents caused by the fire and the asbestos fibers spread by the smoke and efforts by firefighters to extinguish the blaze.  The building’s owner has brought in specialists to clean smoke and water damaged property and returned those items that could be restored to their owners.

What many former Castle West tenants have found, however, is that much of their property could not be decontaminated with regard to asbestos.  The porous surfaces of upholstered furniture, drapery, clothing and linens would not yield the asbestos fibers that had attached themselves.  Furniture, clothing and other household items that otherwise appeared normal had to be disposed of because they had asbestos fibers “woven” into fabrics and surface coverings.

A new sub group of mesothelioma suffers has arrived. Dubbed the “third wave”, more females are falling victim to mesothelioma cancers than ever before. The adult female mesothelioma sufferers that are appearing are suspected to be from a generation where, as children, they played or lived in close contact with parents who began destroying or removing asbestos-laden material while improving or remodeling homes.

The generation prior were exposed to asbestos as children without any forethought to their health as adults. At the time of exposure, asbestos materials, found in insulation, roofing, and wall board materials, were in heavy use in the housing industry when the consequence of exposure was still not known. These children were exposed to air borne particulate matter without any thought to preventative measures, such as respiration equipment, or simply removal from the contaminated area when demolition was taking place.

The number of people coming forward with mesothelioma diagnoses without a history of work place exposure is growing, steadily increasing since the early 1990s. Many of the new cases are directly related to having lived or having participated first hand in home renovations. The new generation of sufferers may have been exposed to asbestos several years ago, even before they were old enough to remember the renovation work. Mesothelioma exposure as a child has the same long-term health effects as those adults who were exposed on job sites in industries such as shipbuilding, industrial plumbing, and boiler maintenance.

For those who suspect they have been exposed to mesothelioma as a child, a health screen and examination is in order to assess for disease and scarring of lung tissues after asbestos has been inhaled during the renovation process. For those whose parents are still living, an appropriate measure would be to ask if the victim had been exposed to renovation environments in early developmental years.

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