Articles Tagged with Asbestos Abatement

For over a hundred years, asbestos was used in most aspects of construction, production, and manufacturing. Those in the industry were well aware of the dangers their products posed to workers and consumers, but they were willing to not only ignore those risks, but also to take great efforts to hide the dangers from those being most affected.  They did this because they were making huge profits from using asbestos material, and they also knew it would take decades for the average person exposed to asbestos to become sick enough to go to a doctor and find out what was wrong with them. Once they went to a doctor for a diagnosis, the deadly cancer was likely in the end stage and patients were told they had only a very short time left to live.

While we would expect there to be a reduction in malignant mesothelioma diagnoses in recent years as asbestos is no longer used to the extent it once was, we are still seeing thousands of new cases each year. One of the reasons for this is because asbestos installed decades ago, which once was very harmful to the workers, is now in a state of decay where it is once again exposing people to deadly asbestos fibers. Continue reading

Asbestos issues plague Boston, particularly anytime a property owner delves into a renovation. The fact is, Boston is an older city and many construction materials from the last century utilized this toxic substance. Anytime those fibers are disturbed, the risk of dangerous exposure exists .

According to a recent news report form Fox 25 Boston, tenants in a Boston area apartment complex were shocked to learn that a supposedly routine bathroom renovation has created a serious asbestos exposure scare.  At this point, the Commonwealth is involved in the case, and the asbestos abatement project is suspended as an investigation is conducted.

The trouble started when the landlord allegedly sent a letter to residents on April 5, 2017 informing them that renovations are being performed to make the place better, and this includes newly renovated bathrooms.  Everyone was seemingly on board with this announcement, because who wouldn’t want a newly remodeled bathroom? Continue reading

According to a recent news article from the Bangor Daily News, an asbestos abatement (removal) project at an old mill location will cost around $16 million to complete.   This location has been tested and is known to contain above-ground asbestos and other toxins, as well as underground toxins.

This huge factory was once a very profitable paper mill that produced tissues and bonded writing paper.  However, like many paper mills, it used a large amount of caustic chemicals in the paper making process.  Asbestos was used because of its natural ability to resist caustic chemicals, as well as fire, heat, and electricity. Continue reading

This past summer, school officials in Teaticket were told that workers installing new air conditioning vents discovered what they believed to be asbestos.  After inspectors took samples and sent those samples for a microscopic analysis and confirmed there was asbestos, school officials knew they could not open on time this school year and held an emergency meeting with parents to discuss the alternatives.

In addition to making arrangements for the students to go to other elementary schools until Teaticket in Falmouth could be cleaned up, they worked on getting the proper permits and setting up an asbestos abatement plan.  Town selectmen voted to release $300,000 in funds and an emergency amount appropriate to pay for the asbestos abatement. However, the actual cleanup cost is turning out to be a lot higher than they initially estimated. Continue reading

According to a recent news article from Insurance Journal, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) felt it had no choice but to send its own staff into a New York factory to stop the spread of deadly asbestos fibers, as they have become a major threat to local officials.  The EPA is stepping in at the request of the local government, as the local officials do not have the resources to protect the community from the threat of exposure from asbestos.

The factory consists of multiple buildings and has been closed and abandoned for several years.  The buildings were constructed at time when asbestos was heavily used in many aspects of construction and also production. While the asbestos was very hazardous to the workers when the buildings were going up, once principal construction was complete, there was no major danger for the most part.  However, as there were likely renovations over the years, it is probable that workers were exposed to the deadly asbestos fibers from time time. Continue reading

As many may have heard, a commuter train recently crashed in New Jersey, resulting in the death of a woman who was standing on the station platform at the time, as well as the injury of more than 100 people.   The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is currently investigating the cause of the deadly train accident, but they have run into a roadblock of sorts in their investigation, and that roadblock is the presence of deadly asbestos fibers, according to a recent news feature from NBC News.

What investigators do know as of this time is that the train entered the Hoboken station at a very high rate of speed.  Passengers on the train noticed they were traveling very fast and realized something was not right. The train did not engage its brakes and crashed at this high rate of speed.  Once witness said he saw the train had hit a large pylon and then crashed into a stationary store in the station.  There were over a hundred people on the train and wandering around the station.  Many of these victims were covered in blood and were described as being dazed by those who saw them, including first responders. Continue reading

Teaticket Elementary School in Falmouth remains closed as the new academic year begins, due to concerns of student exposure to asbestos.

School officials had hired a contractor to work on the facility this summer to address a number of repair and maintenance issues. However, during the course of the construction work, some ceiling tiles were damaged, and inspectors immediately became concerned that those tiles contained asbestos.

These tiles were made at a time when asbestos was used in virtually every aspect of construction and building materials and tiles were among one of the major offenders in terms of containing the deadly asbestos files.  As is required, the inspectors hired an asbestos abatement contractor to come in and take samples of the tiles.  Trained and certified asbestos inspectors take the samples, and the samples themselves are securely stored and transported to a materials testing lab to perform a microscopic analysis.  In the case of this school, it was confirmed that asbestos was present in the tiles and was now posing a risk to anyone in the school. Continue reading