Detroit demolition plan halted due to asbestos concerns

Detroit demolition plan halted due to asbestos concerns

Representatives from the City of Detroit, Michigan, meant well, but nearly put lives in danger recently with plans to demolish around 3,000 dilapidated homes and other buildings in a blighted area. The project, whose ultimate goal was to remove 10,000 dangerous abandoned buildings over the next four years and eliminate risks like collapse, fire and disease, was featured in the local newspaper, the Detroit Free Press. As it turned out, someone from the state Department of Natural Resources and Environment was reading, and the story raised a red flag.

After a quick investigation, DNRE spokesman Robert McCann told the Free Press the agency discovered the City had not completed required asbestos inspections on the properties scheduled for demolition. The City also had not notified the state – which is required by law – of the planned demolition. The planned project was halted April 5, and City officials met with DNRE representatives to learn what they should do.

According to the Free Press, representatives from the City said they were unaware they were violating any federal regulations, and said the City has not had a history of inspecting buildings for the presence of asbestos before demolition under past administrations. The current Mayor is Dave Bing.

Some demolition occurred before DNRE officials were able to call a halt; however, subsequent asbestos testing did not find any asbestos present. The project is under the direction of the City’s Buildings and Safety Engineering Department. The houses planned for demolition are located in southwest Detroit. The City still plans to demolish 3,000 structures by the end of this year, and 10,000 structures during the next four years.

Federal regulations require that businesses or individuals planning demolition first test the structure for the presence of asbestos, remove any asbestos that is found using approved abatement procedures to ensure the safety of workers and the public, and provide a 10-day notice to the DNRE before beginning demolition. Violations could incur fines of up to $27,500 per day, and jail time. It was not noted in the Free Press story if the City is in danger of being prosecuted for its violations.

However, public interest in the story did raise awareness about the dangers of asbestos exposure, which can result in mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that affects the lining of the chest and lungs, the lining of the abdomen, or the lining of the heart. As a result of reader interest, the newspaper published a helpful Q&A about asbestos exposure the following day.

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Former Inspector Who Faked Safety Tests Is Sentenced

A federal judge on Tuesday sentenced an ailing former safety inspector to more than five years in prison for faking hundreds of asbestos and lead test reports, saying that his crimes were monumental and had put New York City’s residents at risk.

John Marshall Mantel for The New York Times

The case against the inspector, Saverio F. Todaro, who pleaded guilty in March to mail fraud, environmental crimes and making false statements, and the breadth and simplicity of his offenses revealed the city’s system of oversight and enforcement as strained at best and raised questions about whether such improper conduct was more widespread.

Mr. Todaro never performed hundreds of tests but filed false reports and failed to submit laboratory reports in some instances.

At the sentencing in United States District Court in Manhattan, Mr. Todaro, a wizened 68-year-old, sat hunched over in a wheelchair, breathing with the aid of an oxygen tank and sometimes holding his hand to his head as his lawyer argued for a sentence of home detention.

The lawyer, Steven M. Statsinger, acknowledged that his client’s crimes had been “unusually severe,” because they occurred over a long period of time — more than seven years — and had the potential to affect so many people. But he cited his severe health problems and his mentally retarded 40-year-old son; Mr. Todaro, he said, had a very close relationship with his son and helped care for him.

But the judge, Kimba M. Wood, told Mr. Todaro before she sentenced him that only his son’s needs and his own poor health kept her from giving him a “much, much higher” sentence. The prison term she meted out, five years and three months, was at the top of the range of advisory guidelines.

She also said he had concocted an elaborate web of lies to evade detection and avoid prosecution.

“The inventiveness of your lies,” she said, “was outstripped only by the callousness with which you put the health and lives of New York City children and adults at risk.”

Judge Wood ordered Mr. Todaro, a certified asbestos investigator, to pay more than $450,000 in forfeiture, fines and restitution.

In a brief and somewhat disjointed statement, Mr. Todaro apologized and asked the judge not to send him to prison.

“Basically, look, I’m sorry what I did,” he said. “I’m sorry the effect it’s had on my family, my relatives, clients, everybody. I feel really bad about it. And it’s been on my mind.

“I am sympathetic to everything I’ve done, the people I hurt, but if I go to jail my wife cannot keep the house up, my kid wouldn’t be taken care of. And what else can I say?”

The prosecutor in the case said in court papers that in all but a few instances, it was impossible to say whether the fake reports masked real environmental hazards. “It is unknown whether people will get sick as a result of his conduct,” wrote Anne C. Ryan, an assistant in the office of Preet Bharara, the United States attorney in Manhattan. “Among other things, asbestos-related diseases can take decades to develop.”........

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In a Town Called Asbestos, a Plan to Restart the Industry That Made It Prosperous

ASBESTOS, Quebec — The belief in asbestos lives on in this mining town of 7,000 people, not just in the name — retained despite its association with cancer — but in the ambitions of the mineral’s long-time champion here, G. Bernard Coulombe.

Multimedia

Graphic

Mr. Coulombe, 69, says he believes that you can recapture the past. At a time when Canada, like many countries, is spending millions of dollars to remove asbestos from buildings, to say nothing of covering asbestos-related disability claims, Mr. Coulombe wants a $58 million loan guarantee from the province of Quebec. He is hoping to attract investors and revitalize the mine that gave rise to the town in 1879 and for more than a century has swallowed chunks of it into its ever-expanding pit.

Adding to the controversy over the plan, Mr. Coulombe’s strategy is to sell to countries like India, Pakistan and Vietnam, where enthusiasm for cheap asbestos often comes with a lax approach to workplace health and safety.

It would seem a quixotic venture. Mr. Coulombe’s proposal has been widely condemned by the medical and public health community both in Canada and abroad. The mineral’s dangers have largely eliminated the market for it in Canada as well as the United States, where the last asbestos mine closed in 2002.

But while many Canadians outside Quebec view the mine’s survival as something of an international embarrassment, history suggests it would be unwise to dismiss Mr. Coulombe. The asbestos industry was once a prominent symbol of Quebec’s might in natural resources, and the mine — now known as Mine Jeffrey — played an outsize role in the province’s political history.

“The whole asbestos debate is purely emotional,” said Paul Lapierre, the vice president for cancer control at the Canadian Cancer Society and an opponent of Mr. Coulombe’s proposal. “As Quebeckers we were once so proud of our mining industry, including asbestos.”

The political strength of asbestos will be tested this month when the province is expected to announce a decision on the loan guarantee.

Jeffrey was once a key operation of Johns Manville, the American building materials company, and at one time provided most of the world’s supply of one type of asbestos. But over time a large body of scientific evidence linked it to lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fast-acting cancer of major organs, and asbestosis, a hardening of the lungs that ultimately suffocates its victims.

In 1982, health-related lawsuits forced Johns Manville into bankruptcy; the Jeffrey mine was sold to its managers a year later.

The fortunes of asbestos have continued to sink. After peaking at 4.79 million metric tons in 1977, worldwide production reached only 1.97 million metric tons last year. Some countries, including the members of the European Union, now ban the mineral’s general use. Synthetic fibers have assumed most of the tasks it once handled, if at a higher cost. Asbestos’s remaining markets are mainly less developed nations as well as China and the countries of the former Soviet Union and China, some of which have mines. Its one remaining attraction is its low cost.

Once it reaches developing countries, asbestos from the Jeffrey mine is usually mixed with cement and formed into inexpensive pipes and roof sheeting.

The town of Asbestos, once prosperous, has tracked the mineral’s decline. The former town hall sits abandoned. When repairs to the building proved unaffordable, the local government moved into a church it purchased for $1. The mine pit, which is about a mile wide and 1.2 miles long, and its two huge mills are currently inactive........

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directory of asbestos attorneys

Asbestos Lawyer List is a directory of asbestos attorneys and law firms who handle legal cases involving mesothelioma and mesothelioma settlements. Mesothelioma is a type of cancer that is almost exclusively a result of exposure to asbestos. In this disease, cancer cells develop in the mesothelium, a protective lining of cells covering the lungs and other organs.

By the 1930s and '40s, medical evidence had clearly linked asbestos exposure to lung disease and deadly asbestos cancers. But many companies witheld this information rather than spend the money to remove the asbestos from the workplace. Since then, many lawsuits and mesothelioma settlements have been filed against asbestos manufacturers and employers, for neglecting to implement safety measures after the links between asbestos, asbestosis, and mesothelioma became known.

A mesothelioma attorney who specializes in asbestos-related cases and mesothelioma settlements can review expenses that could be covered under your mesothelioma settlement and mesothelioma lawsuit, including medical bills, lost wages, funeral and other expenses. An experienced asbestos lawyer understands that their clients are often not physically able to deal with the details of filing a lawsuit or attending trial. For this reason, asbestos attorneys usually handle all the details of the case.......

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Mesothelioma Trial Date-How Is Set ?

The setting of a trial date is often the fourth stage a mesothelioma lawsuit passes through after the initial three stages of the trial. Setting a trial date does require some consideration and at least one meeting with the judge and the defendant. Your lawyer should prepare you for what to expect when it comes to setting a trial date and will take care of the entire process. Remember, if your case does go to trial, you do not have to attend-your lawyer will handle every aspect of the case and trial proceedings........

by: dr freska

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Mesothelioma Taxas law is the most favoring law for mesothelioma patients

Mesothelioma Texas law has been amended to bring it into its present form in 2005. This law is a relief to the mesothelioma patients though a bit complicated to mesothelioma attorneys. Considering mesothelioma Texas law’s salient features, in other states there is a bar to file a mesothelioma case, where as this law removes all bars of filing the case. This bar is called limitation period. It means the patient is entitled to file the case only if he files within the permissible time limit between the diagnosis of the case and date of filing. Previously, it was easy to file a mesothelioma case within the said time limit without permission from any one. But, now the new mesothelioma Texas law makes it mandatory for all mesothelioma attorneys to seek permission from State Health Department before filing any mesothelioma case. Under the old law it was difficult for a petitioner to get relief as the defendant company, usually a billionaire, could afford more expensive and expert lawyers to turn the case into its favor. But, now the new law has a view to support and favor the petitioner.......

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The center for Natural and Intergrative Medicine

The Center for Natural and Integrative Medicine :

I met Dr. Kirti Kalidas M.D., N.D., last year through a friend who recommended that I speak with him about his overall approach to cancer treatment…and wow was she right! Dr. Kalidas is the founder and medical director of The Center for Natural and Integrative Medicine (TCNIM) in Orlando. He is a leading proponent of blending conventional medical practices with scientifically validated alternative and natural therapies – and he has the experience to back it up! Read on to see how his incredible approach can help…

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