Posted on Dec 7, 2022
Factory workers across the U.S. say they were exposed to asbestos on the job
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https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2022/12/07/ [login to see] /workers-asbestos-exposure-health-risks
When LaTunja Caster started working at the Olin Corp. chemical plant outside of McIntosh, Alabama, she had no idea that asbestos was used in the production process. But when she became a union safety representative around 2007, she started to pay attention.
In certain parts of the plant, "you would see it all the time," she said. "You definitely breathed it in."
Six other people who worked in the plant, some with experiences as recent as this year, echoed her recollections about exposure to the potent mineral that has long been known to cause deadly cancers like mesothelioma and a chronic lung condition called asbestosis that can make it difficult to breathe.
When LaTunja Caster started working at the Olin Corp. chemical plant outside of McIntosh, Alabama, she had no idea that asbestos was used in the production process. But when she became a union safety representative around 2007, she started to pay attention.
In certain parts of the plant, "you would see it all the time," she said. "You definitely breathed it in."
Six other people who worked in the plant, some with experiences as recent as this year, echoed her recollections about exposure to the potent mineral that has long been known to cause deadly cancers like mesothelioma and a chronic lung condition called asbestosis that can make it difficult to breathe.
Factory workers across the U.S. say they were exposed to asbestos on the job
Posted from npr.org
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel mush like being exposed to "PCB's" from transformer oils that we tested in the Lab.
..."Tracking asbestos into the lab on their boots
At OxyChem's chlorine plant outside of Corpus Christi, Texas, workers in the lab started asking questions of their own in 2018, multiple former employees told ProPublica. Among their other duties, the lab workers analyzed asbestos samples delivered to them by workers who handled the material. The lab employees feared the asbestos workers were inadvertently carrying the substance into the lab on their boots and protective suits, which they often wore around their waists.
People in the lab also worried that, once dry, tiny fibers from the samples could escape into the air. The lab employees did not have protective breathing devices known as respirators.
When one of them raised concerns, the plant's safety managers sampled the air quality and deemed it safe, the former employees said. But the results did little to convince some employees that there was no exposure risk.
Teresa Hunt was in charge of the asbestos training program and air-quality sampling at OxyChem's plant in Tacoma, Washington, from the 1990s until 2001 — just before it stopped making chlorine in 2002. (From 1997 to 2002, the facility was owned by Pioneer Companies, news clips show.) The plant tried to control the asbestos with special fans, Hunt said, but they weren't enough. "Most people of course they were exposed to it," she said. "The stuff was all around us."
The plant offered top-of-the-line respirators to workers, Hunt said, but few employees took the threat of asbestos exposure seriously. "As a teacher, I had trouble getting them to listen to me," she said, echoing the reality that the other threats at the plant felt more imminent.
Hunt said she has not seen a high incidence of cancers among former plant workers, many of whom are still in close contact. Lately, though, she has been trying to get her insurance to cover a lung X-ray to look for signs of asbestos-related damage. "My God, I worry about it," she said.
Controlling the asbestos was also a challenge at Olin's plant in Henderson, Nevada, said Dawn Henry, the plant's engineer from 2004 through 2010. Although the asbestos workers at the facility outside Las Vegas wore personal protective equipment during the most dangerous tasks and supervisors tried to enforce the safety standards, "you can only do so much," she said. "It is a messy job."
In the desert heat, Henry said, it was impossible to expect all the asbestos would stay wet. "It wasn't like it was in a clean room," she added. "It was in a room that was open to the atmosphere. The building was adjacent to the offices where the engineers worked. It was a one-minute walk away. The garage door was always open."
Olin, which acquired the Henderson plant from Pioneer in 2007, announced plans to stop making chlorine there in 2016. The facility now produces bleach and hydrochloric acid, according to the company's website.
The accounts from workers stand in sharp contrast to what Olin and OxyChem have put on the record about worker safety in their plants. For decades, they've said their workers are rarely exposed to asbestos. The argument has been key to their success in beating back previous bans proposed by the EPA and Congress.
"Everyone makes the argument that this is a problem of the past, we do things better now," said Columbia University historian David Rosner, who researches the harm done by industrial pollution. "This has been the historical argument, the legal argument and the way of putting off the inevitable, which is the need to ban this stuff."...
..."Tracking asbestos into the lab on their boots
At OxyChem's chlorine plant outside of Corpus Christi, Texas, workers in the lab started asking questions of their own in 2018, multiple former employees told ProPublica. Among their other duties, the lab workers analyzed asbestos samples delivered to them by workers who handled the material. The lab employees feared the asbestos workers were inadvertently carrying the substance into the lab on their boots and protective suits, which they often wore around their waists.
People in the lab also worried that, once dry, tiny fibers from the samples could escape into the air. The lab employees did not have protective breathing devices known as respirators.
When one of them raised concerns, the plant's safety managers sampled the air quality and deemed it safe, the former employees said. But the results did little to convince some employees that there was no exposure risk.
Teresa Hunt was in charge of the asbestos training program and air-quality sampling at OxyChem's plant in Tacoma, Washington, from the 1990s until 2001 — just before it stopped making chlorine in 2002. (From 1997 to 2002, the facility was owned by Pioneer Companies, news clips show.) The plant tried to control the asbestos with special fans, Hunt said, but they weren't enough. "Most people of course they were exposed to it," she said. "The stuff was all around us."
The plant offered top-of-the-line respirators to workers, Hunt said, but few employees took the threat of asbestos exposure seriously. "As a teacher, I had trouble getting them to listen to me," she said, echoing the reality that the other threats at the plant felt more imminent.
Hunt said she has not seen a high incidence of cancers among former plant workers, many of whom are still in close contact. Lately, though, she has been trying to get her insurance to cover a lung X-ray to look for signs of asbestos-related damage. "My God, I worry about it," she said.
Controlling the asbestos was also a challenge at Olin's plant in Henderson, Nevada, said Dawn Henry, the plant's engineer from 2004 through 2010. Although the asbestos workers at the facility outside Las Vegas wore personal protective equipment during the most dangerous tasks and supervisors tried to enforce the safety standards, "you can only do so much," she said. "It is a messy job."
In the desert heat, Henry said, it was impossible to expect all the asbestos would stay wet. "It wasn't like it was in a clean room," she added. "It was in a room that was open to the atmosphere. The building was adjacent to the offices where the engineers worked. It was a one-minute walk away. The garage door was always open."
Olin, which acquired the Henderson plant from Pioneer in 2007, announced plans to stop making chlorine there in 2016. The facility now produces bleach and hydrochloric acid, according to the company's website.
The accounts from workers stand in sharp contrast to what Olin and OxyChem have put on the record about worker safety in their plants. For decades, they've said their workers are rarely exposed to asbestos. The argument has been key to their success in beating back previous bans proposed by the EPA and Congress.
"Everyone makes the argument that this is a problem of the past, we do things better now," said Columbia University historian David Rosner, who researches the harm done by industrial pollution. "This has been the historical argument, the legal argument and the way of putting off the inevitable, which is the need to ban this stuff."...
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