Dirty Business in Cleaning Up Asbestos

Wearing moon suits and respirators, workers arrived in November at the old Franciscan Ceramics factory in Atwater to carefully scrape and bag cancer-causing asbestos.

But the 45-acre site, where buildings were to be razed for construction of a shopping center, had already been picked over by salvage crews in shirt sleeves. They had hauled away bricks and metal roofs, leaving asbestos exposed to the elements in rubble piles and dilapidated buildings.

In December, when the South Coast Air Quality Management District inspected the mess, the place “looked like a bomb went off,” one official said.

The district issued citations to the property owner, Schurgin Development Corp., and to an asbestos consultant and a demolition contractor, accusing them of violating rules designed to keep asbestos from becoming airborne during demolition work.

Inquiry Begun

The Los Angeles County district attorney’s office has launched an investigation, but there has been no word on whether charges will be filed. The firms cited by the AQMD say they neither committed crimes nor sought to evade environmental laws.

Whatever the outcome, the Franciscan episode illustrates a national problem that could prolong the toll of asbestos-related disease.

Millions of tons of asbestos remain in U.S. homes, schools, offices and factories. Every day, some is ripped out during remodeling or demolition work. But often, because of ignorance or to save money, inadequate steps are taken to keep the asbestos out of the air.

“It’s certainly the exception, rather than the rule” for asbestos to be handled properly, said Richard Steffen, an asbestos expert with the California Assembly’s Office of Research.

Asbestos is a leading cause of lung cancer, ranking only behind cigarette smoking and possibly radon gas among known causes of the disease, according to experts.

10,000 Deaths a Year

About 175,000 Americans have died of asbestos-related illness, typically 20 to 30 years after initial exposure. And as many as 10,000 more deaths occur each year, said Dr. William Nicholson of Mt. Sinai School of Medicine in New York, an authority on asbestos-related diseases. Most victims were asbestos workers exposed to levels of asbestos that are unheard of today.

But the air in every city contains low levels of asbestos, given off by everything from worn-out brakes and clutches to building debris. As a result, people who never worked with asbestos have an estimated 17 chances in 100,000 of contracting lung cancer or mesothelioma, an almost invariably fatal asbestos-related cancer of the chest or abdominal lining, according to researchers with the National Academy of Sciences and the RAND Corp., which said the threat is greater for smokers.

The estimated risk is low for an individual, but translates into potentially hundreds of extra cancers in a city like Los Angeles.

Once called the “magic mineral” because of its superior strength, insulating qualities and versatility, asbestos has been used in fireproofing and insulation, floor and ceiling tiles, and hundreds of other products. It is harmless when intact. But when asbestos materials become worn or broken, they can release lung-scarring fibers into the air.

Federal rules adopted under the Clean Air Act are supposed to keep asbestos from becoming airborne during demolition or remodeling work. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is to be notified before demolition of commercial, industrial or apartment buildings of at least five units. And if renovation or demolition involves at least 160 square feet or 260 linear feet of asbestos material, steps must be taken to suppress asbestos dust. Asbestos must be kept wet and gently removed, carefully lowered to the ground, put into containers and labeled for disposal.

But the notification requirement, which allows inspection of demolition sites, is being met 50% of the time, the EPA reported in January. Often those failing to notify the EPA also ignore required safety precautions, creating “significant asbestos emissions,” the EPA said.

4-County Area

The AQMD enforces the asbestos rules in Los Angeles, Orange and Riverside counties, and the urban part of San Bernardino County. Separate rules to protect asbestos-removal workers are administered by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health, better known as Cal-OSHA.

Carol Coy, senior enforcement manager with the air district’s toxics control branch, said compliance here is much better than it is nationwide, partly because asbestos contractors have informed officials about competitors.

But “we’re still finding major jobs where . . . it’s more than just a notice” violation, Coy said. “It’s a matter of improper work as well.”

Data from local building departments show that huge numbers of demolition jobs never come to the AQMD’s attention--either illegally or because of the exemptions that exist for houses and apartment buildings of four units and less.

The air district is notified of about 250 demolitions a year in the four-county area, district officials said.

Demolition Permits

In Los Angeles, more than 4,000 demolition permits were issued last year, according to the city Department of Building and Safety--although many were for homes and small apartment buildings.

Los Angeles building officials said that when they issue demolition permits, they do not advise permit holders to be careful about asbestos.

The Franciscan site at 2901 Los Feliz Blvd. had long been under scrutiny by the state Department of Health Services because of hazardous, non-asbestos wastes. Lead wastes from ceramics production were dumped on the site for decades, putting it on the state Superfund list of priority toxic cleanup sites. The health services department had been working with Schurgin on plans for a multimillion-dollar cleanup of the lead but had ignored the question of asbestos demolition, which it does not regulate.

“I’m being very frank. This is something we’re learning,” said Hamid Saebfar, a senior hazardous materials specialist with the state Department of Health Services office in Burbank.

Other agencies have been part of the problem. For example:

* In October, 1987, the AQMD cited the state Department of Transportation and its demolition contractor for tearing down nearly half of a medical building on Inglewood Avenue along the route of the Century Freeway before realizing that it contained thousands of square feet of asbestos material. The contractor ultimately paid a $500 penalty to the district.

* In 1985 in Sacramento, after a private developer acquired surplus property from McClellan Air Force Base, local fire departments were invited in to torch the buildings as part of a training exercise.

Fire officials were advised by the local air district that asbestos must first be properly removed. The task was contracted out, but samples taken from burned-out buildings showed that there was still asbestos inside.

* In April, 1985, after Los Angeles County closed Long Beach General Hospital, county employees were sent in to salvage lumber and other building materials.

“Unfortunately, asbestos was extensively used in construction of buildings at the site, and some of the salvage work . . . resulted in a serious asbestos hazard,” Dist. Atty. Ira Reiner said in a letter to county supervisors.

More serious penalties have been leveled against some violators. Last year, four executives of Cuyahoga Wrecking Co. were sentenced in federal court to terms from two to 18 months for illegal asbestos demolition at Kaiser Steel in Fontana.

But prosecution still is rare. And some contractors feel more at risk when they notify regulators than when they break the law and keep quiet.

“Most contractors believe that there is little potential for being cited if notification is not tendered,” the National Assn. of Demolition Contractors told the EPA in 1987.

“Many feel that notification substantially increases the chance of citation. If a contractor elects to defy the notification requirement . . . his chief objective becomes quick completion of the work. . . . Little attention is given to expensive work practices” that reduce asbestos dust.

Lack of Manpower

Even when agencies are notified, only a fraction of work sites are inspected because of manpower constraints, authorities say. In California, about 70% of asbestos jobs are “not inspected by any regulatory body,” according to a 1988 report by the Assembly Office of Research.

“There are all these wonderful regulations, and they’re not being enforced,” said Christopher Gale, president of Asbestos Advisory Associates, a consulting firm in Redondo Beach. “We can legislate like crazy, but there’s no money to enforce it.”

“There really is no policing. It’s . . . kind of a disturbing thing,” said Steven Foster, a Glendale contractor who has been remodeling commercial buildings for 11 years. Foster said he has never run into asbestos inspectors and probably exposed himself to asbestos a number of times before learning about the problem.

In the same way that tough hazardous-waste rules spawned “midnight dumpers,” officials say the high cost of asbestos work has created “midnight scrapers.”

And although asbestos abatement contractors must be licensed in California, “all contractors, from my experience, have good crews and bad crews,” said Ed Kennedy, an asbestos consultant in Torrance. He said the second-string crews may be assigned night and weekend jobs that are rarely inspected.

The Assembly Office of Research, in its report last year on asbestos in buildings, said several industrial hygienists reported that some asbestos-removal firms in the Los Angeles area have raised their bids by as much as 35% when they learned a hygienist was employed by a building owner to oversee their work.

A likely place for blunders is the private home, where the resident handyman may innocently tear out asbestos insulation or sand a vinyl asbestos floor during a home-improvement project. Experts say most buildings constructed before 1980 contain some asbestos material, and single homes are no exception.

It may not be the homeowner but a hired tradesman who encounters asbestos while making repairs. “I have a gut feeling that there are . . . people out there doing air-conditioning work, possibly doing plumbing work, who are removing this stuff and possibly jeopardizing themselves and people in the area,” said Allen Danzig, enforcement manager for the Ventura County Air Pollution Control District. “I know it is going on.”

These contractors may fear being bearers of bad news. If they recommend to a homeowner the added expense of an asbestos abatement contractor, the homeowner may hire someone else.

According to Gale, when “Mr. Good Guy Contractor” calls later to see if he got the job, the homeowner says a competitor “told me it wasn’t a problem and . . . took care of that already.”

ASBESTOS IN THE HOME

Materials in existing homes and other buildings that may contain asbestos*:

-- Asbestos cement siding

-- Asbestos cement wallboard

-- Asbestos acoustical ceiling tile or plaster

-- Asbestos cement pipe

-- Flooring: vinyl asbestos tile, asphalt asbestos tile, floor backing

-- Roofing materials: asbestos cement shingles, roofing felts and flashing sheets containing asbestos

-- Insulating materials: insulation on plumbing, heating and air-conditioning pipes and ducts; insulation around stoves, fireplaces, furnaces and other heat sources; sprayed-on or blown-in thermal insulation; fireproofing materials, corrugated asbestos paper and asbestos cement sheets

-- Asphalt sealants and coatings for roofs and driveways

-- Putties, caulks and tapes

-- Electrical panels and fuse boxes, asbestos insulating blankets or sheets around built-in ovens and dishwashers, some components of appliances including hair dryers manufactured up to 1979

* In recent years, asbestos has been taken out of many products. Chief asbestos uses today include asbestos cement pipe, shingles and siding; asphalt asbestos roof coatings; gaskets; friction materials, such as asbestos brake pads and linings and clutch facings.

SOURCES: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Asbestos Information Assn./North America