Asbestos Disease Still Rises Due to Lag Between Exposure and Illness : Health: Thousands of workers face the effects of the ‘miracle fiber’ despite 18 years of regulation. The number of plaintiffs suing companies rises daily.
Kevin Quinn’s father began working for Consolidated Edison in the 1940s, when asbestos was still considered a miracle fiber and no regulations governed its use.
William Quinn died in 1980 of cancer linked to asbestos.
His son was hired by the same utility in 1979. In the years since his father first came in contact with asbestos, numerous laws were passed to protect workers from what had become acknowledged as a prime health risk.
But in 1987, Quinn said, he was working at a plant when asbestos-covered doors were removed from boilers and dropped to the floor. The doors remained for weeks while workers went about their duties without protective gear amid clouds of asbestos dust, he said.
“I used to walk past that area every day,” he said. “They told us it was safe. And it turns out it wasn’t.”
Now, Quinn has joined 180 co-workers and the Environmental Protection Agency in suing Con Ed, charging that he was exposed to the same material that killed his father.
Eighteen years after passage of the first federal law regulating asbestos, thousands of workers--at utilities like Con Ed, and in other industries where asbestos was used as an insulator--still face its effects.
“We are talking to people who are extremely surprised that asbestos is still a problem,” said Heather Maurer, executive director of Asbestos Victims of America. “But the incidence of asbestos disease is on the increase instead of the decrease, despite restrictions that have been applied to make the use of asbestos safer.”
A recent union-sponsored screening of 538 Con Edison workers found that 20% had either scarred lungs or mesothelioma, an asbestos-caused cancer of the lining of the abdomen or the lungs.
Since 1987, Con Ed has been cited by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration for more than half a dozen alleged violations--mostly failure to monitor the level of asbestos fibers in the air--at the Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan; at a plant in Astoria, Queens, and at Quinn’s 74th Street plant in Manhattan.
Some allegations are still under investigation, some have been contested and dropped by OSHA, and Con Ed settled others by paying a fine.
“Prior to 1973, we didn’t know what the asbestos risks were,” said Con Ed spokeswoman Rosalie Zuckerman. “We’re not denying that prior to that time, there was exposure. But now that we’re aware of it, whenever we do any asbestos work, we follow all the regulations.”
She added that since 1973, the company has had two medical vans visiting Con Ed plants, carrying X-ray machines to test for asbestos scarring.
She would not comment on Kevin Quinn’s suit. But Quinn said the company was negligent in 1987, when he was exposed. The workers, he said, were kept in the dark.
“We didn’t realize we were working around asbestos till a shop steward took an air sample to the White Lung Assn.,” he said.
Because asbestos cancers can take 20 to 35 years to develop, workers like Quinn who believe they have been exposed recently may not become sick until the year 2020. People who were exposed to asbestos in the 1950s, ‘60s and ‘70s are just now getting sick.
A study by Dr. Irving Selikoff, perhaps the world’s most noted asbestos researcher, and his colleagues at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine projects that asbestos cancer rates won’t peak until 1992 and won’t drop off significantly until after the year 2000.
Smoking exacerbates the risk of asbestos-related lung cancer, which is incurable in 70% to 95% of cases, said Dr. Stephen Levin, who works with Selikoff. Mesothelioma is always fatal. Asbestos exposure also increases the risk of colon cancer, which has an 80% cure rate if caught early.
The study predicts that 9,739 deaths from asbestos exposure will be recorded in 1992 in just 11 industries, including utilities, construction, car and railroad engine repair, shipbuilding and asbestos manufacturing.
Many Con Ed workers fear that they might surface among those statistics:
* Gene Duffy, 46, has worked for Con Edison for 25 years. His chest X-rays show lung scarring; he often has trouble breathing. Duffy said he can’t even cut his lawn without taking a rest halfway through to catch his breath.
* Artie Sagevick, 58, a 31-year veteran. He gave up smoking 25 years ago but he has “coughing fits 15 minutes at a time a couple of times a day.”
* Steven Amato, a 21-year employee, said: “If you had to do a strenuous job, go up and down stairs, I could not do it. In the wintertime, I throw the phlegm all day long. . . . I’m 51 years old and I feel like an old man.”
All three want compensation from Con Ed and asbestos manufacturers, as well as more help from their union. They, and many of their co-workers, are suing the manufacturers.
Lawyer Chris Placitella is handling similar suits by 130 Con Ed workers. His firm represents 3,300 additional workers from other utility companies who are involved in similar suits, and the number of plaintiffs rises daily.
Con Edison has other asbestos-related worries. City officials have raised concerns about public exposure to asbestos from Con Ed accidents. In several recent incidents, asbestos insulation wrapped around underground Con Ed steam pipes has blown off when the pipes or nearby water mains burst.
BACKGROUND Asbestos had been suspected of causing lung diseases since about the turn of the century, but it wasn’t until 1973 that federal laws began to regulate exposure. Inhalation of asbestos fibers triggers the diseases, which may lay dormant for 20 years or more. Asbestos has been widely used as insulation, and as the material ages it becomes friable, which means that its fibers crumble and can be released into the air. The Environmental Protection Agency requires asbestos’ removal from older buildings, especially schools.
