Asbestos Risk Adds to Victims’ Troubles

As president of an environmental testing firm, Michael Uziel usually deals with the toxic worries of others. But he’s had serious ones of his own since last month’s earthquake battered his Northridge home--cracking the cottage cheese ceiling and scattering asbestos dust over furnishings and carpets.

“It’s devastating . . . I have to throw (away) almost all my belongings,” said Uziel, 50, who evacuated his house and may not have enough insurance to cover both structural repairs and asbestos cleanup.

Jolted by an asbestos aftershock, hundreds of building owners and occupants like Uziel are scrambling to deal with the risk of contamination from asbestos, a leading environmental cause of lung cancer, along with extra cleanup costs and delays in getting their lives back to normal.

Because of its widespread use in building materials, asbestos “is always an issue of concern whenever there’s an event that damages structures,” said Kathleen Shimman, regional director of the office of health and emergency planning for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. When earthquakes or hurricanes knock buildings around, asbestos “can be shredded and broken and . . . the fibers of asbestos can be inhaled.”

In one form or another, asbestos is present in more than half of all buildings that are at least 15 years old, authorities say. And while many uses of asbestos have been banned, some continued into the 1980s.

Despite its fearsome reputation, asbestos is perfectly safe when intact. But when asbestos materials are pulverized or broken, they can release microscopic fibers that float like water vapor and are dangerous to inhale.

Health officials and asbestos consultants have been flooded with calls from those concerned about the problem. But they said many other building owners and occupants probably are unaware of quake-related damage to asbestos materials. Meanwhile, some homeowners, unwilling or unable to hire licensed asbestos contractors, are cleaning up asbestos debris themselves--with or without proper equipment and dust prevention methods.

Even so, business is booming for the asbestos abatement industry, which is on a short list of businesses thriving in the wake of the Jan. 17 quake.

“Everybody in this industry--consultant and contractor included--have been taxed and maximized to the extent of capacity and beyond to cover all . . . work that’s going on,” said Thomas A. Jordan, vice president of Gale/Jordan Associates Inc., an environmental consulting firm.

Although asbestos is typically out of sight in boiler rooms or attics, the quake showed how pervasive it is. In a number of large office buildings, asbestos fireproofing from steel beams floated down through dislodged ceiling tiles to settle on floors and desks, Jordan said. In several offices where his firm ran air tests, Jordan said these spills temporarily created significant airborne levels of asbestos.

Other consultants and contractors said they also have been busy cleaning commercial buildings the quake left structurally sound but littered with asbestos. Typically, such cleanups involve misting the air to weigh down floating asbestos dust, wet-wiping solid surfaces, and using special vacuum cleaners with dense filters to capture the microscopic fibers--which are so tiny they pass through the bag of an ordinary vacuum.

But Jordan voiced concern that other building managers--overjoyed their structures were left standing--didn’t think to visually check asbestos materials for cracks and tears.

“In my opinion, there’s a lot of buildings out there that have asbestos in them that had significant fiber release, but because they didn’t have extensive structural damage they (the owners) are not aware of it,” Jordan said.

The quake and its aftershocks also triggered asbestos spills at about 100 schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Richard F. Henry, the district’s asbestos technical supervisor, said that in preparing the schools for the return of students and staff, cleanup crews had to remove fallen asbestos soundproofing and pipe wrap and broken asbestos floor tile.

In some areas, the problem has defied a quick fix. For example, in the little theater area at El Camino Real High School in Woodland Hills, asbestos debris from broken acoustical material is so extensive that the area has been temporarily sealed pending further work, Henry said.

At Cal State Northridge, pulverized asbestos littered so much of the engineering building that officials were forced to order a massive cleanup before they could get in to assess quake damage, said Bill Chatham, CSUN associate vice president for facilities and operations.

Then, with the cleanup nearly complete after 10 days of wiping and vaccuuming asbestos debris, the big aftershock of Saturday, Jan. 29, created a second asbestos blizzard. Said Chatham: “They were wrapping up and getting ready to shut down operations, and Saturday it’s full go again.”

Many houses and apartments have problems of their own--including cottage cheese or “popcorn” ceilings that in some cases contain at least a small percentage of asbestos. In some cases, the earthquake cracked or shattered these ceilings, dusting carpets and furniture below.

That was the case at Michael Uziel’s house, built in 1977, where asbestos was found not only in the ceiling but in plaster from cracked walls. Uziel, who has two children, moved out, and alerted neighbors with homes of similar construction.

A couple of the neighbors also moved out, but some “just shrugged it off,” Uziel said--taking the view that “if it doesn’t bite, and doesn’t burn, it doesn’t hurt you.”

“I knew my responsibility to other people,” he said. “Sometimes you happen to know things that the average man doesn’t.”

What Uziel does not know, however, is how he will take care of structural repair and cleanup costs well in excess of his $100,000 earthquake insurance policy.

Asbestos insulation on ductwork has been another trouble area in single homes. When Jeff Prey called a private building inspector to the attic of his West Hills home to check on fallen roof beams, the inspector also found split ductwork and asbestos insulation--raising a risk of asbestos fibers swirling through the ducts with each aftershock or wind gust through the vents. That, and the fact that Prey’s 3-year-old sleeps next to the attic, was enough to send him packing.

Long considered a leading environmental cause of lung cancer, asbestos also has been linked to mesothelioma, a rare and nearly always fatal cancer that may appear up to 40 years after initial exposure.

Low levels of asbestos are always present in the air, due to construction and demolition work and erosion from brake linings and clutches. The vast bulk of asbestos disease has afflicted heavily exposed workers who labored for years in dusty conditions with minimal protection. But asbestos illness occasionally is reported in people thought to have been minimally exposed, prompting many experts to say no level is safe to breathe.

When homeowners discover crumbling insulation or building fixtures, there usually is no way to know for sure if it contains asbestos without a laboratory test.

If broken asbestos is present in more than minimal amounts, most experts advise homeowners to hire a licensed asbestos abatement contractor rather than attempt the work themselves.

Still, experts say consumers should be on the lookout for price-gougers and shoddy work--which by scattering asbestos can do more harm than good.

Dean Stratton, an official with Environ, an abatement firm with offices in Van Nuys and Hermosa Beach, said some contractors are charging a premium of 25% above their normal rates. “People are desperate to get it (the work) done, and it may be weeks before they can get it taken care of by the company that gave them the best price,” Stratton said.

Still, consumers should compare bids from at least three contractors and check the license status before hiring a contractor, said Diane Lickar, who runs an asbestos abatement firm and is president of the Environmental Information Assn., a trade group that provides referrals to asbestos consultants, contractors and labs.

“I have to tell you there are a lot of unethical contractors,” Lickar said. “The worst come out at times like this.”

Owners of commercial and apartment buildings are required to hire licensed contractors to perform asbestos abatement work. But homeowners are exempt from this requirement, and in some cases are doing cleanup and removal themselves--although most experts caution against it.

Los Angeles County health officials and the American Lung Assn. are responding to questions on doing simple asbestos cleanups. “Usually people lack the funds to (hire a contractor) so we would tell them how to get literature to properly clean up asbestos,” said Don Thompson, an industrial hygienist with the county’s health/hazardous materials control program.

Regulations designed to limit asbestos dust in outdoor air have also been relaxed to speed clearance of quake rubble.

In normal times, the federal Clean Air Act and South Coast Air Quality Management District rules require special precautions to keep asbestos from becoming airborne during building repairs or demolition. The rules require asbestos contractors to wet down and gently remove the asbestos before demolition occurs.

But many quake-damaged buildings are too unstable for asbestos crews to enter--and thus are being cleared with the minimal safeguard of wetting the rubble to reduce dust. This also means that rubble containing at least small amounts of asbestos is going to area landfills that normally don’t accept it.

Said air district spokesman Bill Kelly: “You have to make a trade-off between the problem of asbestos and the imminent public safety concern from these unstable structures.”

Asbestos Fallout

Fallout from the Northridge earthquake can include contamination by asbestos, a substance used in many building products and a leading environmental cause of cancer. Although many asbestos uses have been banned, even structures built after 1980 may contain the substance. Asbestos materials are safe when intact, but--when torn or broken--may release harmful fibers into the air.

* INDICATIONS

Broken or crumbling fireproofing, acoustical insulation, pipe wrapping, floor tiles or ceiling material.

* TESTS

There usually is no way to know for sure if material contains asbestos without a microscopic analysis. Laboratories charge as little as $15 per sample to test suspect materials, although a full home inspection--including sampling, lab results and a written report--could cost $200.

* CLEANUP OR REMOVAL

When damaged asbestos material is present in more than minimal amounts, most authorities advise homeowners to hire a licensed asbestos abatement contractor to clean up or remove the material rather than attempt the work themselves.

Experts say consumers should be on the lookout for price-gouging and slipshod work--which could scatter asbestos and do more harm than good. Consumers should compare bids from at least three contractors.

Before hiring an asbestos abatement contractor, check the firm’s license status and complaint history with the Contractors State License Board, which has regional offices in Glendale (818-543-4735) and Buena Park (714-994-7450). Also, ask the contractor to show a current certificate of registration for asbestos-related work, issued by the state Division of Occupational Safety and Health.

* GETTING ADVICE

There are several sources of free advice on testing suspected asbestos-containing material, cleaning up minor asbestos spills, and finding qualified asbestos laboratories and contractors. Among them:

* Los Angeles County Department of Health Services, (213) 725-5055.

* American Lung Assn., (818) 797-LUNG or (213) 935-LUNG. The Lung Assn. also offers a useful booklet, “Asbestos in Your Home.”

* The Environmental Information Assn., whose members include asbestos, lead and radon consultants, and abatement contractors, also refers consumers to licensed asbestos firms. (310) 594-6316.