LaSalle

LaSalle Generating Station is another Illinois nuclear facility located in rural LaSalle County approximately 75 miles southwest of Chicago. Owned by Exelon Inc., LaSalle's first unit came online in August of 1982. Today, the two operational units have a total generative capacity of just under 2.3 gigawatts, sufficient to power two million homes and small businesses.

The plant is maintained and managed by a staff of 800 in addition to temporary specialists and trouble-shooters. Management has instituted a detailed emergency plan for the community in case of an accident which has been approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Older power plants constructed prior to 1980 had large amounts of asbestos-containing materials that could be found in and around:

• electrical cloth
• fire doors
• pipe and conduit lagging
• work surfaces
• turbines

It is hardly surprising that industrial safety experts consider power generation facilities to be some of the most dangerous jobsites when it concerns asbestos exposure. This incidentally was not only a hazard to the worker, but to his family as well; asbestos fibers could be carried home in a worker's hair and clothing, subjecting family members to what is known as “secondary exposure.” There are several documented cases of a family member developing mesothelioma as the result of this type of exposure.

The truth about industrial asbestos was finally established beyond all doubt in 1977 with the revelation of the “Sumner Simpson Papers,” which documented a forty-year conspiracy among corporations that manufactured and sold asbestos products. W.R. Grace, Johns-Manville and others had spent a great deal of money and resources to keep such information from the public, despite the fact that medical science had confirmed the toxicity of asbestos hazards by the late 1930s.

Given this fact, it is odd that asbestos would have knowingly been used in the construction of LaSalle. However, other nuclear plants built during this time have also been known to contain asbestos-containing materials.

Current and former power plant employees should discuss the possibilities of exposure with their family physicians and get frequent checkups if possible. Although mesothelioma is deadly, it can be treated if caught in the very early stages. Fortunately, new technologies have made it possible for pathologists to detect the “markers” indicating the early stages of mesothelioma before symptoms become apparent. When detected earlier, mesothelioma chemotherapy is often available from doctors such as Dr. David Sugarbaker in Boston, MA. at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

This facility was one of thousands of factories, mills, power plants and worksites that, in most of the 20th century, utilized the fibrous mineral asbestos for its ability to resist heat. Although the use of asbestos was intended in many cases to protect human life, it sadly all too often had the opposite effect. Asbestos exposure while at work has resulted in serious illness for far too many laborers. The health conditions caused by asbestos include "miner's lung" and cancer of the lungs; the biggest risk of developing these conditions occurs when asbestos-containing products become fragile, releasing particles into the environment where they are available to inhale. In addition, a history of asbestos exposure is the primary cause of the deadly form of cancer known as mesothelioma, which develops as a tumor of the cells that line the chest cavity (pleural mesothelioma) or the stomach (pericardial mesothelioma).

People whose job sites contain asbestos now are usually protected from exposure due to the extensive body of laws controlling its utilization, presence at job sites and disposal. Those who worked near asbestos prior to the implementation of such laws, however, commonly spent their work days in locations where asbestos microfibers were prevalent, and they typically were provided with very little guidance concerning safe ways to handle the mineral. And if companies did not provide decontamination methods, employees carried strands of asbestos home in their clothes and hair, which exposed family members to this deadly toxin.

Asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma often take a very long time to appear, and symptoms can be difficult to distinguish from those of less serious conditions; therefore, men and women who worked at these installations at any time in the past, as well as their spouses and children, are advised to chat with their medical care providers about their history of asbestos contact.

Sources

Bowker, Michael. Deadly Deception (New York: Touchstone, 2003).

Exelon Corporate Website. “LaSalle County Generating Station.”
http://www.exeloncorp.com/ourcompanies/powergen/nuclear/lasalle_county_generating_station.htm