Pacific Gas & Electric Power Plant
PG&E Power Plants provide electricity to five million homes and businesses over an area of some 70,000 square miles. In addition to sixteen hydroelectric plants, the company owns and operates the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility. PG&E employs a staff of approximately 20,000 employees.
History
PG&E was founded in 1905 as the result of a merger between the California Gas and Electric Company and the San Francisco Gas and Electric Company. Two major earthquakes during the 20th Century – one in 1906 and the other in 1989 – led the company to take drastic steps towards reinforcing their facilities against seismic activity.
When regulations governing the industry were dismantled in the 1990s, PG&E sold off its gas-fired power plants. In 2000, the company sold some of its interests to the infamous Enron Corporation as well. While these moves were good for short-term profitability, in the long term it was a disaster; before long, demand outstripped the company's ability to deliver. Meanwhile, the illegal machinations of the Enron Corporation finally caused that company to collapse in the late fall of 2001. PG&E was given “bailout” funds by the State of California; they were finally able to repay that debt in 2005.
Asbestos
Like many other industries, PG&E Power Plants made extensive use of asbestos-containing materials. The ability of asbestos to act as an insulator has certainly saved people and property in the short term; however, the human cost has been high. Asbestos illnesses are relatively rare, but deadly and painful.
Because information about the health hazards of asbestos had been hidden from the public by corporations that manufactured and marketed asbestos products, workers performed their duties in asbestos-filled environments for decades. Family members suffered “secondary exposure” to asbestos when workers unknowingly took asbestos fibers home in their clothing and hair.
Those who were employed at PG&E Power Plants prior to the 1980s as well as family members should inform their healthcare professionals about their history of asbestos exposure; symptoms of asbestos diseases such as mesothelioma are common to many respiratory diseases, but new tests allow pathologists to detect markers that enable such cancers to be diagnosed in their initial stages when they are most treatable and the mesothelioma prognosis is most encouraging.
This installation was one of numerous factories, mills, power plants and worksites that, during the first 70 years of the last century, utilized the fibrous mineral asbestos because of its ability to resist fire. It is ironic that protecting human life was almost always one of the driving reasons for using asbestos in worksites because the result was in fact to place employees at risk of serious illness or death due to exposure to asbestos. The health conditions caused by asbestos include asbestosis and cancer of the lungs; the greatest chance of contracting these conditions occurs when materials containing asbestos become fragile, releasing microfibers into the air where they are available to inhale. In addition, a history of exposure to asbestos is a known cause of the almost always fatal form of cancer known as mesothelioma, which affects the mesothelium, the tissue that lines the chest cavity (pleural mesothelioma) or the stomach
peritoneal mesothelioma.
Now, we are much more knowledgeable about the dangers associated with inhaling asbestos, and responsible employers protect people who work with or near this dangerous substance. In earlier days, however, workers all too often were told to operate in spaces in which airborne asbestos was not filtered; in most cases, the dangers posed by asbestos inhalation were little understood. Spouses were also exposed to asbestos when companies didn't offer showers, as workers carried asbestos particles home on their skin or in their hair.
Mesothelioma disease and other asbestos-related illnesses often take decades to manifest, and the signs of these illnesses are often difficult to distinguish from those of less serious conditions; therefore, people who worked at these installations during their careers, as well as those who lived with them, are encouraged to speak with their physicians about their history of exposure to asbestos.
Sources
Pruett, Greg. “PG&E CORPORATION SELECTS BUYER TO PURCHASE RETAIL ENERGY SERVICES COMMODITY PORTFOLIO.” Press Release 13 April 2000.
http://www.pgecorp.com/news/press_releases/Release_Archive2000/041300press_release.shtml
Devine, Kyle (2001). Statement of CPUC President Loretta Lynch Regarding PG&E's Bankruptcy Filing.
http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/published/NEWS_RELEASE/6279.htm
PG&E (2009). Pacific Gas and Electric Company Fast Facts.
http://www.pge.com/about/company/profile/
