Schiller Station
The Schiller Station was originally designed as a coal-fired power plant. However, three of the facility's units are now able to use fuel oil as well.
Schiller is the oldest fossil-fuel plant in the state of New Hampshire, having been in operation since 1949. Such plants are notorious for toxic emissions. However, some steps have been taken over the years to mitigate this at Schiller; these have included electrostatic precipitators and Selective Non-Catalytic Reduction equipment, which have reduced emissions of nitrous oxide significantly. Since 1983, over $23 million has been spent addressing the plant's environmental impact.
As was the case for virtually every industry constructed and operating before 1980, the use of asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) was common throughout the construction of power generation facilities. They were employed in numerous locations that included the buildings themselves as well as the machinery. Asbestos is resistant not only to heat and flame, but caustic chemicals and electrical current as well. Over the years, the use of ACMs has saved lives and prevented billions of dollars in property loss.
Asbestos disease is relatively rare, but also painful and invariably fatal. The industrial health hazards were well known to ACM manufacturers by the 1930s, but the knowledge was kept a secret for over forty years before a court case in 1977 exposed the corporate conspiracy.
Today, strong regulations issued by the EPA and OSHA require companies operating any kind of industry to provide a safe work environment where asbestos is concerned. Violations can result in large monetary fines and other penalties; individuals responsible may also face prison time.
Asbestos diseases typically have very long latency periods. Symptoms may not appear for as much as sixty years after a person is first exposed to asbestos. Former employees of the McClellan facility as well as their families should discuss the possibility of asbestos exposure with their primary care doctors; early diagnosis is the key to long-term survival.
Through the 1970s, it was standard practice for factories, mills, power plants and worksites to utilize the naturally occurring, fibrous mineral known as asbestos because it offered high resistance to transferring heat and electricity. It is ironic that reducing the risk of injury was almost always one of the driving justifications behind using asbestos in companies because the outcome was in fact to put employees at risk of serious illness or death due to contact with asbestos. The reason large numbers of employees have fallen ill from health conditions including pleural plaques and cancer of the lungs is that when humans inhale strands of asbestos, the mineral infiltrates internal organs; once there, the tiny, jagged bits of asbestos damage cells. Also, pleural mesothelioma, the rare but deadly cancer affecting the mesothelium, the tissue that lines the pleural cavity, is known to be caused by mild to moderate inhalation of asbestos particles.
Now, we are aware of the dangers associated with inhaling asbestos, and responsible employers protect those who work with or near friable asbestos. In the past, however, laborers without respiratory equipment frequently toiled in areas where asbestos dust filled the air. Furthermore, if workplaces didn't offer decontamination methods, workers took asbestos fibers home with them on their clothes or in their hair, thereby exposing spouses to this deadly toxin.
Asbestos-related diseases like mesothelioma frequently take 20 years or more to manifest, and symptoms are often mistaken for those of less serious conditions, so men and women who worked at such facilities at any time in the past, as well as their partners and children, are encouraged to chat with their doctors about their history of asbestos contact. Those who may have been exposed negligently are encouraged to contact a mesothelioma attorney.
Sources
Bowker, Michael. Fatal Deception: The Terrifying True Story of How Asbestos is Killing America. New York: Touchstone, 2003.
Cabrera-Santiago, Manuel et al. "Prevalence of Asbestos-Related Disease Among Electrical Power Generation Workers in Puerto Rico." Presentation at American Public Health Association Annual Meeting, 2007.
Public Services of New Hampshire. “Schiller Station.”
http://www.psnh.com/AboutPSNH/CompanyProfile/Schiller.asp
