Sholz Power Plant
The Herbert Sholz Power Plant has two aging coal-fired units with a combined generative capacity of just under 100 megawatts. The units came online in 1953; since 2008, a study has been underway to look at the feasibility of converting them to burn renewable wood biomass. In any event, the owner, Gulf Power, has been ordered by Governor Charlie Crist reduce power plant emissions to 1990 levels by 2025.
Prior to the 1980s, factories, mills, power plants and other heavy industries such as the Sholz Power Plant were constructed using asbestos-containing material (ACM) for its high resistance to heat and electricity as well as caustic and corrosive chemicals. Although the health risks of asbestos exposure were well known to medical researchers and industry insiders by the 1930s, corporations involved in the production and sale of ACMs did everything in their considerable power to suppress this information for over four decades.
Employees whose job sites contain asbestos are now protected by EPA and OSHA rules and regulations that govern not only worker safety, but the general handling of asbestos as well. As recently as the late 1970s however, workers in asbestos environments carried out their duties without protective clothing or respirators. These same employees unwittingly carried asbestos dust into their homes on their clothes or in their hair when showers, putting their families at risk. Asbestos disease resulting from “secondary exposure” has been an issue in several recent legal actions.
A Puerto Rican study in 2003 highlighted the dangers of power plants. During this study, chest x-rays of 1100 workers were examined for signs of asbestos lung disease; such indications were noted in 13% of the subjects.
Asbestos diseases such as mesothelioma often do not show obvious show symptoms until decades after asbestos exposure first occurs – and these can mimic the symptoms of several other diseases, making diagnosis difficult. Anyone who worked at Sholz Power Plant, as well as family members, should discuss their history of exposure to asbestos with a primary care physician and receive regular health monitoring.
Up until the 1980s, it was typical for plants, mills, and factories to be built with the mineral asbestos because of its resistance to heat, flame and electrical current. It is ironic that reducing the risk of injury was typically one of the primary reasons behind utilizing asbestos in worksites because the outcome was in fact to place laborers in danger of serious illness or death due to inhalation of or other contact with asbestos. The disorders linked to exposure to asbestos include asbestosis and cancer; the greatest risk of contracting these conditions happens when products containing asbestos become friable, releasing microfibers into the environment where they are easy to inhale or ingest. In addition, mesothelioma disease, which is a fast-growing and mostly untreatable cancer of the mesothelium, the tissue that lines the pleural cavity, has been proven to be caused by even low levels of asbestos exposure.
People who work around asbestos today are generally safe from exposure because of the extensive body of laws controlling its utilization, presence at job sites and demolition. People who worked near job sites constructed with asbestos prior to the passage of such laws, however, generally spent their work days in spaces where asbestos microfibers were prevalent, and they as a rule were provided with little or no guidance about how to minimize risks when dealing with the mineral. If workplaces did not offer facilities to wash off asbestos fibers, employees inadvertently transported particles of asbestos to their homes in their clothes and hair, which exposed spouses to this deadly toxin.
Mesothelioma prognosis can be positive when detected early. Therefore, people who were employed at this site during their career, as well as their partners and children, are advised to find out about these health conditions and tell their healthcare professionals about their history of asbestos exposure, because the signs of mesothelioma and other asbestos-related illnesses are often mistaken for those of less serious conditions.
Sources
Bowker, Michael. Deadly Deception (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.
“Time to Pull The Plug on Florida's Dirty Dozen.” Reuters, 28 January 2009.
“Sholz Generating Plant.” SourceWatch.
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Scholz_Generating_Plant
“Clean Air Wins Major Victory.” St. Petersburg Times, 27 July 1973.
