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Mesothelioma News | 2000
EPA Probing Why 1982 Asbestos Report Was Ignored
WASHINGTON - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is investigating why nothing was done with a 1982 study that found alarming levels of asbestos in ore used by W.R. Grace and Co. to make building products, a spokesman said on Saturday. The internal agency report, disclosed on Saturday in The New York Times, resurfaced late last year during the EPA's investigation of a health crisis in Libby, Montana, where Grace mined the ore, known as vermiculite, until 1990.
Workers and residents of the town have been dying from lung disease at rates far above the national average. The Times reported that because the EPA report was apparently ignored, Grace was able to use vermiculite in products like fireproofing and attic insulation that the company promoted as free of asbestos, which can cause cancer.
EPA spokesman David Cohen told Reuters the agency was investigating the situation. "We've asked our inspector general to investigate the validity of this report and whether or not it should have been utilized more prominently by the agency," Cohen said. "We hope that this will be done as expeditiously as possible," he added. "It's very important to us to find out historically why more was not done with this report."
Agency investigators are also expected to look at whether Grace misled the EPA about the risks of vermiculite. Lawsuits filed by workers and residents of Libby have accused Grace of covering up the hazards posed by the mining operation. A spokesman for the company was not immediately able to comment. A Grace official, however, told The Times that its own studies have consistently found smaller amounts of asbestos in the ore than levels identified in the 1982 EPA report. "Our reports from measuring the ore do not find the same thing that the EPA's results do," said William Corcoran, vice president for public and regulatory affairs for the company, which is based in Columbia, Maryland.
In the meantime, EPA is testing consumer products that contain vermiculite, such as potting soil and insulation, to determine if they pose "any unreasonable risk," Cohen told Reuters. "If they do, we're going to make that information available immediately," he said.
The company has said it tried to remove as much asbestos as possible during processing and the products it made contained only trace amounts, far below the 1 percent level at which the EPA restricts its use. The newspaper said the 1982 study was prompted by an outbreak of health problems at a Marysville, Ohio, plant where vermiculite from Grace's Montana mine was used in making fertilizer. The study found 21 percent to 26 percent asbestos in the ore and up to 7 percent in the cleaned form that was shipped to plants for further processing.
