Mesothelioma Articles

Workers likely exposed to asbestos

Weedsport insulation factory operated 1963-89. State recommends exams.

Tuesday, March 23, 2004

Source: The Post Standard and Syracuse.com

By Mark Weiner

Former employees of an insulation factory in Weedsport and their families were likely exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos over parts of three decades, state health officials said Monday.

In a report assessing the health risks associated with the former W.R. Grace Zonolite Co. on Dunn Road, health officials said the greatest risk is to the former workers and their families.

Those workers and household members should be examined by a doctor who has expertise in asbestos-related lung disease, the Health Department said.

The recommendation is contained in a 29-page report summarizing the state's initial investigation of potential health threats posed by the Weedsport plant, which operated from 1963 to 1989.

The plant is on a priority list of 28 locations nationwide - and the only one in New York state - under investigation by federal health officials for receiving contaminated vermiculite from a mine in Libby, Mont. The mine contained a particularly dangerous form of asbestos, called tremolite.

The mine closed in 1993, but since then studies found that former workers at the mine have a death rate from asbestosis, a lung disease, 60 times higher than the national average.

The state began its health study of the Weedsport plant in late 2001, after federal health officials learned that vermiculite from Libby was used as raw material to make home insulation. During its operation, the plant processed more than 148,000 tons of vermiculite.

The vermiculite was heated at high temperatures to expand or "pop" it into insulation. The process is now of concern because the manufacturing method released high amounts of asbestos particles.

State health officials said their study determined the Weedsport plant, and any remaining asbestos contamination, no longer poses a health threat to the community. But officials said it is too early to determine if people living near the plant were harmed by the asbestos.

"Not enough data are currently available to determine to what extent people who lived near the plant, while it processed vermiculite, were exposed to asbestos," the report said.

Search for patterns As a follow-up study, state and federal health officials plan to review health statistics for the Weedsport community. The record search will look for any unusual health patterns in people living near the plant and look for diseases that may be related to asbestos exposure.

"We don't believe there is anything blowing around that would cause exposure at this time," said Andy Carlson, director of the Division of Environmental Health Investigation for the state Health Department.

Carlson said the state also wants to attempt to contact former workers at the Zonolite plant. Officials do not know how many people worked at the plant between 1963 and 1989, but say it was never a large number.

"We have a very, very short list at this time," Carlson said. "It's not much more than eight to 10 people. But we're interested in getting the best list of former employees that we can."

Carlson said former workers can contact the state Health Department toll-free at (800) 458-1158, extension 27870.

He advised Zonolite workers and their household members to contact doctors who have training in diagnosing occupational lung diseases. Household members were likely exposed to high amounts of asbestos from fibers that the workers carried home on their hair, skin and clothing, the state report said.

One of the former Zonolite workers said Monday he has never been contacted by any state or federal health officials.

Tom Zellar, 49, of Maple Grove, Minn., said he learned of the state's health study after reading an article in The Post-Standard last week.

Zellar said he has been diagnosed with an asbestos-related lung disease. He worked at the plant after graduating from high school. He worked a variety of jobs on the third shift from 1973 to 1975.

"I have what they call pleural plaquing of my lungs," he said. "Any time I exert myself, I lose my breath very easily."

He remains bitter at his former employer, W.R. Grace & Co., which owned Zonolite insulation plants across the nation.

"What I'd like to see is these people charged with murder," Zellar said. "These guys made conscious decisions that affected my health and everyone else's health. They were aware what was going on and didn't do a damn thing about it."

Zellar said dust from the vermiculite was always present inside and outside the plant, floating in clouds that drifted over Weedsport.

"The worst dust was in the silos," he said. "Dust was flying all over the place. But both in and outside the plant, there was dust flying everywhere. Nobody was concerned at that time because nobody knew anything."

He said the state should recommend health testing for any of the roughly 1,900 people who lived near the plant in the 1970s.

At least one person in the Minneapolis area, near another Zonolite plant, has died from asbestos problems, Zellar said. "He didn't work at the plant. But as a kid he played near the factory."

One neighbor who has resided his entire life about 250 feet from the Dunn Road plant in Weedsport said his complaints about the dust were ignored by local, state and federal regulators for decades.

Around the neighborhood

Max Appleby, 70, of Towpath Road, said he received the state's report Monday morning. He and his family plan to discuss whether his wife and children should have medical tests for asbestos-related diseases.

"I've been fighting this for 30 years," Appleby said of the insulation plant. "I've got papers that date back to 1964. When they came in here in 1963, the stuff just starting pouring out of the plant right then. It blew right through the house 24 hours a day."

The state report said some of the waste from the plant may have been trucked around the neighborhood for use as fill, for driveway surfacing, soil amendments or other applications.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency took samples from two of those sites that used the waste as fill. The agency said it is awaiting test results.

Carlson, of the state Health Department, said officials will make sure that any redevelopment of the plant site includes a plan to monitor for contamination.

"Any work that is done there will be done under the watchful eye of EPA, and certainly with our guidance," Carlson said.

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