Are you in danger?

By Andrew Schneider, Witchita Eagle/St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Environmental Protection Agency was on the verge of warning millions of Americans that their attics and walls might contain asbestos-contaminated insulation. But, at the last minute, the White House intervened, and the warning has never been issued.

The agency's refusal to share its knowledge of what is believed to be a widespread health risk has been criticized by a former EPA administrator under two Republican presidents, a Democratic U.S. senator, and physicians and scientists who have treated victims of the contamination.

The announcement to warn the public was expected in April. It was to accompany a declaration by EPA of a public health emergency in Libby, Mont. In that town near the Canadian border, ore from a vermiculite mine was contaminated with an extremely lethal asbestos fiber called tremolite that has killed or sickened thousands of miners and their families.

Ore from the Libby mine was shipped across the nation and around the world, ending up in insulation called Zonolite that was used in millions of homes, businesses and schools across America.

A public health emergency declaration had never been issued by any agency. It would have authorized the removal of the disease-causing insulation from homes in Libby and also provided long-term medical care for those made sick. Additionally, it would have triggered notification of property owners elsewhere who might be exposed to the contaminated insulation.

Zonolite insulation was sold throughout North America from the 1940s through the 1990s. Almost all of the vermiculite used in the insulation came from the Libby mine, last owned by W.R. Grace & Co.

No one knows precisely how many dwellings are insulated with Zonolite. Memos from the EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry repeatedly cite an estimate of between 15 million and 35 million homes.

Illinois may have as many as 800,000 homes with Zonolite; Michigan as many as 700,000. Missouri is likely to have Zonolite in 380,000 homes.

In a meeting in mid-March, EPA Administrator Christie Todd Whitman and Marianne Horinko, head of the Superfund program, met with Paul Peronard, the EPA coordinator of the Libby cleanup, and his team of health specialists.

By early April, a public health warning was ready to go. News releases had been written and rewritten. Lists of governors to call and politicians to notify had been compiled.

But the declaration was never made.

Interviews and documents show that just days before EPA was set to make the declaration, the plan was thwarted by the White House Office of Management and Budget.

Former EPA administrator William Ruckelshaus, who worked for Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, called the decision not to notify homeowners of the dangers posed by Zonolite insulation "the wrong thing to do."

"When the government comes across this kind of information and doesn't tell people about it, I just think it's wrong, unconscionable, not to do that," he said.

A key concern that helped squash the public warning was the anticipated national backlash from the Libby declaration. EPA officials knew that if the agency announced that the insulation in Montana was so dangerous that an emergency had to be declared, people elsewhere whose homes contained the same contaminated Zonolite would demand answers or perhaps demand to have their homes cleaned.

The language of the declaration was molded to stress how unique Libby was and to downplay the national problem.

But many in the agency's headquarters and regional offices didn't buy it.

In a Feb. 22 memo, the EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxins said that "the national ramifications are enormous" and estimated that if only 1 million homes have Zonolite "aren't we not put in a position to remove their (insulation) at a national cost of over $10 billion?"

The memo also questioned the agency's claim that the age of Libby's homes and severe winter conditions in Montana required a higher level of maintenance, which in turn meant increased disturbance of the insulation in the homes there.

It's "a shallow argument," the memo said. "There are older homes which exist in harsh or harsher conditions across the country. Residents in Maine and Michigan might find this argument flawed."

Eventually, the internal documents show, acceptance grew that the agency should declare a public health emergency.

In a confidential memo dated March 28, an EPA official said the declaration was tentatively set for April 5. But the declaration never came.

Instead, Superfund boss Horinko, on May 9 quietly ordered that asbestos be removed from contaminated homes in Libby. There was no national warning of potential dangers from Zonolite. And there was no promise of long-term medical care for Libby's ill and dying.

The asbestos in Zonolite, like all asbestos products, is believed to be either a minimal risk or no risk if it is not disturbed. The asbestos fibers must be airborne to be inhaled. The fibers then become trapped in the lungs, where they may cause asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, a fast-moving cancer of the lung's lining.

But Brad Black, the physician who runs the asbestos clinic in Libby and acts as health officer for Lincoln County, Mont., said "people have a right to be warned of the potential danger they may face if they disturb that stuff."

The EPA argues that the agency has informed the public of the potential dangers by putting a warning on its Web site.

Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., is sponsoring legislation to ban asbestos in the United States. She said the Web site warning is a joke.

"EPA's answer that people have been warned because it's on their Web site is ridiculous," she said. "If you have a computer, and you just happened to think about what's in your attic, and you happen to be on EPA's Web page, then you get to know. This is not the way the safety of the public is handled.

"We, the government, the EPA, the administration have a responsibility to at least let people know the information so they can protect themselves if they go into those attics," she said.

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