Jan. 16, 2002 - 16:43 MST

THE WONDERING JEW

White Stuff

What are the limits of our human bodies? The best answer I can come up with, being an uneducated man is, "It varies from human to human and also depends a lot on the amount of exposure and the amount of exposure time.

Beryllium for one. Known as poisonous to man. One of my brothers-in-law passed his Machinists Handbook on to me in the mid forties - in that book mention was definitely made of the dangerous properties of beryllium. World War 2 was still being fought and it was known that the substance is poisonous. Yet at Rocky Flats here in the Denver where the atomic triggers were made, the dangers of working around beryllium was downplayed. Now we have people whose health was greatly diminished as a consequence of breathing the beryllium dust and otherwise coming into contact with it. Recently I read in the papers that the manufacturer of the triggers was trying to lay the blame on the beryllium suppliers and they were passing the buck back. I suppose it will degrade into disinterest as the affected people die off one by one.

I would hazard a guess that there were people exposed the like time and amount who have never suffered ill effects. But there are never guarantees.

Mercury another poisonous metal. As a child I remember the kids from school bring vials of mercury home and passing some around. It made such beautiful flashes of silver when thrown onto the cement. We didn't know that it would amalgamate with other things and sometimes become airborne or be transferred by dirty hands to a sandwich. You know, that sandwich made by wife that could not be harmful? And the dirt on a guys hands is after all clean dirt from honest labor. I guess that as kids we absorbed the fact that being around the fumes from heated mercury was deadly. That from being in a town where much gold mining and prospecting began. Everyone had an uncle, brother or kin who had been killed from that kind of exposure. Did anyone survive that kind of exposure? Some may have lived through it. Many deaths from that kind of contact have been reported.

Then we have asbestos, that miracle insulative material that was so ubiquitous when I was a child. Great emphasis was made that certain things contained asbestos. The metal covered mat that the pot bellied stove sat on in the front room was a thick sheet of asbestos. Hot pads on the stoves were made of asbestos. Automobile brake shoes were loaded with asbestos. We kids loved to hang around the the neighborhood garage watching the things being done there. A brake job, oh yeah, they used Raybestos linings predominantly which were of course loaded with asbestos. One of the joys of sidewalk superintending was watching the new brakeshoes being ground true. No one thought inhalation in the area where that dust hung was harmful. My brother-in-law in the Navy and myself in a land based power plant inhaled our share of asbestos when the lagging was ripped off the boilers for maintenance. At the power plant the dust would filter down through the gratings from the tenth floor on down. The two of us have survived our thirty years after exposure and we lucked out.

A few years ago investigators were able to ascertain that certain types of cancer were attributable to inhalation of asbestos particles. Until just a few years ago it was possible to put up ceiling tiles containing asbestos, floor tile containing asbestos, etc.

The main producer of asbestos products in our country diversified as asbestos became a bad name.

Now comes ground zero NYC. Authorities are pushing for a rapid cleanup and are pooh-poohing the thought that there is any danger from the vile pile of detritus there.

All a matter of my opinon of course, but what I have seen in my lifetime and how I have seen matters of danger treated, Mr. Schneider rings true to me.

I quote Anrew Schneider of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "Since September 11, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency and Occupational Safety And Health Administration teams have gathered thousands of samples, but used 20 year old methods for collecting and counting fibers to assess the health risks from dust that blanketed lower Manhattan. The agencies and their state counterparts said only low levels of asbestos were found outside." "The public faces little or no danger from asbestos." numerous agency heads echoed."

"Civilian scientists and physicians hired by unons, tenant groups, contractors and New York political leaders found just the oppsite." Taking hundreds of samples -- many inside apartments, offices and condos -- these experts used the newest electron microscope technology and fiber counting protocols. They found far more asbestos fiber than did government investigators." "These private experts -- all regularly used by the government as consultants -- found alarming levels in the dwellings." End of quotes. The experts who are supposed to be our first line of defense, took no samples indoors.

Discussed in the article is the fact that anything, dust, particles or whatever trapped in and on furniture carpet and drapes can and will be recirculated over and over again until inhaled. That stuff is captive in the rooms.

Quote: "It takes about eighteen to thirty years for asbestos to exert its deadly effects. This latency period -- the time from when a fiber is impaled in lung tissue to when a person knows he or she is ill or dying -- makes it easy to ignore or overlook the hazards of asbestos." Unquote.

It is bad enough that there is so much as yet unidentified stuff still wafting about, causing all kinds of illnesses but it seems to me that all of the officials know the hazards of asbestos, have witnessed or read about the asbestos clean ups in schools and other public buildings, saw on the newscasts the suited up workers taking asbestos off the walls and ceilings of buildings. I am sure they know that there was much asbestos used in the buildings at Ground Zero -- but, "Hey, you know, we gotta get this place cleaned up, you're in no danger." Guess they fear that the workers will ask for hazardous pay maybe.

It may be microscopic in the air, but it is there, asbestos -- that White Stuff . . . . . . . . .

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