Newspaper excerpt on asbestos lawsuits, undated

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

’line wnat pursuit of -.3 FRA Comes Clean on Asbestos In ’ compared By Kimberley A. Strassel parental groups, plaintiffs lawyers and ward “carcinogens.” Even as the\sP# lid intellcc- No more than a few hours after the school officials, was resisting any backing calms Manhattan about asbestos, it is^- 1 nd groups World Trade Center fell, the media were off in the war. manding that General Electric spend bil­ ■t the cable reporting that the north tower had con­ This has corroded the economy. At least lions to dredge the Hudson of PCBs-a r wretched tained 40 floors of asbestos, all of which 40 companies have gone into bankruptcy substance that has never been proven to was now swirling around downtown Man­ as the result of questionable lawsuits. Fed­ cause cancer in humans. And it continues re Septem- hattan. City health officials, the Occupa­ eral Mogul, wiiich fell some weeks ago, to debate incredibly stringent and costly .'ongress’s tional Safety and Health Administration wasn’t even an asbestos manufacturer, new arsenic rules, even though there is no ig to “do and, most importantly, the Environmental but had the bad luck of inheriting one in a real proof that this would save lives. hools that Protection Agency, landed on the scene to corporate deal. With hundreds of thou­ Sept. 11 put things in perspective. Amer- ’ ies, not at sands of lawsuits pending, many people leans have now seen what it is like to deal : I that the conduct air-quality tests. What they did with legitimate, serious illnesses have with real risks; of bioterrorism, of plane 130 years, next was nothing less than astonishing; been shortchanged as plaintiff’s lawyers hijackings, of falling skyscrapers. lie left for They said it was safe to be downtown. c. Anyone For anyone who knows the history of rush to file suits for people who haven’t Whether or not we have a one-in-a-million . rough this these agencies, such proclamations are shown any symptoms of an asbestos-re­ chance' of getting cancer from trace levels akin to heresy. For decades, the EPA has lated disease. of a substance Is now a particularly silly d to the question. Americans, today, need to be taken the lead in zero-tolerance policies In fact, scientists today actuallj' know able to make sound and reasonable health o when it toward any “carcinogenic” substance un­ some real things about asbestos. A natu­ decisions. We should be able to look to our system in lucky enough to have caught its rally occurring mineral, asbestos comes in public health organizations for the truth ■nt, intact eye-whether it be pesticides, Hudson several forms: “Blue" asbestos, because of about risks, not paranoid overstatement. exercise River PCBs or asbestos. This draconian its fiber type, shape and size, is consid­ is fantas- approach has served to encourage un­ ered most dangerous. “White” asbestos, Strassel is an assistant features edi­ inandates founded health scares, and created an en­ used in the WTC, constitutes over 90% of torMs. at the Journal. Her OpinionJoumal.com a nice vironment in which people no longer asbestos products in place in the U.S. and column appears on altemate Thursdays. <hausting make rational decisions about health is far less harmful. Asbestos is associated IS. We im- risks. It has also led to the nightmare of with three major diseases-asbestosis, education trial lawyers, lawsuits and corporate lung cancer and mesothelioma. Nearly all 1 condom bankruptcies. of these aliments, however, strike people THE WALL STREET JOURNAL. New York But on Sept. 11, as with so many things, who, largely for occupational reasons, Peter R. Kann Has Two the EPA’s world changed. Faced with a were exposed to asbestos at high levels Publisher indulgent ■ public health scare that could have sent and over a long period of time. For every ­ Chairman £ CEO, Dow Jones & Company Mils could thousands in Manhattan fleeing the city or one else, the risks are extremely low; we know, jamming hospitals, the EPA decided to Should you simply sit in a building contain­ Paul E. Steiger Robert L. Bartley ing asbestos, you are more likely to be hit Managing Editor , another cough up the truth about asbestos. Its offi ­ by lightning than you arc to die a prema­ Editor

liave bc- cials bent over backward to get out the ture death from asbestos. Stephen J. Adler Paul A Gigot •ptember message that asbestos was harmful only if For all these reasons, it made sense for Byron E. Calame Editorial Page Editor as gun- breathed at high levels and over sustained EPA head Christie Whitman to offer her Daniel Hertzberg Daniel Henninger ■asonable periods of time. When reporters pointed soothing words about downtown. By about Joanne Lipman Deputy Editorial ided into out that some of the tests had exceeded the three weeks after the collapse, the EPA Depidy Managing Editors Page Editor ruitment EPA’s safety levels, the'agency hurried to had taken 442 air samples, only 27 of which explain that this was a “stringent stan­ Vice Presidents showed levels of asbestos above its most post-Sep- dard based on long-term exposure” and stringent standards. Many readings were Danforth W. Austin General Manager •yers’ pi- repeated that the public was not at any taken in the immediate WTC site, and sam­ Thomas G. Hetzel Circulation sue any- real risk. Stephen B. Howe ples outside that area were even.lower.' Urban C. Lehner Advertising Business Development Ven they The EPA’s truthful words went only so The main risks, if any, arc posed to the Michael F. Sheehan Production iw, origi- far to contain fear. Some have still refused emergency workers, although they have Kristin A. Tennent Ticknology dge com- to move home or return to work. But that’s been warned to wear protective masks. It metasta- pot surprising, given the agency’s history is a shame that the truth has emerged only Richard J. Tofel Assistant to the Publisher ng, with with asbestos. Over the past few decades, in the course of a catastrophe, and that the ical cops there probably has not been a substance EPA had to expend so much energy calm-’ Published since 1889 by ivoid be- more likely to strike irrational fear in a Ing a public that should have known the DOWJONES & COMPANY public’s heart, and the EPA bears a lot of facts long ago. iw about the blame.. k.” How The downtown scare, and others like it, Executive Vice Presidents: Peter G. Skinner, The war against asbestos started in the General Counsel; Richard F. Zannino, Chief Firutneial ■ jack the 1950s, when a scientist, Irving Selikoff, has frustrated scientists. They point out Officer. hurches, found links between cancer and workers in that untold sums of public money have Senior Vice Presidents: L. Gordon Crovitz, il associ-. asbestos-using industries.' Asbestos was gone toward eradicating a nonexistent Electronic Publishing, James H. Ottaway Jr., I media) used in everything from walls and floors to health problem, money that could have Chairman, Ottaway Newspapers. ause we hotpads and hairdryers. The EPA jumped been better spent on practically any pub­ Presidents/Operating Groups: Karen Elliott House, allies, to lic good. And that doesn’t evaluate the International; Paul J. Ingrassia, Newswires; David E. s of self- in by the 1970s, with dire warnings that bigger cost to society. Says Elizabeth M. Moran, IndexesfElectrordc Ventures; Joseph Richter, asbestos should be eradicated. Schools, Whelan, president of the American Coun­ Ottaway Newspapers; Scott D. Schulman, Consumer ongway public institutions and homeowners spent cil on Science and Health: “Every mo­ Electronic Publishing.

ms. but billions in removal. By the 1980s, better ment we waste scaring our kids about hy­ Vice Presidents: William A Godirey UI, Technology ■ling out science said the risks were greatly exag ­ pothetical risks like those posed by trace 1. Steven Goldstein, Corporate Communications; Richard J. Levine, Newswires; Ann Marks, Dorothea a might gerated, But the EPA continued to insist exposure to asbestos, is a moment we Coccoli Palsho, Marketing, Guy A. Nardo,' General 0 many on tough rules for everyone from building could be focusing on real health risks, like Services; James A. Scaduto, Human Resources; iutifso, planners to haulers. smoking, not wearing seatbelts or not us­ Rosemary C. Spano, Law, Christopher W. Vieth, of civic In the 1990s, even the EPA was begin­ ing bike helmets. Public health policies Finance. bout de­ ning to wonder what it had unleashed. A should focus on established risks, not DO^ONFS ll them- report the EPA did itself in 1992 suggested phantom risks.” showing the agency had mismanaged the affair. Indeed, public health agencies should Editorial and Corporate Headquarters 4300 Route 1 North, South Bnuiswick, NJ. 08852. Telephone (603) en com- Byt by this time a fearful public, but­ learn from this event, and start to come S2O-40OO. SuBscRiiTiON Services: Call l-SOO-JOURNAL, tressed by a bureaucracy of labor unions. clean on other zero-threshold policies to- or go to http://scrvices.wsj.com.

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