Asbestos victim wages resolute battle to ban deadly substance sfchronicle/nation/article/Asbestos-victim-wages-resolute-battle-to-ban-5993592.php?t=e041cbc85a00af33be&cmpid=twitter-premium#/0 By David McCumberJanuary 4, 2015 Brant Ward / The Chronicle Paul Zygielbaum — who suffers from deadly, asbestos-caused mesothelioma — and his wife, Michelle, fix a snack at home in Santa Rosa. Sixty nations ban asbestos, but the industry’s clout has stifled efforts to eradicate it in the United States. WASHINGTON — The goal, Paul Zygielbaum says, is “to die of something else.” Something other, that is, than the asbestos-related disease he’s been fighting for 15 years. Zygielbaum, who lives in Santa Rosa, is a retired engineer, but that doesn’t begin to describe him. He is a warrior — not just against his own cancer, but against the asbestos industry that gave it to him. He’s fighting for medical research into new treatments; for the rights of patients, victims and their families; and to make asbestos illegal. And he’s doing it while battling mesothelioma, an almost universally fatal cancer caused by exposure to asbestos. “I’m having a little trouble right now with an inoperable tumor behind my liver,” he said matter of factly. “This life has chosen me,” said Zygielbaum, 64. “There is no going back.” Touting the EPA Gina McCarthy, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, reminded a Georgetown University audience recently just how much the agency has accomplished in its four decades of existence. “In the ’60s, our rivers were burning, future Superfund sites were popping up all over, smokestacks were spewing black soot, and cars were fueled by leaded gasoline,” McCarthy said. Since then, she said, “we have tackled our environmental challenges in ways that sparked American ingenuity.” Here’s one thing she didn’t mention: In 2014, just as it was in 1970, it is legal to import, manufacture and sell asbestos and products containing it. And asbestos-containing material known to be carcinogenic remains in millions of U.S. homes. “The asbestos issue is not a thing of the past,” said former acting U.S. Surgeon General Boris Lushniak. “It continues to this day, and has a health impact on our nation.” Industry wins The EPA itself tried to enact a ban administratively 25 years ago, only to have the industry fight and win in court. Since then, a major asbestos scandal rocked tiny Libby, Mont., where Hearst Newspapers disclosed in 1999 that a nearby vermiculite mine, its ore tainted with tremolite asbestos, had killed hundreds of people — miners and their families, even townspeople with no direct connection to the mine — and spread toxic fibers worldwide. New cases from Libby asbestos are still being diagnosed regularly. In the 15 years since Libby, Congress has made several efforts to legislate a ban — all thwarted by industrial lobbies and partisan wrangling. Meanwhile, with metronomic consistency, asbestos-related disease continues to kill about 10,000 Americans each year. Asbestos-related diseases include mesothelioma, the almost invariably lethal cancer of the lining of the lungs or intestines; asbestos-related lung cancer; and asbestosis, a gradual thickening of asbestos-pierced lung tissue that eventually makes breathing impossible. Once these were thought to be occupational diseases, suffered only by those who worked with asbestos-contaminated substances. Secondary exposure But the Libby tragedy, where hundreds of victims never worked at the mine, and additional research have changed scientists’ thinking. Now, they realize, secondary exposure — a child or a spouse hugging a miner or auto mechanic, or handling their dusty clothing — can be lethal. Even a single exposure in one of the estimated 13 million attics across the country that have asbestos-tainted loose-fill insulation from Libby can be fatal. For years, Sens. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., have fought to pass a ban on asbestos. In November 2007 they came close. In fact, the Ban Asbestos in America Act passed the Senate unanimously. Many asbestos victims and anti-asbestos activists celebrated. Until they read the fine print. Industry lobbyists had gotten their way: Somehow — nobody is saying exactly how — the bill was watered down in markup. In particular, a one-word change — from asbestos-containing “product” to asbestos-containing “material” — gutted the proposed ban. Bill’s failure The use of the word “product” would have effectively banned everything that contains asbestos. The use of the word “material,” on the other hand, meant that anything containing up to 1 percent asbestos, by weight, would remain legal. Even this version didn’t get through Congress. Recriminations flew in the halls of the Senate. Now, a Murray aide will say only, “Sen. Murray worked across the aisle and with advocates and industry in an attempt to find an agreement. Unfortunately, the final deal did not reach the goals that Sen. Murray and many advocates had set.” Paul Zygielbaum was diagnosed with mesothelioma in 2003 after five years of symptoms. He endured a marathon operation the following year in which his opened abdomen was bathed in cancer-killing chemicals. He was actively engaged with the Boxer-Murray effort in 2007, and when he heard it had passed the Senate, he said, “Wow, this is a miracle.” When he found out what it really was, he was horrified. “It was a betrayal,” he said. “I felt we were in danger of institutionalizing asbestos poisoning as the policy of the U.S. government for the next two decades.” Indeed, no subsequent legislation has gotten close to passage. Meanwhile, 60 countries around the world have banned asbestos. “A good name for an asbestos ban bill would be The Catch Up with Croatia Act,’” said Dr. Barry Castleman, who has worked for 40 years on the public-health problem of asbestos. “Americans simply can’t identify asbestos or manage the risk,” said Linda Reinstein, president and co-founder of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, the country’s most prominent anti-asbestos organization. Her husband died of mesothelioma in 2006. “If asbestos isn’t completely banned, no one is safe,” Reinstein said. Revamping law Her ban thwarted, Murray began to focus on other paths that she believed had greater chances of success. That boiled down to a revamp of the catchall Toxic Substances Control Act, which has never been updated since it was passed in 1976. In 2013, Sen. David Vitter, R-La., ranking minority member of the Environment and Public Works Committee, produced a version of the bill without the asbestos-regulation language. Boxer fought back, proposing legislation in September that included language mandating EPA action to regulate asbestos. But in 2015, with the change in Senate control, Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., will run the committee — and the process will begin anew. Undeniably, Murray and Boxer will have much less leverage. It’s safe to say prospects are bleak for any effort in the 114th Congress to ban asbestos. In fact, a bill to reduce corporate asbestos liability, passed by the House last year, is now expected to be introduced in the Senate early in 2015. “I am gravely concerned about the new 2015 Senate and fear that asbestos victims’ civil rights and public health will be buried with one GOP shovel,” said Reinstein. Fighting on Murray and Boxer promise to continue the fight. “As all of us know, this problem isn’t going away, so I remain committed to working with advocates, industry, and members from both sides of the aisle to move forward with comprehensive reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act,” Murray said. Boxer, who has led the legislative fight for eight years as chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, says she’s not giving up just because she’ll be in the minority. “Asbestos is a well-known killer, and I intend to continue the fight to ban it,” she said. “The test of whether we have meaningful ... reform is whether we can ensure poisons like asbestos are banned. The Vitter-led bill did not meet that test.” She warned, “We will also have to fight rollbacks of environmental laws. They have been highlighted as a major target in the new Congress. I will use every tool at my disposal to protect health and environmental safeguards from these attacks.” Can McCarthy’s EPA act without Congress to outlaw the fiber once again? The current Toxic Substances Control Act “is not the strongest statute we have at our disposal,” McCarthy said. “A closer look at TSCA would be welcome. There was an active interest in doing that. I’m hoping there continues to be.” Savoring life Zygielbaum has been told by other mesothelioma patients that he is their inspiration. “It’s the other way around,” he says quietly. He’s learned to savor life — to appreciate every moment he can spend with his wife, Michelle, and their children and grandchildren. He believes in having goals to strive for, and so he’s booked a ticket with XCOR Aerospace for a coming space flight. “I’m looking forward to that,” he said. “And I’m looking forward to seeing asbestos banned.” David McCumber is Hearst Newspapers’ Washington bureau chief. E-mail:david.mccumber@hearstdc
Posted on: Mon, 05 Jan 2015 09:55:13 +0000
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