Several contract workers at Virginia’s Surry Nuclear Station have been exposed to asbestos despite assurances that they would not come into contact with the deadly substance and that any contaminated areas would be clearly marked.
Hundreds of contract workers were employed at the plant and were told when they arrived in April that they would not be working with asbestos. If there was asbestos in the building, they were told that it would be obviously labeled.
This is apparently not what happened. Several contract workers were put at risk after cutting into an unlabeled pipe that had been insulated with asbestos.
After a tornado had forced the plant to shut down, several workers were tasked with removing old piping while the reactors were not functioning. The workers were using a blowtorch to cut the pipe into removable sections. A few sections in, workers began to notice the presence of asbestos dust.
“You could see the fibers falling all over you,” said Arthur Call, a member of the Plumbers and Pipe Fitters Union Local 540 in Virginia. “They looked like dust particles or a really fine snow.”
Call said that there was no asbestos warning posted near their work station, but workers followed the pipes down two floors and located the warning labels that should have been posted in their work area. The company in charge of posting the labels, Quality Specialties Inc., has been fined $4,900 for failing to do so.
The workers were not wearing masks because a Dominion Virginia Power safety officer reportedly told Call earlier in the day that all the asbestos in the building had been removed or abated. Environmental tests after the fact revealed that asbestos was present in the area, but a report filed by the state indicates that Dominion employees have stated that they were “under the assumption all the asbestos had been abated” and that asbestos was not listed “as one of the hazards to be aware of in the contractors’ packages.”
Asbestos was used frequently throughout the United States up until the 1970s when its dangerous nature became apparent. Asbestos exposure is the most common cause of mesothelioma cancer, a disease that results in the scarring of the lungs. Asbestos fibers are harmless until they become airborne, where they can be inhaled and embedded in the lungs. Although mesothelioma often takes decades to develop, it is aggressive and often not caught until the cancer has advanced considerably. Most of those who eventually develop mesothelioma symptoms have been exposed several times to asbestos, but the severity of the disease necessitates strict regulation of the substance
No comments:
Post a Comment