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Examining the Human Health Effects of Asbestos and the Methods of Mitigating Such Impacts

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Examining the Human Health Effects of Asbestos and the Methods of Mitigating Such Impacts S. HRG. 110–1096 EXAMINING THE HUMAN HEALTH EFFECTS OF ASBESTOS AND THE METHODS OF MITIGATING SUCH IMPACTS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JUNE 12, 2007 Printed for the use of the Committee on Environment and Public Works ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/browse/ committee.action?chamber=senate&committee=environment U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 61–969 PDF WASHINGTON : 2011 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION BARBARA BOXER, California, Chairman MAX BAUCUS, Montana JAMES M. INHOFE, Oklahoma JOSEPH I. LIEBERMAN, Connecticut JOHN W. WARNER, Virginia THOMAS R. CARPER, Delaware GEORGE V. VOINOVICH, Ohio HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON, New York JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey DAVID VITTER, Louisiana BENJAMIN L. CARDIN, Maryland LARRY E. CRAIG, Idaho BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota CHRISTOPHER S. BOND, Missouri SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island BETTINA POIRIER, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel ANDREW WHEELER, Minority Staff Director (II) CONTENTS Page JUNE 12, 2007 OPENING STATEMENTS Boxer, Hon. Barbara, U.S. Senator from the State of California ........................ 1 Inhofe, Hon. James M., U.S. Senator from the State of Oklahoma .................... 3 Lautenberg, Hon. Frank R., U.S. Senator from the State of New Jersey ........... 5 Isakson, Hon. Johnny, U.S. Senator from the State of Georgia .......................... 6 Vitter, Hon. David, U.S. Senator from the State of Louisiana ............................ 8 Baucus, Hon. Max, U.S. Senator from the State of Montana .............................. 213 WITNESSES Murray, Hon. Patty, U.S. Senator from the State of Washington ....................... 9 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 12 Weissman, David N., M.D., Director, Division of Respiratory Disease Studies, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services .... 23 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 25 Responses to additional questions from Senator Boxer ................................ 30 Miller, Captain Aubrey, M.D., M.P.H., U.S. Public Health Service, Region 8, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency .......................................................... 31 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 33 Marty, Melanie, Ph.D., chief, Air Toxicology and Epidemiology Branch, Cali- fornia Environmental Protection Agency, Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment .............................................................................................. 37 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 39 Castleman, Barry, Sc.D., Environmental Consultant ........................................... 65 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 66 Responses to additional questions from: Senator Boxer ............................................................................................ 71 Senator Inhofe ........................................................................................... 74 Wylie, Ann G., Ph.D., Professor of Geology, University of Maryland ................. 84 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 84 Response to an additional question from Senator Inhofe ............................. 90 Weill, David, M.D., Associate Professor, Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, CA ................ 91 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 93 Responses to additional questions from Senator Inhofe ............................... 96 Lemen, Richard A., Ph.D., M.S.P.H., former director, Division of Standards Development and Technology Transfer, Assistant Surgeon General, U.S. Public Health Service (Retired), Rear Admiral, U.S. Public Health Service (Retired) ................................................................................................................ 96 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 98 Reinstein, Linda, executive director and co-founder, Asbestos Disease Aware- ness Organization ................................................................................................ 169 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 170 Response to an additional question from Senator Boxer .............................. 190 (III) IV Page ADDITIONAL MATERIAL Article, Responding to a Harsh Business Environment: A New Diaphragm for the Chlor-Alkali Industry .............................................................................. 16 Survey, 2005 Minerals Yearbook, Asbestos, U.S. Geological Survey .................. 44 Letters: El Dorado County Office of Education, Vicki L. Barber., Ed.D., Super- intendent ........................................................................................................ 58–64 Signatory Groups in the United States....................................................... 176–189 Other Groups................................................................................................. 190–204 EXAMINING THE HUMAN HEALTH EFFECTS OF ASBESTOS AND THE METHODS OF MITI- GATING SUCH IMPACTS TUESDAY, JUNE 12, 2007 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC WORKS, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in room 406, Dirksen Senate Office Building, the Hon. Barbara Boxer (chairman of the committee) presiding. Present: Senators Boxer, Inhofe, Carper, Lautenberg, Isakson, Vitter, and Klobuchar. Also present, Senator Murray. STATEMENT OF HON. BARBARA BOXER, U.S. SENATOR FROM THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA Senator BOXER. The committee will come to order. We welcome Senator Patty Murray. Senator Murray, I want to congratulate you on your leadership on this issue. I also want to say, I know Senator Isakson has been working closely with you and I want to thank him for trying to reach some agreement on your bill. This is an important hearing for millions of Americans who have been exposed to asbestos, for their families and especially for the thousands of American families who have lost family members to asbestos-related lung disease and cancer. Millions of Americans are still being exposed to asbestos today. If we don’t act, countless more people will get sick and die in the future. Your legislation, Senator, the Ban Asbestos in America Act of 2007, would place the United States clearly on the side of pro- tecting the health of the public from this dangerous substance. It would ban nearly all uses of asbestos in products. I am proud to be an original co-sponsor of this bill, as is Senator Baucus, who you know has had so many issues with asbestos in the town of Libby, MT. We must take every reasonable step we can to end exposure to asbestos, when we see our fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers dying from asbestos. There is no justification for allowing the num- ber of dead to continue to mount. Just this past year, we lost a Congressman, we lost Eli Segal, who was exposed at a very young age to asbestos. This is a deadly situation. (1) 2 Asbestos fibers can be 1,200 times smaller than a human hair. These microscopic fibers can stay invisible and suspended in the air for days. People, including children, can breathe these fibers deep into their lungs, where they cause their damage. We see the results of this in communities across our country. This nationwide, actually worldwide tragedy, has hit my State of California especially hard. According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, between 1993 and 2002, more than 1,000 people died from asbestosis caused by expo- sures at their work. From 1999 to 2002, NIOSH reports 1,001 peo- ple died from mesothelioma, a rare cancer and deadly cancer gen- erally caused by asbestos. These figures do not include the deaths from lung cancer and other diseases that asbestos can cause, or the deaths that the Government tracking system may have missed. The deaths of hard-working people exposed to asbestos at their work only tell part of the story. Workers can take asbestos into their homes on their clothes. After a hard day at work, they go home and hug their children or sit with their families at the dinner table. Their spouses may handle their asbestos-laden clothes. No- body can see the fibers, but they can still kill. We have a picture here of Rebecca Martinez. She lived in Bald- win Park, CA. This is a picture of Rebecca Martinez. Margarito Martinez lived in Baldwin Park, CA with his wife of 39 years, Re- becca, pictured here on the right. Margarito worked as a plasterer, and Rebecca would clean his asbestos-covered clothes when he came home, breathing in the dust
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