A campaign to finally ban asbestos

Good morning. Today we'll look at how a group pushing for a federal ban on asbestos teamed up with a firefighters union to bring attention to the issue in a high-profile way. We will also learn the results of a state audit of Kendra's Law, a treatment program for mentally ill people at risk of becoming violent.

It's an unusually serious message for a giant screen in Times Square: “Ban asbestos now.”

Those words appear four times an hour in an advertisement for the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization, which states that most Americans believe asbestos has been banned for more than 30 years. In 1991, a federal appeals court overturned the Environmental Protection Agency's attempt to ban most uses of asbestos.

Asbestos, long linked to lung cancer and mesothelioma, has become less widely used in recent years, partly because of liability concerns.

But the disease awareness group says more than 300 tonnes of it entered the country last year. The group has campaigned for and joined in a federal ban on such imports the International Association of Firefightersthe largest union of firefighters and paramedics in the United States, to create the billboard ads.

“We hope to spark curiosity and, by raising awareness, prevent asbestos exposure,” said Linda Reinstein, president of the disease awareness group.

Reinstein said asbestos-related diseases claim 40,000 lives annually in the United States, and the union says firefighters are twice as likely to suffer from lung cancer as the general public, partly due to asbestos exposure.

“Since September 11, New York City firefighters have been significantly affected by lung disease at a higher rate than the public,” said Edward Kelly, general president of the firefighters union, which represents more than 344,000 firefighters nationwide, including members of the fire brigade. the Uniformed Fire Brigade Association in New York City. “Asbestos undoubtedly played a role in this.”

Kelly said a ban would help “make a dangerous job as safe as possible.” Asbestos can be released into the air during a fire and pose risks in addition to the risks if inhaled, he said. If asbestos fibers get on firefighters' equipment, they can travel back to fire stations and eventually into firefighters' homes, he said.

It's been twenty years since Reinstein founded the disease awareness group. At the time, her husband, Alan, who had worked as a metallurgical engineer early in his career, was suffering from mesothelioma: cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

By the time he was diagnosed with cancer, she said, “I thought asbestos was banned.”

She continued, “He took a job in the 1960s when they were building nuclear submarines in Camden, in New Jersey. He was an engineer with a clipboard and he did home repairs, so the reality was that Alan was also exposed at home.” He died in 2004, when he was 66.

More than 60 countries have banned the use of asbestos. Last year, the EPA proposed banning one form of the material, chrysotile asbestos. It is used in making chlorine, an ingredient in household bleach and some medical products, along with disinfectants for water treatment plants.

The American Chemical Council, a trade group, said this week that chrysotile asbestos “has limited but critical uses in the chemical industry.” The group added in a statement that “the chemical industry supports an appropriate phase-out of this use,” but that such a change should be implemented gradually “to minimize the impact on the national economy and critical infrastructure, including the availability of safe drinking water.” minimalize.”

Reinstein said the EPA's proposed ban would not go far enough because there are other types of asbestos that should be banned.

She also said one of the biggest threats is so-called old asbestos, which is found in building materials such as insulation, floor tiles and roof shingles that were installed long ago and can be loosened during renovations. In New York City, asbestos abatement work may be necessary, especially in buildings built before 1987.

Reinstein favors a broader bill introduced by Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Democrats of Washington, that would ban companies from making or using chrysotile and seven other types of asbestos. That bill, named after Reinstein's husbandused to be the subject of a Senate subcommittee hearing in 2022 but there was no floor vote.

Weather

Enjoy a mostly sunny day in the low 50s. At night it will be partly cloudy and temperatures will drop into the low 40s.

ALTERNATE PARKING

Suspended today (New Year's Eve) and tomorrow (New Year's Year).

Yesterday we looked at an audit of a city program to treat mentally ill people. Now a separate audit is coming, saying the state's main program for treating mentally ill people at risk of becoming violent also has problems.

The state comptroller's audit shows the program sometimes suffers from poor oversight and bureaucratic delays. In one case, nearly a month passed before a mental health provider made contact with a person in the program, something that would happen within a week.

The provider did not schedule a follow-up interview and soon the individual was arrested on murder charges. The audit found that the state Office of Mental Health, which ensures people in the program receive treatment, was aware of the delay after the killing when it was notified by a local health department.

Still, the audit found that the program, known as Kendra's Law, worked effectively in many cases, but improvements were needed to reduce delays and errors in communications.

Clinicians and health officials are expected to share information about how people in the program are doing so they can coordinate care. But in almost a quarter of the cases reviewed by the auditors, there were data entry errors when reporting, for example, whether people had been arrested or threatened to harm themselves.

The audit mirrored the findings of a New York Times investigation that pointed to flaws in Kendra's law. The program was created in 1999 after a man with untreated schizophrenia pushed a 32-year-old woman, Kendra Webdale, in front of a subway train.

Kendra's Law was intended to prevent similar attacks and gave judges the power to order outpatient treatment when someone posed a danger and had lashed out violently, or had been hospitalized for psychiatric reasons.

But The Times found that people under this most heightened form of surveillance had been accused of more than 380 violent acts in the past five years. At least five people who were or were under Kendra's law orders pushed strangers onto the subway tracks.

New York State spends about $29 million annually on the court-ordered treatment program for about 3,800 people. But the program is underfunded and practitioners and health officials are often understaffed, The Times notes.

State mental health officials said they largely agreed with the auditors' findings and were working on ways to improve monitoring.

METROPOLITAN diary

The 37

Dear Diary:

I was recently at a market in Morningside Heights for grab and go lunch.

An older woman in line behind me asked what I ordered.

I said I hadn't decided yet.

“They have at least 157 different sandwiches here,” she said, pointing to a stack of menus.

“My husband liked the 37,” she added.

I checked the menu: roast beef with fig jam, Parmesan cheese, hot peppers, tomatoes and other ingredients. I decided to try one.