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08 Feb 2007
According to Linda Reinstein of the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO), the carcinogenic substance asbestos is still being used in USA in spite of all the known risks. This lethal material can be found in around 30 million homes and schools in USA.
It was when her husband Alan was diagnosed with mesothelioma, a deadly cancer caused by asbests, that Linda Reinstein determined to take a stand. She decided to turn her distress into action and thus the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO) was established in 2004. Now it's an indepndent international organization which represents victims with all forms of asbestos related diseases. ADAO not only raise public awareness about the hazards of asbestos exposure and asbestos related diseases, but also help ensure the rights of the victims are fairly represented and protected.
Ms. Reinstein says that Amercans should know more about the dangers of asbestosso that they can protect themselves and avoid being diagnosed with deadly diseases like mesothelioma. "Asbestos can cause or contribute to cancers such as mesothelioma, lung, larynx, esophageal, and stomach cancer and many non-malignant diseases such as asbestosis and chronic pulmonary respiratory disease. Ten thousand lives are lost in the U.S. every year to all asbestos-related disease. Each case is incurable and often deadly and every case could have been prevented because the dangers of this mineral were known in the early 1900's," Ms. Reinstein said. According to her, this gigantic death toll are often under-reported. The reason is that diseases due to asbestos exposure are hard to diagnose. "Many victims will die of cardiac failure or pneumonia and are never diagnosed with an asbestos related disease," she said. Ms. Reinstein hinted that there is no asbestos ban in USA. Though the EPA had announced an asbestos ban in 1989, it was quashed by a US Circuit Court of Appeals. "We don't have an actual ban on asbestos, but instead a regulation to reduce exposure," said Reinstein. "Asbestos is allowed in certain concentrations. For example, under OSHA, an employee cannot be exposed to more than 0.1 asbestos fibers per cubic centimeter of air for an average eight hour work day." Ms. Reinstein wondered how it could be known to a consumer whether a given product fits within those guidelines. "These regulations may not even matter. EPA has repeatedly stated that there is no safe level of asbestos exposure," she said. It has been assessed that there are around 30 million homes, schools and offices already polluted with this malignant substance. Apart from this, still new products are coming with asbestos presence. Construction, maintenance or destruction of old structures will lead to asbestos exposure in level. This has been evidenced when the World Trade Center was attacked on 11th November 2001.
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