After The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) concluded that former employees of Western Minerals Products Company facility in Denver were exposed to elevated levels of asbestos, the EPA has begun to replace soil with clean fill where soil contains 1 percent or more of asbestos.
Libby Asbestos was found up to 12 inches beneath the ground around the Former Western Minerals Site located at 111 South Navajo Street near Interstate 25 and Alameda Avenue.
The EPA decided to perform a �time-critical� cleanup plan after some areas were found to contain up to 12 percent asbestos and some spots had visible vermiculite on the ground.
While the ATSDR recommends that former employees of this facility and those who lived in their households learn more about asbestos and see a physician regarding potentially adverse health effects the Colorado Department of Public Health did not find higher incidence of asbestos related diseases in the neighborhood.
“We didn’t find any indication that there was an impact to the populations living in the vicinity,” Wilson said. “In this particular case, people are not residing in the immediate several blocks (of the plant). The likelihood of exposure is reduced for that reason.” Said Mike Wilson, chief of environmental epidemiology at the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.
(via Rocky Mountain News)
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