Despite concern on the part of some community residents, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) went forward with the demolition of an office building of a Fort Worth apartment complex using an experimental–and controversial–procedure. Although the accepted practice for tearing down buildings containing asbestos-containing materials is to remove the materials before demolition, the EPA tested an alternative method on the Fort Worth building, wetting it down with foam and tearing it down with asbestos-containing materials still in place. Some community members, members of the Asbestos Workers Union, and lawyers working with the non-profit group Public Justice had tried to talk the EPA out of going forward with the demolition citing safety concerns, but were not successful. Exposure to asbestos can cause conditions such as mesothelioma, an incurable cancer that does not appear until decades after asbestos exposure, as well as lung cancer and asbestosis.
The EPA and other proponents of the controversial method claim it could be cheaper than the traditional method, but others disagree. Members of a peer review committee who studied reports on earlier tests at an isolated facility at Fort Chaffee, Ark., noted that costs for trenching, collecting water and using chemical foam are potentially astronomical; one expert noted that in real-world situations, most contractors would not follow the required procedures, which would put the surrounding community at risk of asbestos exposure. Members of the peer review panel also raised concerns that the EPA was moving too fast on proposing a rule change allowing the new procedure without having completed sufficient testing of the method. Representatives of the Asbestos Workers Union–who in the heyday of asbestos use in the 1950s and 1960s saw 1 out of 10 members develop mesothelioma from asbestos exposure–noted that regulations requiring the removal of asbestos before demolition existed because there is no acceptable level of asbestos exposure, as even low levels of asbestos can cause mesothelioma decades later. The experimental method potentially increases the risk of exposing the surrounding community to asbestos released during the demolition process.
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