Eleven years ago, the Chicago Sun-Times, in a 1997 investigative series, alerted readers to the presence of asbestos at Illinois Beach State Park. Every year, two million people visit the park, which runs for 6½ miles along Lake Michigan, just north of Waukegan. In addition to the usual warnings, this beach posts caution signs advising beachgoers not to handle the asbestos. For eleven years, state and federal officials have claimed that the beach is safe, despite internal EPA documents raising serious questions. But in an August 7, 2007, memo, a national review panel asked, if the asbestos poses no threat, why warn the public to avoid it? And one of the EPA’s own experts, Dr. Aubrey Miller, has admitted to the Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization that even low-level, short-term exposure to asbestos can cause mesothelioma. Still, after eleven years of doing nothing, the EPA maintains that “there is no cause for immediate action.”
For the full story, go to the Chicago Sun Times.
