On June 19, a number of residents in Bayview–Hunters Point, California sued a well-known home builder and its environmental consultant — Lennar and CH2M Hill — on behalf of the residents’ young children. The San Francisco residents complain that their children experienced headaches, skin rashes, and lung problems when they were exposed to asbestos during the builder’s excavation of Parcel A of the Hunters Point Shipyard site. The excavations took place next to a predominantly African American and Latino community.
Scientists have long known that exposure to asbestos may cause asbestosis, lung cancer, or mesothelioma. Asbestos was known to be present on the Hunters Point Shipyard site, and Lennar Corp. has even acknowledged that the asbestos dust was neither monitored nor controlled during major grading and earthmoving operations. But Lennar protests that it is not to blame. The builder has filed a lawsuit of its own in which it alleges that CH2M Hill is entirely responsible for the asbestos problems at the site. Lennar claims that its environmental consultant, CH2M Hill, neglected to provide proper asbestos air monitoring for the builder’s redevelopment of a portion of the Hunters Point Shipyard.
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