Detroit kids exposed to asbestos during volunteer work
High school students from Detroit, Michigan volunteered their time over the summer to help clean up the Michigan Central Train Station, which is owned by billionaire Matty Maroun. Volunteers came from a group called Summer in the City, for a combined 75,000 hours of volunteer work done by nearly 1,000 students throughout the summer.
At the train station, volunteers helped shovel, sweep, lift chunks of concrete and drag debris outside so it could be hauled away. Unknown to them, the debris they were clearing away was contaminated with asbestos. State inspectors from the Michigan Department of Environmental Quality discovered friable asbestos on 50 to 80 square feet of duct work found in a dumpster after the volunteers had finished their work. Student volunteers had handled duct work to carry it outside to the dumpster, but it is unknown if they handled the same duct work that contained the toxic asbestos. In any case, experts said that the students should not have been inside the building where they could have been exposed to airborne asbestos fibers. Asbestos exposure can lead to serious illnesses like asbestos-related lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer.
Contractors did not know that there was asbestos in the building, or they would not have allowed the kids inside. Volunteer work stopped as soon as the asbestos was discovered. -
Student volunteers are encouraged to get a chest x-ray, physical exam and pulmonary function testing as a baseline workup following their potential asbestos exposure. This should be repeated at least three times at five-year intervals, followed by cancer surveillance for the rest of their lives. The Karmanos Cancer Institute has offered to set up testing for the students and enroll them in a CDC- and EPA-funded database. Studies of developing blood tests for the early detection of mesothelioma and lung cancer will draw participants from this database.
For the full story, go to WXYZ.com.
