EPA draws criticism over vermiculite

After a GAO investigation into the use of vermiculite asbestos, congress will soon hammer the EPA for its practices over the past decade. According to the investigators, the EPA executed a flawed examination and cleanup of hundreds of factories that once processed asbestos-contaminated vermiculite into insulation.

In 2003, the EPA promised a "national consumer awareness campaign" on asbestos exposure from insulation, replete with TV and radio ads, news show appearances, posters, and brochures. Under intense opposition from the White House, it never happened. Although the GAO’s report did chide the EPA for its failure to examine and clean up the factories correctly, it said nothing about the danger to homeowners who had the vermiculite insulating their homes.

"It is unconscionable that EPA would not inform the American public of the danger they live with by having this potentially lethal material in their homes," said Dr. Richard Lemen, former assistant U.S. Surgeon General, and acting director of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health.

It’s impossible to know how many homes were insulated with the vermiculite, but estimates place the number at as many as 35 million.

"The EPA knows that people throughout the country continue to encounter this dangerous insulation in their day-to-day activities," said Dr. Aubrey Miller, a U.S. Public Health Service physician. “Kids continue to play in it," Miller said. "Workers continue to work in it. Residents continue to be exposed to it and few, if any, have a clue of the hazardous nature of this material. For years scientists have documented that the most minor movement, slightest disruption of this Zonolite insulation will unleash millions of fibers into the air. For the child playing in the attic or the cable or telephone installer, or anyone doing renovations, the risks are enormous."

The EPA’s Pacific Northwest office is still receiving inquiries about the safety of vermiculite insulation, a full seven years after the initial reports of its dangers.

"This tells me that as an agency we have not done enough to educate the public about the hazards of Libby vermiculite, especially the insulation," said Keven McDermott, head of the Pacific Northwest office. "I feel sick at heart when a young father tells me he just rewired his house, crawling through the vermiculite insulation in his attic day after day, tracking dust and asbestos throughout his home. When I explain about the asbestos in Libby vermiculite, there is a stunned silence. He wonders out loud what harm he may have done his family -- and himself. We have got to get the word out that they need to take precautions when they work around vermiculite attic insulation."

Hundreds have died and government testing has found that thousands of other people who live or worked near Libby have signs of the disease.

As to the insulation in homes, EPA has posted a warning on its Web site and produced a pamphlet that will be sent to anyone who asks.

Said Miller, the Public Health Service physician:
"This is not how a public health crisis should be handled."

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