Shelton, Connecticut, Home Demolished, Leaving Asbestos Debris

A Shelton, Connecticut home up for sale because its residents had moved to an elderly, assisted care facility was left perched on the side of a hill after a mudslide Tuesday, December 15, and residents of a condominium sited below the house were evacuated.

The house, though old, was solid and well-built, according to the firm that finally demolished it on December 18. Unfortunately, wet conditions caused by a leaking basement water pipe that buckled the foundation also caused a mudslide, taking out a number of trees on the property, and the city decided that demolishing the house was the safest way to insure the condo didn't also sustain damage.

Today, all that remains of the North Oak Avenue house, which cost $3,000 to demolish but carried a tax lien of $14,764, is a pile of rubble, some of it likely asbestos given the age of the home. The emergency teardown took not only the house's walls, but furnishings and a number of personal possessions, according to a condo resident who watched the teardown.

Fortunately, the debris remains wet and covered by construction tarps, and will hopefully continue in that state until an environmental assessment determines just how much asbestos is incorporated, according to Shelton building official Elliot Wilson.

Asbestos is safe, according the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, as long as it is in good condition; that is, not deteriorating from age, broken or disturbed. Once it suffers some form of degradation, however, it releases microscopic fibers that can be inhaled or ingested by merely swallowing saliva.

Once inside the body, these fibers can cause irritation in the mesothelial linings around the heart, lungs and digestive tract which lead to a particularly lethal form of cancer that remains undiagnosed for decades before causing so much vital tissue involvement that sufferers are forced to seek a doctor's care.

Diagnosis of long-term mesothelioma almost always results in a prognosis of about a year to live. Fortunately, asbestos is seldom used anymore in domestic insulation or adhesive and caulking products, thanks to a 1989 ruling by the EPA that limits its use to one percent of product or less by weight or volume. Unfortunately, the same is not true of all imported products, and the legacy - of more than 70 years use in the construction industry - leaves asbestos' footprint still large enough to cause 10,000 deaths in America every year.

The emergency demolition took two days, with condo residents returning to their homes Sunday, December 20. Cleaning up and removing the debris may take longer, as asbestos remediation specialists comb the wreckage for evidence of the dreaded mineral. Fortunately, the demolition contractor had the presence of mind to cover the debris, and city officials will hopefully hire someone to see that it remains intact, and damp - a feature winter will help to insure.

Condo residents, who escaped the threat presented by a house sliding down the hill, should also be allowed to escape the danger presented by asbestos-contaminated debris becoming airborne.

Sources: Environmental Working Group, New Haven Register

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