Former Smithsonian Employee Alleges Whistleblower Retaliation

In 2008, a safety briefing for workers at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. revealed that the museum's walls contained asbestos. It was the first safety training session since 1997, and the first time anyone had mentioned asbestos in more than two decades.

It came as quite a shock to Richard Pullman, a 53-year-old lighting engineer who had worked at the museum for 27 years, often cutting into or through interior walls to update or install artifacts and peripheral lighting components.

No one had said a word previously, and Pullman - who testifies he had been experiencing shortness of breath for a while - immediately began gathering internal documents and filing federal workplace safety complaints through the U.S. Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration or OSHA.

Now, Pullman is suing the museum, whose officials - while acknowledging the presence of asbestos in walls - say there is nothing harmful in the air and have spent $27,000 to test the air and clean up this "nothing" from 11 areas in five galleries. According to associate director John F. Benton II, the current administration didn't even find out about asbestos in the walls until 2008, when the museum upgraded their training and equipment. Experts reviewing said tests admit there is danger to unprotected workers, though the risk to visitors is minimal. The tests did not sample accumulated asbestos dust.

Remediation has largely been effected by covering asbestos-containing wall seam material with spackling compound, and at one time essential managers knew this. Unfortunately, frequent staff changes have caused such critical information to be lost over the years, according to museum spokesperson Linda St. Thomas.

Pullman subverted manager's attempts to label him a malcontent by hiring an environmental engineer to sample the museum, and the results indicate that asbestos had, indeed, been mishandled and spread, but a Smithsonian lawyer contends that - because the samples were "wrongly" acquired - they are inadmissible.

Pullman has filed three complaints within the past year, on with OSHA and two federal worker's compensation claims. OSHA responded to a Washington Post inquiry by noting that the museum should have cordoned off working areas, posted warning signs, and used an impermeable drop cloth, wet methods and on-site ventilation. The Department of Labor has twice denied Pullman's worker's comp claims. Pullman is appealing.

Retaliation for Pullman's blowing the whistle on Smithsonian asbestos problems has taken several forms. Pullman earned the nickname of the "the asbestos police"; he was assigned to a new supervisor; his job was reclassified after a poor performance evaluation caused a reduction in pay and a withdrawal of a promised promotion; and Claude Russell, the museum's safety officer at the time, repeatedly told Pullman to watch his back. Smithsonian officials deny any form of retaliation.

In spite of Pullman's repeated attempts to draw government agency attention to ongoing violations of the Clean Air Act NESHAP (National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants) regulations, both the government and museum officials continue to obstruct investigation and state that everything is within NESHAP standards.

The Smithsonian Museum, built in 1972, is the world's largest museum complex. It is comprised of 19 museums, 9 research centers, and the National Zoo and its Washington, D.C. location covers seven square blocks of prime real estate.

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that was used in insulation, floor and roofing tiles, tile glues and some ceiling panels up to the 1970s, when health officials began to recognize the dangers. It was largely banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, in 1989, but continues to find it way into a few American consumer products, often via overseas manufacture. Asbestos fibers, inhaled, can cause lesions which lead to a number of diseases, most notably mesothelioma, an almost incurable form of cancer that often doesn't manifest for three or more decades, by which time the prognosis is very poor. Most people who are diagnosed with mesothelioma die within a year.

On March 17, House Administration Committee Chairman Robert A. Brady (D-Pa.), in response to a March 15 Washington Post article, promised an April hearing to investigate Pullman's claims.

Museum officials have declined comment on the hearing, but continue to aver that the museum is safe for visitors and that air quality testing shows there is nothing harmful in the air.

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