# Killer in the Attic: Zonolite



## Sir Mixalot (Jan 6, 2008)

I ran across this aticle today and thought I would post it.
Just in case someone here has this type of insulation in their home.
Here's the link to the original article--->*http://www.aolnews.com/killer-in-the-attic/article/epa-still-evading-warning-public-about-asbestos-tainted-zonolite-insulation/19750684?icid=main%7Chtmlws-main-n%7Cdl1%7Csec1_lnk3%7C188842*

(Dec. 8) -- The Environmental Protection Agency turned 40 years old this month, and public health and safety experts say the agency has set a new low in failing to protect millions of people at risk from the cancer-causing, asbestos-tainted insulation detailed in last week's AOL News series, "A Killer in the Attic." 

The agency also refuses to explain why it is shirking its mandated responsibility to publicize what its own scientists have proved for years to be the extreme danger from even gently disturbing asbestos-laden vermiculite in insulation that was sold until the late 1990s as Zonolite.










This is a photo of Zonolite vermiculite from a Canadian government agency.

"For decades, the EPA has known about the risks Zonolite could pose to millions of American households, but a mix of brute politics, internal agency disputes and old-fashioned foot dragging has left families without the information needed to protect themselves," Alex Formuzis of the Environmental Working Group told AOL News this week. 

"Labeling this inaction an outrage is an understatement. Why EPA cannot move forward with warning the public about this potentially deadly house guest living in their attics is hard for most folks to understand."

Health- and risk-assessment people in the EPA's Washington headquarters contacted by AOL News said they were forbidden to talk to reporters by higher-ups because of the potential to embarrass the agency for doing nothing. Three of the people who spoke on condition on anonymity agreed that it wouldn't cost the agency anything to warn the public, and it most likely could save some lives.

*In the Series*
Part 1: Government Refuses to Act on Cancer-Causing Insulation
Madison Square Garden Case Illustrates Paranoia
What to Do If You Have Zonolite Insulation
Part 2: Cancer Patient's Home a 'Living Laboratory' for Deadly Fibers
Part 3: 'In Libby, There Was No Maybe' About Dangers
Part 4: Asbestos Dangers Known Centuries Ago, but Battle Continues

The opposition to the warning, they said, came from two senior political appointees and some "old-timers" from EPA's Office of Pollution Prevention and Toxics who knew that in 1982 the EPA first learned of the danger of vermiculite mined in the tiny northwest Montana town of Libby and did nothing. 

"We were told that if the agency said nothing in reaction to recent news reports of the dangers, the issue of the Zonolite warning would just fade again as it has every time it was raised in the past," said an agency lawyer who read many of the e-mails between senior people weighing the language in a statement.

However, no comments were released.

"I've tried four times to get that statement approved without success. Sorry," a press officer wrote to AOL News.

Since 2001, the last three EPA administrators have promised a major public announcement of the dangers, but nothing happened.

*Ignoring the Medical Experts*

Several physicians and toxicologists, including ones who continue to count the hundreds of people killed and the thousands sickened with asbestos-related disease from exposure to killing fibers from the now-closed W.R. Grace & Co. mine in Libby, know the dangers well.

"Some of those [in EPA] who are allowing the failure to adequately warn to continue really don't have any personal experience with asbestos diseases and cancers, and don't realize the high cost of their behavior," said Dr. Michael Harbut, co-director of Karmanos Cancer Institute's National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers.









Courtesy Jorgensen Family
Justin Jorgensen, top, and his brother, Tim, play in a pile of Zonolite waste from a W.R. Grace vermiculite-processing plant near their Minneapolis home in 1978. Zonolite fibers were found in their father's lungs after he died.

Harbut, who is also clinical professor of internal medicine at Michigan's Wayne State University, told AOL News that the EPA's continued benign-neglect approach to notifying the public that death may lurk in their attics "has been formulated not by physicians, but largely by lawyers and persons who have no patient care experience."

"This can subsequently cheapen the government's perspective on the value of human life."

Justin Jorgensen understands that perspective. He says he has been far too up close and personal with the asbestos-tainted vermiculite from the Libby mine. 

Jorgensen contacted AOL News after reading "A Killer in the Attic." He had a story and a photograph to share.

Thirty-two years ago, Jorgensen and his brother -- like their father before them -- played in a towering pile of often still-warm Zonolite waste from a Grace vermiculite-processing plant in Minneapolis -- one of hundreds in the country. 

It was the neighborhood playground. He told AOL News that it killed his father -- Zonolite asbestos fibers were found in his lungs. 

Jorgensen, now 36, said his family didn't know of the deadly asbestos fibers in the play pile any more than the families who today have the same silent killer in their attics and walls are aware of the dangers. 

"Clearly the EPA has failed in its promise to alert the public about asbestos in our homes," he said. "Many people I know think asbestos [is] a problem that was taken care of decades ago, and ... they think there's no more asbestos in America. 

"They're wrong. And the EPA isn't helping." 

*What Is the EPA Thinking?*









Rick Bowmer, AP
Samples of vermiculite and tremolite are shown at the Environmental Protection Agency in Libby, Mont. Libby, a town of 3,000 along the Kootenai River, has emerged as the deadliest Superfund site in the nation's history.

What puzzles so many familiar with the issue is that EPA is refusing to do something without having to pass new laws or spend millions getting the word out. No one expects the government to pick up the costly tab for cleanup, but rather just tell people that their lives may be in danger.

Jennifer Sass, a senior scientist with the National Resources Defense Council, constantly deals with the EPA on public health issues and admits that she's puzzled at the agency shirking its duty to protect the public from environmental harm. 

"There is a nationwide rising sentiment that we don't need government in our lives, but this story proves otherwise. What we need is strong federal regulations to rein in corporate malefactors and to warn the public about harms now, before it's too late to protect our loved ones. Anything less is a deadly game of passing the buck," Sass said. 

But the EPA's buck passing continues.

The agency repeatedly has pointed to the vermiculite page on its website when asked what it is doing to warn the public about Zonolite, which even agency insiders say is inadequate.

The EPA's press office says that Sears, Lowe's, Home Depot, Ace Hardware and other home improvement chains had distributed brochures and hung posters warning of the danger from the Zonolite insulation. Last month, AOL News checked with managers or store supervisors at 22 stores in 10 states and no one could recall any EPA-issued warning material on Zonolite. 

The EPA also told AOL News that it had sent advisories on the Zonolite danger to 116 state and local regulatory and health agencies, consumer-interest groups, public health organizations, property and real estate trade associations, building and construction trade associations, and unions and building-permit and inspection entities. 

Again, AOL News checked with about a third of them. Three recalled some type of EPA advisory on lead. 

None said they'd ever been asked to promote or distribute a warning on Zonolite.


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## woodchuck2 (Feb 27, 2008)

I have come across that several times in attics, i just wore a mask and tried not to eat it. :thumbsup: Didnt see a problem.


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## skyhook (Mar 17, 2007)

Seen it many times in expensive homes.
The people who owned the homes when I worked on them have long since died of old age. Their kids were raised in the homes with no problems.

Lawyers are looking for anything and everything to start up their class action suits. 

Playing on mountains of fiberglass insulation will also cause health issues.


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## Hmrepairs (Sep 11, 2010)

This is really pretty common where I am at, in older ranch style homes, from the 50's and 60's. Was just playing in some last week on a bath remodel I started.


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## blackbear (Feb 29, 2008)

nice my attic is covered with that shi. Ill just pretend its not there :blink:


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## skyhook (Mar 17, 2007)

Most home centers have it in the garden department. Sold as soil conditioner. 
Drink the cool-aid.:laughing:


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## Sir Mixalot (Jan 6, 2008)

skyhook said:


> Most home centers have it in the garden department. Sold as soil conditioner.
> Drink the cool-aid.:laughing:


:drink: *http://www.epa.gov/region2/superfund/removal/hamilton/* :stuart:


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## shanekw1 (Mar 20, 2008)

It _is_ true that _some _(around half) Zonolite (Vermiculite) contains asbestos. Vermiculite produced after 1990 does not contain any.

I have some in my attic right now.

I don't know if it contains asbestos or not.

As long as you are not doing something to create clouds of dust, there is not much danger in it.


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## JRSeifert (Apr 22, 2010)

So that big @$$ barn-fan that I put in my attic to keep the insulation fluffed and stirred was a bad idea!?!?!

Oh man.  And I'd just convinced myself that chicks dig wheezing.


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## The Coastal Craftsman (Jun 29, 2009)

shanekw1 said:


> It _is_ true that _some _(around half) Zonolite (Vermiculite) contains asbestos. Vermiculite produced after 1990 does not contain any.
> 
> I have some in my attic right now.
> 
> ...


The same can be said for lead but one day it will have to be touched and look how ott they have gone with the RRP rule. In my eyes this is much more of a danger than lead.

I'm also still stumped as to why US lead minors don't wear masks when mining the lead. I'm surprised the EPA ain't got involved there seeings Lead is such a danger!


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## Anti-wingnut (Mar 12, 2009)

skyhook said:


> Most home centers have it in the garden department. Sold as soil conditioner.
> Drink the cool-aid.:laughing:


Rather flippant answer considering the health concerns that asbestos can lead to. Of coarse there is a segment which always (ignorantly) responds: "my uncle worked at a ship yard, and (insert bla bla bla about asbestos). 

This conversation has nothing to do with drinking the cool-aid. It has everything to do with protecting your own health, the health of your family, and the health of your customers.

Asbestos contained in zonolite is a particularly insidious concern, because it can and does look a lot like muscovite mice, a mineral which is found in entirely different geologic locales than asbestos. 

As far as mesothelioma being strictly due to long term occupational exposure, that is not established at all. My grandmother died a rapid death soon after being diagnosed with mesothelioma. The only vectors which can link her to asbestos are:

1) A single large exposure to a failed asbestos laden pop-corn ceiling in her house, about four years before her death.

2) Possible continual minor exposure from cleaning my grandfathers clothing from his job as a mechanic. Asbestos lined brakes and clutch surfaces were common.

So you can see that in the eyes of many, that concern about asbestos is not a case of hysteria, but is a logical outcome of facts.



BCConstruction said:


> I'm also still stumped as to why US lead minors don't wear masks when mining the lead. I'm surprised the EPA ain't got involved there seeing's Lead is such a danger!


Don't know the answer, but much of the lead is found in sulfate, sulfide and carbonate ores. It is possible that absorbed and adsorbed lead in this form keeps its molecular form, and is much less dangerous than elementally disaggregated lead


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## TimNJ (Sep 7, 2005)

Sir Mixalot said:


> :drink: *http://www.epa.gov/region2/superfund/removal/hamilton/* :stuart:


Ho-Hum just ANOTHER superfund site from NJ!!


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## TimNJ (Sep 7, 2005)

Vermiculite has been coming from South Africa since they closed that mine down in the US.


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## shanekw1 (Mar 20, 2008)

Education is important.

Hysteria and panic is silly.

Maybe we should just build everything out of lolipops and licorice.


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## wyoming 1 (May 7, 2008)

JRSeifert said:


> So that big @$$ barn-fan that I put in my attic to keep the insulation fluffed and stirred was a bad idea!?!?!
> 
> Oh man. And I'd just convinced myself that chicks dig wheezing.


 
No you will be allright but your neighbor's screwed :w00t:


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## TimNJ (Sep 7, 2005)

shanekw1 said:


> Education is important.
> 
> Hysteria and panic is silly.
> 
> Maybe we should just build everything out of lolipops and licorice.


Too much sugar and too much real licorice are also bad for you.:whistling


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## CCCo. (Jul 19, 2009)

Joke away, 

I think its pretty scary stuff, 

Am I going to streak down the street in panic, Nah

I did read some of the article, not all of it, since its huge and tons of info.

But it states one single fiber, WILL cause cancer.

I know I've mishandled it in the past, :sad:

Its not always about money, :no: 
How are you going to spend it anyway when your dead?


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## shanekw1 (Mar 20, 2008)

TimNJ said:


> Too much sugar and too much real licorice are also bad for you.:whistling


Well, we're all screwed then.:laughing:


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## skyhook (Mar 17, 2007)

Anti-wingnut said:


> Rather flippant answer considering the health concerns that asbestos can lead to. Of coarse there is a segment which always (ignorantly) responds: "my uncle worked at a ship yard, and (insert bla bla bla about asbestos).
> 
> This conversation has nothing to do with drinking the cool-aid. It has everything to do with protecting your own health, the health of your family, and the health of your customers.
> 
> ...


My Sister RIP died of Luekemia but I still use gasoline in my trucks.:drink:


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## DavidC (Feb 16, 2008)

What I've read so far indicates that the asbestos contamination is in the soil at one particular mine. Not necessarily in the vermiculite itself and not necessarily in other mines. Certainly the contaminated product could be an issue of concern, especially when disturbing it, but it doesn't mean that all vermiculite is contaminated.

Anyone found any reports that indicate contamination would be the norm in vermiculite mines in general? 

Good Luck
Dave


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