Residents Express Concern About Asbestos in the Water

Brockway Borough officials insist they are doing all they can to remove asbestos from the local water supply, but cost concerns hamper their efforts.

Brockway Borough Municipal Authority officials said that they have to test their water lines four times a year. This year, they said that they were shocked to find that two of the tests showed high levels of asbestos. Nevertheless, the Department of Environmental Protection said that the levels pose no immediate health risk.

Brockway Borough Municipal Authority officials said that they are aware of the problem. However, they said that the only way to completely resolve the issue is to replace the water lines in the borough. They said the cost to replace them would be at least $50 million.

Several residents complained that officials were using cost as an excuse to drag their feet. “Grant applications take a lot of work. I understand that, but they’re saying this is new, and we are at the beginning of this process. It is better to start now than to wait too long,” one person said.

An official assertion that the air or water contains a “safe” level of asbestos is, quite frankly, baloney. According to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration, there is no safe asbestos exposure level. In this context, when officials say “safe,” they really mean “statistically insignificant.” That is not much comfort if you or a loved one happens to be one of those statistics, especially given the dreadful nature of asbestos exposure illnesses.

20,000 asbestos fibers can fit between Abraham Lincoln’s lip and nose on a U.S. penny. Most victims inhale these microscopic, toxic fibers, causing lung diseases like:

• Asbestosis: A brave asbestos exposure lawyer filed the first successful asbestos/asbestosis lawsuit in 1924. This condition is also known as popcorn lung. When doctors use stethoscopes to listen to asbestosis-infected lungs, they hear crackling and popping sounds. That’s because asbestos fibers have burned airways, and the resulting scar tissue has blocked these airways.
• Pleural Thickening: Toxic asbestos fibers could also inflame the layer of tissue that surrounds the lungs. In some cases, pleural thickening is not life-threatening or even serious. However, in most cases, the inflamed pleural layer almost literally crushes the victim’s lungs.
• Pleural Mesothelioma: This malignant lung disease begins with a tumor in the mesothelium (laye of membranes between the heart and lungs). Usually, these tumors grow undetected for at least 50 years. Environmental and occupational cancer victims usually do not have lifestyle or genetic markers to prompt testing. As a result, by the time doctors diagnose the condition, mesothelioma is usually at Stage III or Stage IV and essentially untreatable.

Asbestos in the water often causes peritoneal mesothelioma, a rare and aggressive form of abdominal cancer. Swallowed fibers could also cause stomach cancer or another form of gastric cancer.

Unlike pleural mesothelioma, peritoneal mesothelioma may be treatable. Doctors superheat chemotherapy drugs and inject those drugs into the abdominal cavity. However, many asbestos-exposure victims are in their 60s, 70s, or 80s and are not good candidates for such a radical surgical procedure.

The old adage is partially true. It is difficult to fight city hall in court, but it is possible. Additionally, an asbestos-exposure lawyer has other options in these situations.

Asbestos usually gets in the water because of a failure to maintain the pipes. Maintaining infrastructure is a ministerial act, like changing a street sign’s light bulb or filling potholes on the street. If the city or other responsible government entity fails to properly perform ministerial acts, an asbestos exposure lawyer can hold them responsible for that failure in court.

Other times, in these situations, responsibility lies with the contractor who improperly installed the water pipes or other infrastructure. Additionally, if a company knowingly sold a dangerous product, like asbestos-laced water pipes, compensation may be available.

This compensation usually includes money for economic losses, such as medical bills, and noneconomic losses, such as pain and suffering. Additional punitive damages are usually available in these matters as well.

Mesothelioma victims need and deserve significant compensation. For a confidential consultation with an experienced nationwide mesothelioma lawyer, contact the Throneberry Law Group. We routinely handle these matters nationwide.