Hundreds of people pursued lawsuits against New York City following the 9/11 attacks and subsequent relief operations due to the presence of toxic rubble. More recently, there has been some similar concerns regarding the possibility of toxic conditions in Haiti following the earthquakes earlier this year.
Of all the organizations in the area the United States Army is perhaps the best equipped to perform the necessary tests, and after soldiers of the 82nd Airborne Division deployed in the area complained of sore throats and other respiratory ailments, investigations were quickly made.
The possible presence of asbestos fibers in the cement, pipes, tiles, shingles and other raw materials that were brought asunder was one of the primary concerns. Asbestos has been shown to cause a wide variety of illnesses including asbestosis, lung cancer, and mesothelioma, an aggressive and invariably terminal cancer of the soft tissue around the lungs.
Experience in the United States with large urban disasters such as the 9/11 attacks have demonstrated the vast after effects that asbestos can have on a disaster area. Thousands of people were unknowingly subjected to asbestos contaminated air, water and more after 9/11 – both on and off of official work-sites. The ramifications weren’t overlooked, either. With hundreds of new cancer diagnoses resulting from exposure at and around ground zero, a judge involved in the subsequent lawsuits reportedly rejected a settlement of nearly $600 million claiming it was insufficient for the loss suffered by individuals and their families.
In Haiti, after the analysis of soil, water and air samples taken from the areas U.S. troops are working, it appears that asbestos is not a significant threat.
“We collected air samples from 31 locations to see if our guys were potentially breathing anything bad,” said the public health officer in charge of the operation, “…everything we have been able to analyze so far has not presented a risk that is expected to be long-term, short-term or one we can’t mitigate.”
The results of asbestos testing in Haiti are certainly a relief, but they’re not actually very surprising. While many developed nations have a troubling history with adamant asbestos use, developing nations rarely fabricate the substance themselves and often import it if they use it at all. Much of this phenomena could be due to the massive asbestos demand increase in the United States and European countries during World War II that resulted from a rapid rise of military production. After the war, much of the swollen asbestos industry found commercial outlets for their products.
Asbestos may not pose a threat in Haiti, but as it turns out both food and water have been somewhat problematic. Luckily, nothing other than curable illnesses and minor ailments have been reported yet.
