The Los Angeles Times reported May 2 about a community in El Dorado Hills, Calif., that is being investigated by the EPA for high asbestos levels.
Inspectors donned air filters and protective gear while running, biking and playing baseball and other sports in areas of the town to monitor asbestos levels. The paper reported that initial EPA assessments were worst along a creek-side trail in El Dorado Hills Community Park, where asbestos levels were 22-43 times higher than ambient air levels when stirred up by the common recreational activities tested.
The newspaper also reported that there had already been a clean-up at the high school and the running track was given a new all weather surface. The community has an affluent popuulation and its seems that some citizens don’t care about the potential danger in asbestos exposure.
One resident thinks that most people are more concerned about property values than health issues as she told of how much dust was kicked up from cheer-leading that her daughter did. Other residents were quoted as saying that this whole thing was being blown way out of proportion, that the the government should stay out of this and there is always risk in life no matter what we do.
Well, what about the children? The damage that asbestos can do takes a long time to show up so the children being exposed now are not going to see problems until much later in life. How much are parents really willing to risk in their childrens’ names so that they are not being inconvenienced??
July 3, 2008 at 5:03 am
It’s possible that the cancers in El Dorado Hills were caused by much more than naturally occurring asbestos in the soil. Unfortunately, schools continue to be built on top of closed dumps (landfills) even though there are cancer clusters at many schools across the country that were built on toxic sites. Because so many schools and parks were developed on top of closed dumps (landfills) containing carcinogenic chemicals, government agencies have a responsibility to investigate the previous land-use of all the parks and schools in El Dorado Hills.