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Environmental Public Health Policy for Asbestos in Schools: Unintended Consequences
On January 3, 1977, Howell Township, New Jersey closed its schools while scientists tested for dangerous levels of asbestos. After reports of unexplained ailments in some children, the parents of 4,500 elementary school children had threatened to boycott classes until the Board of Education removed asbestos-containing materials. Similar cases occurred across the country. In February, 1977, the New York Times reported that the child whose illness had been attributed to asbestos actually had mononucleosis.
Was the reaction of parents and officials unwarranted? Did scientific evidence exist indicating that asbestos in schools caused children to become ill? Was all the relevant information - including the impact of their decisions on public policy in the future - considered? Environmental Public Health Policy for Asbestos in Schools addresses these questions by focusing on the development, institutionalization, and consequences of federal environmental policy for asbestos in schools.
This unique and timely book explores the history of asbestos in schools and buildings and how this issue shaped the development of public health policy. Insight into past policy, including how, why, and who caused action to be taken, will enlighten and guide the scientific and regulatory communities in the future. The story of asbestos is a cautionary tale. Other toxic agents, such as lead, nitrogen dioxide and radon, could follow the same model as asbestos, raising similar questions.
Written in a straightforward style, Environmental Public Health Policy for Asbestos in Schools explains technical concepts in language easily understood by non-experts. Understanding the factors and judgments involved in this issue gives insight into how the government - and society - perceives, assesses, and develops public health policy.
Was the reaction of parents and officials unwarranted? Did scientific evidence exist indicating that asbestos in schools caused children to become ill? Was all the relevant information - including the impact of their decisions on public policy in the future - considered? Environmental Public Health Policy for Asbestos in Schools addresses these questions by focusing on the development, institutionalization, and consequences of federal environmental policy for asbestos in schools.
This unique and timely book explores the history of asbestos in schools and buildings and how this issue shaped the development of public health policy. Insight into past policy, including how, why, and who caused action to be taken, will enlighten and guide the scientific and regulatory communities in the future. The story of asbestos is a cautionary tale. Other toxic agents, such as lead, nitrogen dioxide and radon, could follow the same model as asbestos, raising similar questions.
Written in a straightforward style, Environmental Public Health Policy for Asbestos in Schools explains technical concepts in language easily understood by non-experts. Understanding the factors and judgments involved in this issue gives insight into how the government - and society - perceives, assesses, and develops public health policy.
160 pages, Hardcover
First published September 28, 1999
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May 1, 2011
This book is a mess. It is insanely repetitive, confused, and meandering, but at the heart of it is a fascinating story.
Starting with the reported respiratory ailment of one child in a New Jersey township in 1977, which was attributed by his mother, without evidence, to asbestos in school, there began a nationwide, decade-long panic about asbestos in America's schools. It was fueled by some public health scientists (especially at Mount Sinai in New York), lawyers, the asbestos abatement industry, and the EPA, and ended up costing school districts and the federal government billions of dollars a year. Yet in 1990 a few conclusive scientific papers showed that "in place" asbestos possessed few dangers, and that expensive removal often ended up raising levels of ambient asbestos in the air and threatened the health of the removal workers. All of the work had been less than worthless; in fact it was often positively dangerous.
This is the story of how that panic blossomed and why it was sustained. The author attributes most of the blame to the EPA, which provided inaccurate guidance documents and encouraged parents to rise up against their school districts without providing funds for inspection or the evaluation of risk. It possessed almost no evidence of a threat, yet it used its bully pulpit to drum the putative danger into the public mind. Congress was also a part in the fiasco. In 1986, led by James Florio, who later rose to become the first Italian American governor of New Jersey in 1990, it passed the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), which forced many schools to act precipitously to remove asbestos before testing for the dangers or even for the amount of asbestos in the air.
This story is a great reminder of the limits of scientific knowledge and of the perils when that limited knowledge becomes part of spirited public debates and gets tied up with interest group politics. I just wish someone could have done a serious editing job on the book.
Starting with the reported respiratory ailment of one child in a New Jersey township in 1977, which was attributed by his mother, without evidence, to asbestos in school, there began a nationwide, decade-long panic about asbestos in America's schools. It was fueled by some public health scientists (especially at Mount Sinai in New York), lawyers, the asbestos abatement industry, and the EPA, and ended up costing school districts and the federal government billions of dollars a year. Yet in 1990 a few conclusive scientific papers showed that "in place" asbestos possessed few dangers, and that expensive removal often ended up raising levels of ambient asbestos in the air and threatened the health of the removal workers. All of the work had been less than worthless; in fact it was often positively dangerous.
This is the story of how that panic blossomed and why it was sustained. The author attributes most of the blame to the EPA, which provided inaccurate guidance documents and encouraged parents to rise up against their school districts without providing funds for inspection or the evaluation of risk. It possessed almost no evidence of a threat, yet it used its bully pulpit to drum the putative danger into the public mind. Congress was also a part in the fiasco. In 1986, led by James Florio, who later rose to become the first Italian American governor of New Jersey in 1990, it passed the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), which forced many schools to act precipitously to remove asbestos before testing for the dangers or even for the amount of asbestos in the air.
This story is a great reminder of the limits of scientific knowledge and of the perils when that limited knowledge becomes part of spirited public debates and gets tied up with interest group politics. I just wish someone could have done a serious editing job on the book.
Displaying 1 of 1 review