The vermiculite risk hits home

Ladera, whose company, EnviroAire, specializes in residential insulation removal, does about 700 homes a year in the Seattle area and runs into vermiculite insulation at least three or four times a month.

Gerardo Soriano of Industrial Vacuuming cleans up insulation in an Auburn apartment damaged in a fire. An assistant U.S. surgeon general warned earlier this month that handling of vermiculite insulation, some of which contains asbestos, can pose a substantial risk to workers or homeowners.
Scott Eklund/P-I

An assistant U.S. surgeon general warned earlier this month that even minimal handling of vermiculite insulation could pose a "substantial risk" to workers or homeowners.

"I didn't think it posed any threat to us," Ladera says. "Now I think I might have been exposed."

Ladera, 38, once worked in a law firm that handled asbestos cases. He knows what exposure to asbestos can mean.

"Yeah, I'm worried," he says. "I know the end results can be really bad."

He's also worried about his family.

"I share my laundry with them and there's dust everywhere on my clothes," he says. "I have a 5-year-old and 12-year-old and it could be possible I've exposed them to asbestos."

Ladera had no way of knowing the vermiculite insulation, which came from a now-closed mine in Libby, Mont., and was marketed as Zonolite Attic Insulation, contained asbestos.

Hundreds of workers and family members in Libby are sick or have died from asbestos-related diseases.

Ladera, thousands of homeowners and other workers may also have been exposed while doing home remodeling or other things in attics.

The Environmental Protection Agency yesterday said it plans an attic-sampling program in New England as a way to estimate the scope of the problem.

"Not all vermiculite contains asbestos, but at this point we are unable to determine or predict which does and which does not," said Stephen Johnson, deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Prevention, Pesticides and Toxic Substances in Washington, D.C.

Methodology for the sampling program is still being worked out, and the decision on making the program nationwide is pending, he said.

Ladera, meanwhile, has contacted the EPA's regional office for information on how to protect himself, his workers and homeowners.

The EPA and the Washington state Department of Health advise that vermiculite in attics be left alone. If it must be disturbed, the work should be done by a professional asbestos-abatement contractor, said EPA Region 10 spokesman Bill Dunbar.

Experts can be located by consulting the yellow pages under Asbestos Consulting and Testing. However, the EPA cautions consumers that testing their attic may not yield conclusive results because asbestos may be present in one part, but not another.

"It's better to act as if the vermiculite is contaminated and take appropriate precautions," Dunbar said.

Asbestos is dangerous only if the microscopic fibers are inhaled. Undisturbed insulation does not release airborne fibers, so the health risk is minimal.

Vermiculite, the only type of insulation containing asbestos, has a distinctive look. Unlike rock wool, or fiberglass, which have a fibrous appearance, vermiculite looks like small, shiny accordian-shaped pellets. Cellulose, another common form of insulation, tends to be gray and looks like ground up newspaper. Zonolite attic insulation was used from the 1950s through the mid-1980s.

An estimated 53,500 homes in Washington state contain vermiculite insulation.

Nationally, estimates range from about 2.5 million to 16 million homes.

The EPA is in the process of its own assessment of how many homes may have asbestos-tainted insulation, the EPA's Johnson said.

The agency has contacted the vermiculite mines and processing plants where ore was made into insulation to try to find where the vermiculite went, he said.

The state Health Department also advises people who may have had a substantial exposure to vermiculite dust to notify their physicians.

"It's possible they will want to do a baseline chest X-ray," said Tim Hardin, manager of the indoor air-quality program for the health department.

"We definitely like to limit exposure to asbestos," said Juliet Van Eenwyk, state epidemiologist with the Health Department. "We urge people to aim on the side of caution. If they have little kids, don't allow them to play in the attic area."

She also cautioned smokers who may have been exposed to the insulation to stop smoking.

"There's a synergy between smoking and asbestos," she said. "We would urge everybody to stop smoking, but if you think you've been exposed to asbestos and you smoke, it's like playing Russian roulette with lung cancer."