In the case of Vermiculite NW, children were likely exposed to air-borne asbestos

Children are often more vulnerable to asbestos exposure than adults.

The attorneys at the personal injury law firm of Weitz & Luxenberg have decades of experience defending victim’s rights in practice areas that include: accidents/general injury, dangerous drugs, medical malpractice, and environmental pollutants.

NEWS UPDATE:

DOH and ATSDR recognize that infants and children are often more vulnerable to exposures than adults in communities faced with environmental contamination. Because children depend completely on adults for risk identification and management decisions, DOH and ATSDR are committed to evaluating children’s special interests at the site.

The effects of asbestos on children are thought to be similar to the effects on adults. However, children could be especially vulnerable to asbestos exposures because they are more likely to disturb fiber-laden soils or indoor dust while playing. Children also breathe air that is closer to the ground and may thus be more likely to inhale airborne fibers from contaminated soils or dust.

Furthermore, children who are exposed could be more at risk of actually developing asbestos-related disease than people exposed later in life because of the long latency period between exposure and onset of asbestos-related respiratory disease.

In the case of Vermiculite NW, children were likely exposed to air-borne asbestos while playing on piles of ore, inhaling ambient air, and inhaling re-suspended asbestos fibers in soil or house dust. These exposure pathways, however, cannot be quantitatively evaluated.

Current exposures to children are probably not significant because access at the site is restricted, but the amount of residual asbestos fibers in household soil and dust near the facility is unknown. Very low levels of asbestos in yard soils near the former facility are likely, but the level to which children are exposed is likely to be less than the levels generated by EPA investigators using equipment to disturb soil on the site.

Courtesy of the Washington Department of Health