N.D. looks at asbestos case

By Janell Cole, The Forum
Published Thursday, October 07, 2004

BISMARCK -- Workers at the state Veterans Home in Lisbon were exposed to asbestos when their supervisor directed them to tear out a power house ceiling without protective gear, a state Health Department engineer said Wednesday.

The material was dumped in a nearby tree row, where it remained for about four months.

The workers suffered little exposure to the cancer-causing substance and residents of the home and Lisbon likely weren’t exposed. The Health Department is nevertheless considering enforcement action, said Ken Wangler, manager of the state Radiation and Indoor Air Quality Program.

The supervisor who ordered the work should have consulted state officials or licensed asbestos handlers, he said.

“We think it (exposure) was minimal because of the material they were handling,” he said. It was a cement-asbestos board not prone to crumbling that releases asbestos fibers.

The incident happened in April but the state was not notified until July 27, when the North Dakota Public Employees Association wrote to the state Risk Management Agency. Risk Management asked the Health Department to investigate and called the Veterans Home the same day.

Veterans Home Administrator Neal Asper said the employees’ exposure was low and the size of the job was so small most people would do it themselves. NDPEA’s letter is “not the way it happened,” said Asper, who questioned the group’s motivation and why the letter was written months after the incident.

“The letter was total hearsay and much of it incorrect,” Asper said.

But he said Bob Nelson, the maintenance supervisor who ordered the work done, should have sought a professional opinion.

The letter said Nelson put three maintenance employees -- James Steele, Al Lere, and Chuck Even -- plus one resident to work on the one-day task. Even was later excused.

“The boards they were removing from the ceiling were stamped Fiberboard Asbestos,” wrote NDPEA’s Kelly Noack.

The workers notified Nelson, who directed them to keep working.

“Mr. Nelson replied that he had been removing asbestos for years and it hadn’t done anything to him,” Noack wrote.

In addition to having the three workers remove boards from the ceiling, estimated to be 400 square feet, Nelson removed a section of pipe insulation containing a more-dangerous type of asbestos, Wangler said.

The materials were hauled by wheelbarrow to a shelterbelt at the edge of the property.

Nelson told the employees when they were done, “He (Asper) better be happy, I just saved him $4,500.

As soon as the Health Department was notified in late July, it ordered the Veterans Home to hire a licensed asbestos-handling firm to haul away the piles. It was cleaned up within three days, Wangler said.

Asper said he didn’t know how much the cleanup bill was, but it may have been in the $4,000 to $6,000 range.

The employees didn’t report the incident because they feared retaliation, said NDPEA Executive Director Chris Runge. That is also why the complaint to Risk Management came from NDPEA instead of the workers, she said.

It was important to report it in case a future workers’ compensation claim arises, she said.

Asper said there would have been no retaliation and the workers should have immediately gone to the facility’s safety committee. Nelson is chairman of the safety committee.

Nelson, contacted by phone at home Wednesday in Lisbon, wouldn’t comment on the incident. There was no answer at Steele and Even’s home. Lere declined comment.

Wangler said state penalties for improper asbestos handling range from a warning to a fine of $10,000 per violation per day, but he said any action against the Veterans Home would not be severe.

He said there is no comparison between the Veterans Home incident and a case in the 1990s involving a Wahpeton developer. Jerry Meide was fined a record $250,000 by the state and pleaded guilty to crimes in federal court. It involved his willful hiding of a large amount of asbestos from multiple downtown Wahpeton buildings. He was fined $10,000 in federal court and sentenced to seven months’ incarceration in a halfway house.

Readers can reach Forum reporter Janell Cole at (701) 224-0830