WestCon Tribune

January 2002

January News

President's Message

EPA Comes Clean on Asbestos

Mold Order to Cut Back

California Construction Law Conference

PRESIDENT'S MESSAGE

Welcome back to a new year at Westcon. We have a whole new year to get on with some special things on our “to do“ list.

First up on the Board agenda is the 2002 Westcon symposium. There is a lot of work that goes into this event to make it successful program and members interested in being involved should contact Serge Fedorov at (415) 454-9467.

Another area the Board is working on is advertising and promotion of the organization. All members could be of great assistance by forwarding lists of Attorneys, Construction and Design professionals and building professionals for our mailing list. The list would be used in conjunction with our current list for sending out the Directory, membership information and symposium and dinner invitations.

We also are continually looking for dinner speakers and presentations that might be of value to the group. Any ideas are welcome. If you have someone you know or an idea you would like to see happen, please contact our Program Chairman, Sharon Waterman at (510) 232-5325.

The EPA Comes Clean on Asbestos

Member John Ward sent in a great article by Kimberley Strassel from the Wall Street Journal. Strassel reports that it only took a few hours after the World Trade Center fell for the media to spread reports that the north tower had contained 40 floors of asbestos that were, upon the fall of the building, contaminating downtown Manhattan.  City health officials, OSHA and the EPA conducted air-quality tests, quite contrary to their history, made the astounding announcement that it was safe to be downtown.

For decades, the EPA has taken the lead in zero-tolerance policies toward any “carcinogenic” substance unlucky enough to have caught its eye. This draconian approach has served to encourage unfounded health scares, and created an environment in which people no longer make rational decisions about health risks. It has also led to the nightmare of trial lawyers, lawsuits and corporate bankruptcies,” reports Strassel.

Faced with a public health scare that could have sent thousands in Manhattan fleeing the city or jamming hospitals, the EPA decided to cough up the truth about asbestos. Its officials bent over backward to get out the message that asbestos was harmful only if breathed at high levels and over sustained periods of time. When reporters pointed out that some of the tests had exceeded the EPA’s safety levels, the agency hurried to explain that this was a “stringent standard based on long-term exposure” and repeated that the public was not at any real risk.

The EPA's truthful words went only so far to contain fear. Over the past few decades, there probably has not been a substance more likely to strike irrational fear in the public’s hear, and the EPA bears a lot of the blame.

The war against asbestos started in the 1950’s when a scientist, Irving Selikoff, found links between cancer and workers in asbestos-using industries. The EPA jumped in by the 1970’s , with the dire warnings that asbestos should be eradicated. Schools, public institutions and homeowners spent billions in removal. BY the 1980’s, better science said the risks were greatly exaggerated. The EPA continued to insist on tough rules for everyone from building planners to haulers.

In the 1990's, even the EPA was beginning to wonder what it had unleashed. A report the EPA did itself in 1992 suggested the agency had mismanaged the affair. But by this time a fearful public, buttressed by a bureaucracy of labor unions, parental groups, plaintiff’s lawyers and school officials, was resisting any backing off in the war.

This has corroded the economy causing at least 40 companies to go into bankruptcy with hundreds of thousands of lawsuits pending.

Scientists today actually know more about asbestos. A naturally occurring mineral, asbestos comes in several forms: “Blue” asbestos, because of its fiber type, shape and size, is considered most dangerous. “White” asbestos, used in the WTC, constitutes over 90% of asbestos products in place in the U.S. and is far less harmful. Asbestos is associated with three major diseases - asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma. Nearly all of these ailments strike people who were exposed to asbestos at high levels and over a long period of time. For everyone else, the risks are extremely low. Should you simply sit in a building containing asbestos, you are more likely to be hit by lightning than you are to die a premature death from asbestos.”

(For a complete copy of the article sent in by John Ward, contact Rikki.)

Mold Order to Cut back

on Coverage

Thanks to member Marshall Hopper for sending in an article from the Houston Chronicle regarding rulings on mold issues. Following is a portion of the article. For a full copy, contact Rikki:

Texas Insurance Commissioner Jose Montemayor rejected his staff’s recommendation to limit insurance company payouts on mold damage claims to $5,000.

As an alternative, he issued an order that strips the most expensive cost for detecting mold growth caused by water damage out of the states’s standard homeowner policy which includes testing, treating, containing or disposing of mold that spreads beyond the immediate or initial area of damage.

The revised comprehensive policy will provide coverage only for the repair or replacement of mold-damaged property resulting from water discharge, leak or overflow that is sudden and accidental.

That departs from current policy guidelines, which do not restrict water damage to a sudden event and can include slow and continuous leaks.

The revision also places a new 30-day time limit from the time homeowners discover or should have discovered water damage for them to file a claim with their insurance company.

Homeowners who want more protection from mold infestations, including coverage for air-quality testing, will have the option of buying additional coverage in increments of 25%, 50%, and 100% of policy limits.

“By going back to basics, I would expect a return to the premium levels that we enjoyed prior to the explosion of mold-related claims,” Montemayor said in a written statement.

The long-awaited decision did not prompt the three biggest residential insurers operating in Texas to lift their moratoriums on selling standard policies to new customers or to promise to lower premiums.

Allstate Insurance said the additional mold protection “is problematic because the coverage will be expensive and the only individuals likely to purchase it would be those who know they will have a mold claim.”

The Austin-based Southwestern Insurance Information Service said the decision to leave mold coverage of any kind in the standard policy threatens to “raise homeowners’ rates as much as 60-80% or more for those who choose to purchase mold coverage.”

Texas has the nation’s highest insurance rates, in part because the state’s standard policy offers generous protection for water damage and mold that may result from it. Another factor according to consumer advocates is limited regulation of rates. About 95% of the insurance companies providing homeowners insurance in the state sell their coverage through companies excluded from rate regulation by state law.

CALIFORNIA CONSTRUCTION

LAW CONFERENCE

February 14 & 15, 2002

Holiday Inn at Fisherman’s Wharf

Phone: (800) 826-7155

This intermediate-level conference is designed for attorneys, architects, engineers and construction professionals.

IDEAS? If you would like to give a presentation to Westcon, or have ideas or topics you would like discussed, please notify Fred Field, Program Director at (415) 485–5882. All suggestions are welcome!

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