A Town's Hidden Threat, asbestos...may alter future of affluent community

[Rose Siding]

snip>
Now the results of last October's playground tests threaten to unleash a new round of consternation in an unincorporated community that is 90% white, backed George W. Bush in a big way and is among the state's wealthiest places, with one in five households reporting a median income of $150,000 or more.

Around here, many folks have grown weary of this environmental intrusion on the good life.

"We know how the government overreacts to everything," said Bob Close, a longtime resident who can't name a single old-timer, erstwhile high school athlete or anyone else who has contracted an asbestos-related illness....
...
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency officials, who ordered up the tests at El Dorado Hills Community Park and three nearby elementary school playgrounds, have scheduled a town hall meeting Friday in El Dorado Hills. They say the results, to be released in full today, leave little doubt that action is needed.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-asbestos2may02,0,6065015.story?coll=la-home-local

[gratuitous]

1. "Forty years down the line, I could be wrong"

Yep, and then the big, bad old government will then be importuned to help you while you're hacking up bits of lung and bleeding in your chest cavity while your internal organs are being shredded by asbestos fibers.

"But we're not like Libby, Montana!" I don't quite know how denial helps, but the good folks of El Dorado Hills might want to get past that phase of things real fast. Asbestos doesn't much care what kind of car you drive or how much your home is worth.

[havocmom]

12. The biggest problem with Libby, MT is that people think that is the only

place contaminated! It was shipped all over the place people! Libby is just a point of origin. Idiots. They feel fine right now so there is no problem? Damn fools.

In grade school, we were given the stuff to use to make relief maps. It was cheaper than the paper mache mix! So here I sit, 40 years later, having all sorts of respiratory problems and terrified to go to a real doctor.

[gratuitous]

13. And I think class plays a role here, too

The folks of Libby have been badly impoverished, and their health compromised irretrievably by the actions of W.R. Grace in their community. I'd be willing to bet that some of the scorn in El Dorado Hills for Libby is due to their perception that the folks in Libby are just some hicks and goat-ropers from Montana.

As I said, asbestos doesn't much care about the kind of car you drive or the value of your home; it shreds your insides all the same, whether you're a "hick" from Libby or an equity baron in El Dorado Hills. Something that the folks who worked at Ground Zero just 3½ years ago are finding out to their detriment.

[UCLA Dem]

2. Now thats just silly. Do they all want cancer??

[ret5hd]

3. let 'em go...

let's turn it into a giant voluntary lab experiment. get 'em all to sign waivers so they can't file one of those pesky frivolous lawsuits. maybe we could taint their water also.

[central scrutinizer]

4. Forget these people and their concerns

it is more important to shield Halliburton from class action lawsuits regarding asbestos by comprehensive tort reform.

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

5. It's about time the people who support the pollution policies of Repubs

are negatively affected by them...no sympathy from me..

[Greyskye]

6. EXCUSE ME?

It's about time the people who support the pollution policies of Repubs are negatively affected by them...no sympathy from me..

Click my profile, see where my family and I live.

This is a diverse community. I happen to live in one of the more than 40 year old areas - the 'upscale' houses (read $500,000 to multi-million) are in the subdivisions that have been put in within the last 2 decades. Especially within these older communities there are a lot of progressive types. Kerry signage outnumbered the bush-bots by 4 to 1 in my neighborhood.

I used to have a lot of respect for your posts. I would really like to post what I'm feeling right now, but at a minimum this post would be deleted.

Nothing shocks me any more than idiots wishing ill-health on non-political children. Piss-off! :grr:

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

8. Perhaps you read something into my post that wasn't said

I was commenting on the people in the article who were alleged to be Bush supporters. I was not indicting your entire community.

Now will you remove the personal attack from your post?

[shanti]

14. my co-worker

DEM co-worker also lives in eldorado hills. he is like you, friend!

[SoCalDem]

7. Asbestos exposure is not like the FLU.. These people are idiots

They deserve what's coming to them as they age, if they pooh-pooh this...BUT...Someone need to file suit on behalf of their children.. If they won't protect them someone should :(

Of course if they are "raptured" soon , it won't matter :crazy:

[Straight Shooter]

9. Asbestos exposure is one of the great scourges of modern times.

It boggles the mind that anyone in any community that's been alerted to potential danger can scoff at the impending crisis. Mr. Bob Close(minded) lives in an isolated bubble of denial. Does he have a medical degree? Who the f*ck does he think he is, making such pronouncements of absolute certainty?

Those bushies, they sure are ... what's the word? ... well, stupid. They can do what they want to, and with, their bodies. But what about those who will suffer and have no recourse?

[MountainLaurel]

10. He's scoffing and stupid

Because traditionally diseases like asbestos-related cancers and emphysemas only affect lower-class laborers and such, folks who aren't worthy of his attention.

You can't expect him to know about diseases of the great unwashed, do you?

:sarcasm:

[tanyev]

11. Mr. Bush, here's the perfect place for one of your new nukular plants.

But in a world awash with health threats, most folks around El Dorado Hills seem willing to shrug it off.

Charles Heintschel lives with his wife and three children in the neighborhood beside the asbestos trove slashed open by bulldozers grading Oak Ridge High's soccer field.

He has no health worries, Heintschel said as his toddler son scampered nearby. He also figures it'll pose no problems for future resale of his tidy two-story, which has already doubled in price. "The whole thing," Heintschel concluded, "seems like overkill."