By adamg on Thu., 5/5/2022 - 3:26 pm
Seems MassDOT figured a right of way within 100 feet of Chelsea Housing Authority apartments was just the place to dump the remains of a project in Saugus and Lynn. City officials and a local environmental group are outraged and the state Department of Environmental Protection, which says nobody asked it about where ditch the stuff, is now trying to get it all removed.
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How about the drivers with
By RSX
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 4:12pm
How about the drivers with their windows wide open in stop and go traffic driving by this industrial toxic waste site unknowingly what they’re breathing.
Yeesh...
By Bob Leponge
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 5:59pm
On the one hand, asbestos exposure sickened and killed many shipyard workers and others who were exposed to it a lot, in many cases by management who knew or should have known better.
On the other hand, asbestos hysteria became grossly overplayed: that old asbestos-covered steam pipe in the basement is not going to rise up and slaughter your family.
On the third hand, an open pile of crumbly asbestos rubble, exposed to the winds, near where people live, is kind of a shitty idea, see #1 above about knowing better.
Mesothelioma
By eeka
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 8:06pm
They may be entitled to compensation
overplayed hysteria?
By anon
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 9:15pm
Guess you didn’t know anyone who worked in Navy shipyards who struggled for decades because they couldn’t breathe. It’s not just about death numbers. Try to have a little compassion, wow.
Plenty of Data
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 10:04pm
All those statistics on actual morbidity and mortality simply must be wrong!
Bob, stop mansplaining, start researching. You don't want to die the way my grandmother (Bettie the Welder during WWII) did.
Swirly please read my comment again
By Bob Leponge
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 2:35pm
I specifically acknowledged the morbidity and mortality when I said that concern over workplace exposure was real, and that asbestos sickened and killed many shipyard and industrial workers (by the way, also their household members because they came home in clothes covered with the stuff.)
I can't imagine what you're on about with the "mansplaining" comment.
My uncle was one of those...
By Michael Kerpan
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 9:39am
... and he died quite young (and painfully).
Please read my comment again
By Bob Leponge
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 2:32pm
I specifically said that concern about asbestos for people who were occupationally exposed to it was absolutely real.
What exactly is your point?
By J.R. Dobbs
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 6:23am
Asbestos exposure can kill you.
If that old steam pipe in the basement is in rough shape then those fibers circulate through your home.
Drive over there and grab a few buckets yourself if you wanna pitch in and you can make a nice raised bed planter in your backyard.
downplaying risk when it’s not in your backyard
By anon
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 11:20am
So sayeth the person who doesn’t have to live near asbestos dumped 100 feet from his residence.
I am in no way downplaying the risk
By Bob Leponge
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 7:43pm
More than one thing can be true at the same time:
I'm honestly completely at a loss as to how anyone got from that to "mansplaining," "downplaying the risk," or any of the other shit that y'all are throwing my way. Was I not speaking English or something?
Bob
By robo
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 9:55pm
You downplayed it. Read your post again - on one hand asbestos is really bad. On the other hand, there’s an unnecessary hysteria about it.
Mansplaining seems like a stretch, but the second I read your post I thought downplay too. Just own it man. People in this little microcosm pretend to be perfect and they’re far from it.
There's a core problem here
By Bob Leponge
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 11:22pm
The approximate sequence of events was...
Shipyards and the asbestos industry cynically and knowingly exposed workers to a life-destryoing substance.
There was (finally, at long last) an appropriate response, which was to ban many uses of asbestos.
Many large projects were undertaken to remove asbestos from schools, libraries, housing, all sorts of places.
As word got out as to how bad asbestos was, unscrupulous charlatans began to sell shoddy "remediation" to people who didn't need it; said remediation actually made things worse.
People became aware of the shoddy remediators.
Now, because of the fake remediation scammers, when many people think of asbestos, what they remember isn't the decades over which an unscrupulous industry systematically and cynically exposed its workers to a toxic product, instead, what they remember is the unscrupulous "remediation" contractor who scammed their neighbor, or their uncle, and they form the conclusion that "the people warning us about asbestos were all scammers."
These things have complex, systems-type effects on public attitudes and public behavior. Because of the scammers and their hype, many people now believe that asbestos is a fake problem.
I'll 100% stand by what I said about the deleterious effects on public health of the artificially-created hysteria, hysteria created at the retail level to sell shoddy and unneeded remediation services.
They call this environmental
By V13
Sat, 05/14/2022 - 7:56am
They call this environmental racism, Logan Airport is the king of all kings when it comes down to environmental racism.Toxic jet fuel and airplane exhaust fumes from Airplanes still evident in East Boston.
Had they dumped it in the Back Bay
By Homer Bedloe
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 6:07pm
they wouldn’t be working on it. It would’ve been gone in about ten seconds.
And that is why
By jmeltzer
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 6:49pm
they dumped it in Chelsea instead.
They should have dumped it in
By PLZ
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 7:19pm
They should have dumped it in Chestnut Hill or Waban .
How many brownstones in the
By anon
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 8:55pm
How many brownstones in the Back Bay have asbestos in the buildings? Old JP here, who grew up in Stony Brook. Parents bought the late 1800s mansard roof small 2 family. I finally decided to remove the old horse hair plaster! Then the slate shingle roof was a bitch but people were begging me to sell the shingles to them. Horse hair plaster is still in a lot of old gems.
Late 1800s plaster probably
By blues_lead
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 9:00am
Late 1800s plaster probably wouldn't have asbestos.
When old brownstones were
By anon
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 6:15pm
When old brownstones were divided up into smaller units in the 1960’s / 1970’s, asbestos was used.
Oh, this is bad
By Waquiot
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 7:39pm
I'm not going to excuse flytipping of hazardous materials, but this isn't even that, since flytippers usually have the common sense to do it in an out of the way place. This is dumping hazardous materials in plain view on the side of a busy highway by either a state agency or someone working for a state agency.
Someone has to get hit for this screwup.
.
By BostonDog
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 8:03pm
.
Hell To Pay
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 10:13pm
This is a massive violation of the intent, spirit, and letter of the new Environmental Justice laws of the commonwealth. https://www.publichealthpost.org/viewpoints/enviro...).
It's possible
By BostonDog
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 8:13pm
The contractor and/or MassDOT didn't know the material was "hot" when it was dumped there. Is it even MassDOT property?
Someone could have tested the demo site a week or two later, found traces of asbestos, and they went back and flagged the debits as a precaution, possibly without even testing them first.
I've worked in concrete buildings built in the early 1900s where the concrete walls/floors were mixed with asbestos. The entire building is technically "hot" but it's not a heath concern unless someone significantly sands the concrete.
The residents have every right to be angry MassDOT is dumping next to their homes irrespective of the asbestos levels.
Violates Way Too Many Current Laws
By SwirlyGrrl
Thu, 05/05/2022 - 10:06pm
Especially the new EJ law put in place this past year.
I wonder if they were trying to beat it - it applies to state agencies and developers alike!
Somebody didn't want to get the memo, apparently. Or has their head so far up their patronage crack that they didn't know that you cannot do this shit anymore!
Because toxic waste is
By redheadedjen
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 10:05am
Because toxic waste is usually dumped near poor people in this case the projects. I would not have expected Mass to be better than the rest of the country.
flint, mi
By schneidz
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 5:12pm
at least chelsea aint got lead water.
I think Woburn does
By PLZ
Fri, 05/06/2022 - 5:30pm
I think Woburn does
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