On March 10-11, 2011, we went to the Professional Abatement Contractors of New York's (PACNY) 15th Annual Environmental Conference at
Turning Stone Resort & Casino in
Verona, New York. The event this year was well attended with over 220 attendees.
Future Environment Designs (FED) increased our participation this year, by deciding to become one of the Conference Sponsors and joined the other vendors in the Exhibit Hall. We enjoyed our placement next to
Ciotti Enterprises and enjoyed several discussions with
Jeff Cooper the operations manager. Ciotti Enterprises is a Central New York waste hauler handling demolition debris, municipal solid waste, and are Part 364 permitted by
New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC), enabling them to handle asbestos and contaminated soil hauling.
The conference began with the usual introductions by this year's conference chair person
Deb Johnson, of
Aramsco, and the current President of
PACNY Kevin Canaan, of
AAC Contracting Inc. Mr. Canaan then introduced the keynote speaker
Ms. Linda Reinstein, the President/CEO/Co-founder of the
Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization (ADAO). We first met Ms. Reinstein when she did our radio program "Keeping Your Family Safe from Asbestos". She started her presentation announcing the Senate passage of the seventh annual resolution that establishes “
National Asbestos Awareness Week". Her presentation included these facts regarding global occupational exposure to asbestos: greater than 107,000 workers die annually; 1,523,000 years lost due to premature mortality and disability; construction workers are 11 times more likely to contract mesothelioma, and 1.3 million workers exposed to asbestos. These are some sobering numbers regarding asbestos, in addition the fact that mesothelioma treatment can exceed $1 million without a guarantee of success, should be a rememberance of why the asbestos abatement industry is important.
Ron Williams, the Assistant Syracuse Area Director for the
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), was the next speaker and discussed emerging safety and health issues and current remediation enforcement actions. Regarding emerging issues he discussed falls in residential construction, crowd management, distracted driving, workplace violence, and residential construction (effective 6/16/11). Mr. Williams also discussed 27 fatalities in OSHA Region 2 last year (10/1/09 - 9/30/10); 38% of fatalities were Hispanic/Latino (2nd highest in the country); Syracuse area conducted 527 inspections (33% were in construction) resulting 1,348 serious violations averaging $979 per serious violation. OSHA's new penalty structure went into effect on 10/1/2010 increasing serious violation from $1,100 to $3,000 and repeat violations will now look back 5 years versus 3 years, previously.
Bob Krell of
IAQ Technologies discussed "Practical Approaches to An Energy Efficient
Indoor Environment" visit
http://www.iaq.net/ for a copy of his presentation,
Victoria Pretti of
New York State Department of Health Environmental Laboratory discussed "An Overview of ELAP, PCM, and PLM Analysis", and
Richard Washburn of
New York State Commission on Public Integrity discussed "Ethics and the
Construction Industry". All three were excellant presenters, though I would give the award to best presenter to Mr. Washburn for keeping a topic that could be very boring and scary, very interesting, entertaining and led to alot of discussions afterwards regarding construction industry practices that probably need to change. Ms. Pretti discussion on the Environmental Laboratory Accreditation Program (ELAP) was informative, visit their website at
http://www.wadsworth.org/labcert/elap/asbestos.html regularly to ensure your laboratory is approved to analyze samples. Delisted labs are updated on the website within 24-hours. The 7402 method for analysis of asbestos air samples is approved by ELAP. Other important information is ELAP is currently reworking the asbestos bulk sample methods to require labs to reduce
friable asbestos samples if they have matrix interference, this will lead to an increase in costs for lab analysis for certain samples. The reception after the last speaker, Mr. Washburn, was excellent and the pass around food was excellant and Saranac Brewing Company's Pomegranate Wheat Beer was very good and went well with the snacks and the hors d'ourves. Day one ended with the anticipation of the next day with Mr. Chris Alonge and the roundtable discussion.
Image via WikipediaMy first full-time job was working with Hygienetics which at the time was located in Jersey City, New Jersey. My boss and my mentor was Mr. Eugene Pinzer, CIH. Mr. Pinzer was a great boss and did an excellant job mentoring me (as far as I am concerned). At times he would train by hands-on practices, other times he would ask me to read some article or book that would help with my education and help me gain valuable experience and knowledge. When I read the Felix Salmon's blog post "The case of Paul Brodeur vs the NYPL" and then Paul Brodeur's, a staff writer for The New Yorker for nearly 40 years, article for The Author's Guild titled "Paul Brodeur: A Breach of Trust at The New York Public Library" it brought back the some great memories. One of the articles Mr. Pinzer requested that I read was Mr. Brodeur's article "Annals of Law - The Asbestos Industry on Trial". This four part article written for The New Yorker Magazine ran from June 10 - July 1, 1985. At the time I was, are you kidding me. The articles were the equivalent of a 300-400 page book and I really didn't see the importance. However, as Mr. Pinzer was apt to do he cajoled me into reading it. The articles are well written and documents the asbestos industry's fall from grace. I strongly suggest that if you are in the asbestos industry you read these articles. It details the downfall of the industry, including how the information that exposed the industry of hiding the dangers of asbestos.
