The Bay Bridge’s Yerba Buena Island tunnel is having problems as last month a concrete chunk fell off and only just missed a motorist and now it appears that more concrete is likely to fall.

Following an inspection there are at least 12 other places where corrosion has damaged the tunnel in the eastbound lower portion, leaving concrete in danger of coming loose and falling onto vehicles.

In addition is it possible that more areas are at risk with cracks and corrosion across large areas of the 1,800 foot long tunnel. Plus, according to experts, the tunnel may contain asbestos, and if that is the case the area will have to be sealed off and the job will become more complicated for crews and motorists.

The investigation into the extent of the problem is ongoing and Federal Highway Administration officials are helping to guide the process based on their experience in other tunnels.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Air samples taken at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory showed higher asbestos levels than recommended and may have exposed four employees to asbestos.

Once the asbestos readings were discovered the floor was shut down and those employees who had offices on that floor were moved. The building involved was one of the eleven older buildings on the complex and it was being renovated with the ceilings being replaced. There was a powder like asbestos sprayed for fireproofing above the ceiling which is the most dangerous type of asbestos being easy to inhale. Building 230 houses hundreds of employees, including the group which is communicating with the Cassini Spacecraft which is currently exploring Saturn and its moons.

Exposure to asbestos can cause lung cancer, in the form of mesothelioma, and asbestosis, a lung disease.

California OHSA says they have not received any complaints so far about exposure to asbestos in Building 230.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

The Mendocino Coast District Hospital in Fort Bragg, California has been on the brink of closure for ten years and running at a loss.

Things started to go downhill in 2002 when the Fort Bragg lumber mill closed and many lost their jobs. Now there are only around 7,000 people left in the town and few go to the hospital which declared bankruptcy in 2012 but just about managed to survive.

However, the locals do want a hospital in their area as the nearest other one is an hour and a half away on treacherous roads across the mountains. In addition, people are not only concerned about their health, but also the hospital is the largest employer in the town with the best paying jobs. If it were to close it would have a massive effect on the local economy.

There are constant discussions between the administration staff and the medical staff as to which is the best route to take in order to begin to make money but even more essential is to build a new facility as through the maternity ward and the emergency room, the flooring is layered with asbestos and the concrete is not strong enough to hold the weight of MRI machines and new scanners.

The local community hopes that somehow the money will be raised but given that 57 rural hospitals in the United States have closed over the last five years, optimism is not high.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

According to a recent report, employees and students at the UC Davis Academic Technology Services Department were carrying out unsafe practices which may have exposed students to asbestos.

The report states that the buildings on campus which were built before 1980 are likely to contain asbestos as at that time it was widely used in construction.

Although asbestos is safe if left untouched, two employees state that they were told to drill the walls and ceilings of some of the older buildings while students were present in the classrooms. They also were not told exactly where the asbestos was.

They also state that there was no proper checking of the area prior to the work to see if asbestos was present nor were they trained at the time of the incident.

According to Environmental Health and Safety experts, samples should first be taken to see if asbestos is present, and if so, professionals should deal with it and ensure it is properly contained, The UC Davis have said that this practice was carried out with the air checked regularly to ensure no asbestos is present in the air.

Following this incident and others at schools in California, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) Action Fund has asked for all schools in the state to be inspected for asbestos.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

The existence of asbestos in schools is a major concern.

The Ocean view school district in Orange County decided to modernize the school last year and received a very unwelcome and expensive shock as asbestos was found in 11 of the buildings. This led to 1,700 children being moved and over $15 million in expenses to solve the issue.

However, this is not the only school in the country to be affected. Those most likely to contain asbestos are those built before 1980 as asbestos was used widely in schools constructed from 1940 to 1980 when the federal government banned its use.

In 1984 the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that 15 million students and 1.4 million teachers and school personnel were at risk of exposure to airborne asbestos, which can lead to lung diseases and the fatal mesothelioma disease. Although schools should check their buildings regularly for asbestos no one knows how big the problem might be as no one is certain whether all schools are actually carrying out the inspections.

In addition there is a conflict as to who should pay for the remediation cost, whether it should be school districts or the federal government who were the ones who decided that asbestos was dangerous.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

A new report published by the Environmental Working Group Action Fund has identified that there were between 128,000 and 160,000 asbestos deaths in the 14 years from 1999 to 2013.

The report went on to say that 12,000 to 15,000 people in the United States die every year from lung disease, asbestosis and mesothelioma, the cancer caused mainly by asbestos.

The state with the highest number of asbestos related deaths was California, followed by Florida, Pennsylvania, New York, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, and New Jersey.

Before 1980, asbestos was widely used in the construction and manufacturing industry and although many people believe it has now been banned, it is still legal and is being used throughout the country for various purposes.

Those who work in the construction, plumbing and manufacturing industries along with their families are most likely to breath in the deadly fibers and as the diseases related to asbestos do not usually manifest themselves for decades, thousands more Americans will continue to die as a result of asbestos exposure.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

A research team, based in California has stated that air quality samples taken from a wide range of industries show unsafe asbestos levels, putting workers at higher risk for deadly mesothelioma and other asbestos related diseases.

According to a recently published paper written by scientists with Cardno ChemRisk which is a scientific consulting firm, when they analyzed inspection data collected between 1984 and 2011 they discovered airborne asbestos levels well above OSHA safety guidelines.

The found that specifically in the construction, automotive repair and manufacturing industries along with the chemical, petroleum and rubber industries there were measurements above the limits from 2001 to 2011.

However looking at the overall picture, airborne asbestos concentrations have declined over time and along with that, mesothelioma incidence has also begun to show a small decline. The report highlighted this as a hopeful sign.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Asbestos has been found in Strong Hall, in the ceiling of the lobby of the University residence hall where members of Chi Omega and Pi Beta Phi live.

The maintenance team arrived to fix a leaking pipe and removed the asbestos from the ceiling in the lobby. They set up plastic tarps and red “danger” tape in the lobby as they worked to remove the asbestos.

Administrators say that the residence hall is safe for the students who live in the building.

Asbestos can be found in insulation and ceiling panels, and Ana Ducoing, who teaches about asbestos at the Ecologic Training Institute in California says that it can take from 10 to 40 years after exposure for people to develop the symptoms of mesothelioma, a type of lung cancer. She went on to say it would be rare for a student to develop it due to the work in the lobby.

This is not the first time asbestos has been found in the University. In August 2011, health and safety officials found asbestos in Rice Hall, where many administrators work, and in 2012, staff members worked to remove asbestos from the basement of Gelman Library.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

California is the state with the most deaths due to asbestos exposure in the country and it also has some of the largest deposits of naturally occurring asbestos in the world.

Several sites in California have been designated Superfund sites by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and many of them are due to asbestos related problems such as Hunters Point Naval Shipyard which used asbestos widely and the W.R.Grace site used to process materials containing asbestos, leading to contamination of the surrounding area.

Naturally occurring asbestos (NOA) is present in 35 out of the state’s 58 counties and poses a serious problem. The entire city of Coalinga received Superfund status because mining and processing spread the natural asbestos throughout the town as well as the asbestos mines there which operated mostly in the 1960s and 1970s. El Dorado Hills is another dangerous area being home to one of the largest NOA deposits in the entire world.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.

Some people in the Bayview-Hunters Point are worried about the health impact of the demolition of Candlestick Park stadium.

The demolition was originally planned as a piece by piece take down but Lennar Corp. has now suggested implosion would be preferable.

Lennar is the developer of a mixed-use shopping center on the site, and if approved, implosion would be both quicker and cheaper for them.

However, neighborhood leaders and others are concerned that the resulting dust cloud could cause toxins in the atmosphere as the studies of similar implosions show that the dust has traveled as far as 20 kilometers from the site.

It is known that the stadium contains asbestos, PCBs and lead based paint and although Lennar say they are removing the hazardous materials in preparation for the implosion, residents do not trust the company as they were previously fined more than $500,000 by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District in 2008 for allowing dust containing asbestos to drift into nearby neighborhoods during grading work.

If you have been diagnosed with an asbestos related disease, you may be entitled to monetary compensation. Contact the Law Office of Brayton Purcell, LLP  at  (800) 598-0314 immediately, or contact us online for a free consultation.