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--></style><title>Current remediation of asbestos might not
work?</title></head><body>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande">New Study Challenges Assumption of
Asbestos' Ability to Move in Soil<br>
<i>Scripps scientist findings may have implications for current
remediation strategies</i></font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande">UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA - SAN
DIEGO</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande">PUBLIC
RELEASE: 19-AUG-2016</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br></font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande">A new study led by Scripps Institution
of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego scientist
Jane Willenbring challenges the long-held belief that asbestos fibers
cannot move through soil. The findings have important implications for
current remediation strategies aimed at capping asbestos-laden soils
to prevent human exposure of the cancer-causing material.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
Willenbring, along with University of Pennsylvania postdoctoral
researcher Sanjay Mohanty, and colleagues tested the idea that once
capped by soil, asbestos waste piles are locked in place. Instead they
found that dissolved organic matter contained within the soil sticks
to the asbestos particles, creating a change of the electric charge on
the outside of the particle that allows it to easily move through the
soil.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
"Asbestos gets coated with a very common substance that makes it
easier to move," said Willenbring, an associate professor in the
Geosciences Research Division at Scripps. "If you have water with
organic matter next to the asbestos waste piles, such as a stream, you
then have a pathway from the waste pile and possibly to human
inhalation."</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
Willenbring will present the new research during her presentation
"The Fate of Asbestos in Soil: Remediation Prospects and
Paradigms" at the 2016 American Chemical Society Meeting in
Philadelphia on Monday, Aug. 22 at 2:10 p.m. in the Philadelphia
Downtown Courtyard by Marriott Juniper's Ballroom.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
Asbestos is comprised of six naturally occurring minerals that are
formed by thin fibers. Asbestos mining in the U.S. began in the late
19th century and was widely used in a variety of products from
insulation to car brake pads.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency currently caps asbestos waste
piles with soil to avoid human exposure to the toxic dust that causes
a rare cancer called mesothelioma.</font></div>
<div><font face="Lucida Grande"><br>
The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS)
Superfund Research Program funded the research.</font></div>
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"Professor Tim Flannery, the Australian of the Year
environmentalist, said recently his greatest wish was that political
parties would state their 'temperature limits' as to how hot the
planet should get."<br>
<br>
The Age (Melbourne, Australia)<br>
June 11, 2007<br>
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</font><font face="Bookman Old Style" size="-1" color="#000000">"The
gap between high- and low-income families has widened steadily since
about 1980, hitting a new high every year since 1985. "<br>
<br>
<i>Business Week</i>, November 21, 1994, p. 72.</font><br>
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