As I write this, there is an interesting piece of legislation working its way through the California Assembly known as AB 1468 which mandates the presence of an independent monitor on site to leak test the negative pressure machines used to remove asbestos from buildings. Paragraph (a) of AB 1468 states “There is no known threshold level of exposure (to asbestos) at which adverse health effects are not anticipated.”
This bill is sponsored by Assemblywoman Fran Pavley, a Democrat whom I have enthusiastically supported over the years, who is also a major proponent of the conversion of the 1600 acre parcel at the mouth of Topanga Canyon into public space and, in fact, secured $3 million In additional funding for the relocation of the residents and businesses on that parcel, to be added to the $5 million originally designated for that purpose.
In other words, the State of California has recognized that any exposure to asbestos is potentially lethal, yet they failed to notify the remaining residents of either the presence of Asbestos Containing Material (ACM) or of the planned abatement work, which was also undertaken without prior notification. And guess what’s in that unsealed dumpster, near the children waiting for a school bus on Pacific Coast Highway!
Proposition 65 clearly mandates the posting of warning signs in any public area containing known carcinogens, but apparently the budget didn’t contain enough funds for paper, ink and staples.
State Senator Sheila Kuehl, quoted in the Santa Monica Mirror, (6/12/01), said “The State will not go through with the purchase of the land until all lessees are gone and all the buildings demolished,” a statement which was reinforced by Roy Stearns, Deputy Director of Communications, State Parks: “The Bond Act (Proposition 12, the funding vehicle for the purchase of this acreage) restricts our ability to buy land with improvements on it. …until successful, we are not interested in buying the property,” (The Malibu Times, 9/7/00), so perhaps they had a premonition of the state’s future liability. But when I telephoned Sen. Kuehl’s office to ask why they were mounting chemical warfare on my children, her assistant, Laura Plodkin, responded, “If you’re so concerned about it, why don’t you leave?”-something I wouldn’t have even expected from the likes of former Congressman Bob Dornan.
And poor David Geffen thinks he has problems.
Christopher Murray