Capitol Workers to be Monitored for Asbestosis

September 3, 2006 - The Architect of the Capitol (AoC), the office that heads up the inner workings of the U.S. Capitol Building physical plant, has announced that they’ve hired a doctor to monitor the health of 10 Capitol tunnel employees who’ve been exposed to large amounts of asbestos while working in the building’s underground utility tunnels.

According to The Hill newspaper, the AoC has hired Dr. James Allen through the Public Health Service.  Dr. Allen’s job description includes completing “a chart review to determine if there have been changes in clinical indicators consistent with asbestosis, in the charts of the 10 [Capitol Power Plant] tunnel workers.”

The contract also instructs Allen to “determine that [workers’] medical surveillance records contain Pulmonary Function Tests … chest X-rays with B readings” and any changes in symptoms.

The contract further states that Allen will be required to “prepare and provide a presentation” to tunnel employees and to provide counseling “one-on-one” for tunnel employees and their families in offsite locations, away from the AoC campus. 

Dr. Michael Harbut, co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers in Detroit and an expert in the diagnosis and treatment of environmental and workplace diseases, believes the AoC has not done enough to protect their workers and that the monitoring of the employees by Dr. Allen will be insufficient.

“To use a b-rating and spirometry to evaluate people with exposures to arsenic, welding fumes, asbestos, phosgene and organic solvents violates the standard of care,” Harbut said. “I would have expected this out of W.R Grace – not the government.”

Members of the tunnel crew have accused the AoC of putting their health in danger.  Many have already consulted doctors and been diagnosed with extensive scarring of the lungs.  Some have proceeded to consider litigation against the AoC.