Asbestos found in old trailers in Casper, Wyoming belonging to Ed Corrigan has put Natrona County’s clean up effort on hold. The prospect of asbestos could add $11,000 to Natrona County’s $19,000 contract to haul away piles of trash. Therefore, the county has voided its contract with Robinson Contracting and won’t pursue clean up.
Gene Robinson, the contractor hired to remove the asbestos, then haul it along with other trash from Ed Corrigan’s property, called the decision to cancel the cleanup “a blessing.” Adding, ““I think that job would have turned into a nightmare, because I was probably going into a lawsuit over it.”
Asbestos is a highly toxic mineral that was commonly used in construction and industry throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Its use was banned in the United States in the late 1980′s when it became common knowledge that asbestos causes such fatal diseases as asbestosis, lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the protective lining of the body’s major organs and cavities.
The voided trash-hauling contract doesn’t mean the county is abandoning the clean up of Ed Corrigan’s property. However, their next move is being kept secret so as not to tip off Corrigan, who has repeatedly challenged the county’s right to tell him how to maintain his property.
If asbestos is becomes a public health issue, local authorities have no choice but to have it safely removed, no matter the cost. Airborne carcinogenic asbestos fibers can spread throughout the area, eventually being inhaled by anyone in the vicinity. These fibers lodge in the lungs for decades causing the onset of pleural and peritoneal mesothelioma, a cancer that specifically affects the lining of the lungs and abdomen.