Around Des Moines

What kind of net? Basketball net? Fishing net? Nope. Internet! Today in Des Moines we are not hearing much about net neutrality, but net neutrality is a hot issue.

SearchNetworking.com defines the term.

Net neutrality is the principle that data packets on the Internet should be moved impartially, without regard to content, destination or source. Net neutrality is sometimes referred to as the ‘First Amendment of the Internet.‘ (accessed 04/20/2008)

Net neutrality means that information coming to your computer will come to you at the same speed as it comes to the computers of Mid American Energy, British Petroleum, or Blue Cross Blue Shield of Iowa (and without changing the order in which that information moves); it means that information coming from Fox News, Halliburton, or Hearst-Argyle would move at the same speed as information coming from Catholic Charities, Century of the Common Iowan, or The Rural Populist. It would not be held up because of who you are, whether giver or receiver. It means that you have the same rights as the rich and powerful to hear and be heard in this grand adventure called the Internet.

Many see net neutrality as a Constitutional right guaranteed by the First Amendment.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Today in contrast to much of U.S. history, the Internet is the way in which people are assembling peacefully, speaking freely, expressing religious views, petitioning and reporting news and opinion. The Internet is as fundamental as the traditional press in disseminating information; it is as fundamental as free speech in the expression by the individual; it is now the place where people assemble peacefully; it is today’s street corner; it is one place in which religious views can be debated without violence; it is now the door-to-door manner of collecting signatures from people of common views for the redress of grievance. These rights are worth protecting.

When liberty is taken away by force it can be restored by force. When it is relinquished voluntarily by default it can never be recovered. (accessed 04/20/2008) Dorothy Thompson

If we sell or diminish even part of these rights to someone with more money or more power, we have indeed given up our rights to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to peaceable assembly. That has almost happened twice - once very recently, once in 2006.

As it turns out Comcast Communications, the powerful cable company and internet service provider was caught red handed restricting service to some lawful users. Upon discovery our federal government through the FCC stepped in quickly. A second, widely reported hearing was held last week in the heart of Silicon Valley on the campus of Stanford University. Who didn’t bother to show up? Comcast, AT&T, Verizon, and Time-Warner. They are not big supporters of net neutrality.

So who is supporting net neutrality? Among many others, here at least are three groups that are fun to put together.

• Christian Coalition of America (a conservative Christian advocacy group)
• Common Cause (a nonprofit, nonpartisan citizen’s lobbying group) (a longer article)
• Raging Grandmas (who got together just for the occasion)

Net neutrality is not big news in Des Moines, but let’s see who is reporting this news elsewhere.

• The New York Times
• The Washington Post
• Associated Press
• Economist
• Reuters
• consumeraffairs.com
• PCWorld
• BBC

We also have a Congressman who is not a big supporter of net neutrality. In 2006 a critical bill (H.R. 5252) called COPE came up in the U. S. House. It was narrowly defeated. One of the Democratic Congressmen who sided with the powerful telecommunications industry against net neutrality was Representative Leonard Boswell. While I voted for Representative Boswell, and he has represented me well on many issues, he certainly did not represent me that day. I want to have a Congressman who understands the importance of the Internet to our basic American freedoms.

If the telecommunications industry should ever win this battle to set different standards for different internet clients, your ability to hear and be heard will be affected. Your voice will be restricted to the small pipe. The more powerful, moneyed interests will have the big one.

Restriction of free thought and free speech is the most dangerous of all subversions. It is the one un-American act that could most easily defeat us. William O. Douglas (accessed 04/20/2008)

Be well-informed on net neutrality.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Photo on flickr by shapeshift
Photo on flickr by lovers v haters

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, Net Neutrality, Leonard Boswell, First Amendment, Telecommunications, Common Cause

Are you looking for work? Full-time, part-time, summer? Are you younger, middle-aged, senior? Techie, not a techie? There seems to be no reason to be unemployed in Des Moines.

There are two job fairs in Des Moines this week - one comprehensive and one for technical jobs. Both are free.

Tuesday
The 2008 Job Expo will be held at the Polk County Convention Complex at 501 Grand from 11 am - 4 pm on Tuesday (April 22, 2008). It looks like there will be full and part-time jobs at many levels in about 80 companies.

Thursday
The Dice Technology Career Fair in Des Moines will be held at the Downtown Des Moines Marriott at 7th and Grand from 3 pm to 7 pm on Thursday (April 24, 2008). This is much more limited in the audience it is trying to attract. Less than 25 companies will be there looking for technical talent.

The tech-savvy apply on-line, even when they have nice clothes.

Anytime
Iowa Workforce Development, our state employment agency has a Jobs and Careers site with a link to other job fairs.

Have you heard of IowaCareer.net? It is a cooperative venture of the Iowa Community Colleges designed to help community college students find employment.

Get to work.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Photo on flickr by kimberly hurst
Photo on flickr by My Boy Dodger

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, Jobs in Des Moines

You’ll have to excuse me
for tax day is Tuesday
and I’ve got to go figger
with all of my vigor
…so on Wednesday come by and defuse me.

Photo credit: flickr by Cayusa

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

The new game for the under 30s is connection and networks, and KCCI gets it.

Powerful institutions are sometimes the last to understand and employ new concepts. Not so with KCCI. They get it. They understand new social media.

Speaking for myself, I’m a little old, I’m a little slow, and quite often I don’t pick up on things right away. Some of you older folks may understand when I say, “I have an analog mind trapped in a digital world.” When I was little, I listened to the radio, my dad read me the funny papers, we didn’t have a TV until I was 11, and my mother was always after me to read more books. I’ve made my living being traditional (might be a little boring too) - went to school, used print libraries for information, got degrees, got a job and stayed in it for 35 years, and felt a little anxious when I thought I didn’t know some fact or process I should. Ho-hum. Bo-oring!

The Purple Wren on the other hand is sometimes a little quicker on the uptake. She is quite insightful, intuitive and definitely less conventional. If you wait for traditional methods of proof, you’ll always be about a decade behind her. Case in point: she came home from a business seminar a couple of years ago talking about blogging, new social media, business transformation, and networks. Oh brother, I thought I’d never hear the end of it.

If you’re over 40 and look at politics, the world, business, and communication today and think, “What is this? What is happening here?,” I would suggest that new social media, networks, and blogging are part of it. Sandy Renshaw is the expert here, not me; she has written a chapter in The Age of Conversation, but I will have a different perspective.

Let me name a few applications of new social media, some of which are huge, transforming institutions, and one is more modest:

• Google
• Wikipedia
• YouTube
• Facebook
• MySpace
• KCCI’s high school playbook

When you are around younger people (like college students), you find that they are members of multiple extended groups that share information. The other night after a community meal several of my students went to their Facebook sites and showed everyone family pictures. Their family albums sprang to life in an instant. (Note to self: watch out for grandparents carrying laptops.) They stay connected to family, high school friends, college friends, and classroom peers.

But getting back to KCCI and playbook, doesn’t every kid want to feel valued, to be part of community, to gain a sense of recognition, to know that their school is a fine place to be? KCCI has that figured out and has linked Des Moines and Central Iowa to a larger internet community called high school playbook and attached it on their website; high school playbook is a device of Hearst-Argyle Television Inc., the owner of KCCI. If you go to the Hearst-Argyle website you will recognize the theme song for a lot of television stations that they own or manage.

If my count is right KCCI has linked over 140 Central Iowa high schools to a network where individual students can upload information (data, text, photos, graphics, messages and other materials), start conversations, and view content posted by others and by KCCI. Listen to Andy Garman explain. The Hearst-Argyle stations including KCCI even provide video camera and software, and this is explained from Greenville, SC.

Congratulations to KCCI for success in building a new community.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Photo on flickr by robinhamman

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News

Goats and Gates
Mail soliciting money is rarely something that bring happiness, but I got some mail from Heifer International that did. Last week I blogged about charity and its relationship to happiness. Mentioning Heifer International, one of my favorite charities, reminded me that it was time for me to send someone another goat so when I read the letter that said if I contribute to Heifer International’s East Africa Dairy Development Project, Bill and Melinda Gates will match the gift, I was very happy. To me it feels like I am getting my money back from purchases of Microsoft Office! The Gates’s will match whatever you care to give too. Every contribution helps, and when it comes to furthering democratic principles around the globe, I’ll bet that a goat is more effective than a grenade.

A Polar Bear and Pioneer in Ghana
A local boy returned from Africa recently. Patrick Choquette was a multi-sport athlete and fine student at North High School, graduating in 2000. (I could be wrong, but on this link it looks like Patrick is in the bottom photo, first row furthest to the right.) His North High basketball coach Mel Green always spoke highly of him. He went on to Grinnell College, graduated in 2004, and like so many other Grinnell students made a social commitment. Patrick’s choice, like his father’s, was the Peace Corps. His father Kenneth Choquette also of Des Moines went to West Pakistan from 1964 to 1966. Patrick went to Ghana where he taught science… and he taught the science of basketball and built a basketball court as well! You can see it all on Cynthia Fodor’s (KCCI) wonderful video-interview outlining Patrick’s unique contributions in Ghana.

It’s pretty apparent that the world doesn’t end at the city limits. It’s a small world. To see and hear one view of how the world is changing, consider going to the Bucksbaum Lecture at Drake University on Wednesday at 7:30 pm in the Knapp Center. It’s free and open to the public. The speaker is Erik Peterson; the title is Seven Revolutions. Peterson will present a futurist’s view of how the world will look in 2025. The seven areas of revolution will be population, resource management, technology, knowledge, economic integration, conflict, and governance. Grinnell graduate ‘66 and Drake University President David Maxwell was so impressed with Erik Peterson when he visited Drake in a more closed setting two years ago, that he has arranged for Wednesday’s public return at the Knapp Center. Take advantage.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Credit:
Photo on flickr by l’insouciant1
Photo on flickr by soldiersmediacenter

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News

Jim Wallis is a Washington D.C.-based, evangelical Christian minister and national figure committed to elimination of poverty. His views and actions are rooted in Old and New Testament scripture and are noteworthy for the manner in which they cannot be blindly categorized as liberal or conservative. (If you are rigid enough and narrow enough in your left or right views, he will offend you. If you are flexible enough and open enough to the recurrent themes of the Old and New Testament, you will recover. Believe me, he jarred me out of my political comfort zone.)

To see what Jim Wallis is up to take a look at Lyndsey Teter’s article from Ohio. As you can see Jim Wallis will be one of the leaders of a “Justice Revival” in Columbus Ohio in mid-April. The revival will bring together thousands of Central Ohio church goers from diverse political persuasions in order to complete projects that serve the community. Thousands more will sign on to mentor young people through Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio. This is the first of what is expected to be many justice revivals across the country, taken as a first step to eliminate injustice and poverty through cooperative action of religious groups.

So what is the Des Moines connection? - an article in The Des Moines Register. I hope you didn’t allow The Des Moines Register’s hot button headline to deflect your interest in reading the page 3A article about Jim Wallis on Sunday (3/30/2008). Other papers around the country used more neutral language in headlining the views and actions of this evangelical Christian. You can read the same article (written by the AP’s Julie Carr Smyth) on-line in the Washington Post without the Register’s politically polarizing headline, “Liberal group redefines goals of evangelicals.” On the issue of abortion Jim Wallis is as “liberal” as the Catholic Church (He is pro-life.) so how helpful was that headline? Perhaps a more fitting headline would have been “Progressive… or Religious group redefines goals of evangelicals.” He is not conveniently categorized (or dismissed) as a liberal. We all know liberal (or conservative) is a dirty word in many Iowa households, and as a consequence if someone is called a either, we sometimes think we don’t have to consider their ideas because we “know” a priori that they are wrong.

My introduction to Jim Wallis came two years ago. At Grinnell College where I teach, we invite a lot of great speakers, and one of them was a nice Midwestern boy named Peter Agre who also happens to have won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003. I got to spend a little time with him. When he was visiting, Peter wanted some exercise so I picked him up at 6 am one morning, and we swam a mile and then had breakfast; that’s where I asked him my favorite question: “What are you reading?” Peter Agre was enthusiastic about three books one of which was God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong, and the Left Doesn’t Get It by Jim Wallis. As you can see from the title, if you consider yourself left or right, you are going to get dinged. I sure did. Two years later I am still struggling with the moral and ethical questions that Wallis discusses, but I loved his book. So for you - Christian or not, church goer or not, left or right - just read it, and draw your own conclusions. The Des Moines Public Library has two copies.

Jim Wallis has three books of note.

• God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong, and the Left Doesn’t Get It
• Faith Works: How to Live Your Beliefs and Ignite Positive Social Change
• The Great Awakening

His umbrella group called Sojourners, a network of progressive Christians, was organized with intent to translate spiritual beliefs into action. Don’t be the last to know why and how politics and religion are mixing more in the last two years than in previous decades; recall the June 2007, Sojourners-sponsored Presidential Forum on Faith, Values & Poverty on CNN or the Public Radio program Speaking of Faith where the major political candidates discussed faith and politics.

Don’t be stuck in yesterday. Times are changing.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, Sojourners, Jim Wallis

Charity makes you happier.

I ran across this summary of an article about charity and happiness last week on BBC News.

The original study appeared in the March 21, 2008 issue of Science, a publication of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. You can read the abstract free on-line or you can read the whole article free at the Des Moines Central Library at 1000 Grand Avenue or the Franklin Avenue Library at 5000 Franklin Avenue.

The author of the article suggests that how we spend our money - especially in charitable ways - may be as important to our happiness as how much we make. (Good thing for me!)

If you itemize deductions, you are reminded at tax time of how you spend your money on others. Thus, that may be a good time to reexamine the question of charity. Reexamination is always healthy for me.

Are you wondering how you share some of what has been provided to you?

First, most Iowans think of their places of spiritual renewal (church, synagogue, mosque, or maybe even something less traditional).

Second, don’t forget the groups that help others around Des Moines like

• Des Moines Area Religious Council
• Catholic Charities
• United Way of Central Iowa
• Children & Families of Iowa
• Young Women’s Resource Center

In the blog and the links, you will find those five and many more than 100 other charitable groups in our community.

Third, remember the places that rely on our support that are fun for the family and make our lives richer

• Blank Park Zoo
• The Great Ape Trust
• The Science Center of Iowa
• State Historical Museum of Iowa
• The Iowa Hall of Pride
• The Des Moines Art Center
• The Des Moines Symphony
• Ballet Des Moines
• Iowa Public Television
• Iowa Public Radio
• Animal Rescue League of Iowa

Fourth, remember you can give goods as well. The Purple Wren always talks about releasing goods to the universe so that someone who needs them (more than she and I do) can treasure them - goods that may once have been a treasure in our lives, goods that still have value but a value that is no longer as urgent for us. Thanks, Purple Wren. (Of course, Mr. Frugal always checks the boxes so that nothing sneaks out the door.) There are many good places to share such items in order to allow others to put them to better use.

• St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store
• Goodwill Industries
• DAV
• other thrift stores
• Books can go to Planned Parenthood
• or you can give blood at The Blood Center of Iowa

Getting back to the basic message that giving makes us happy, I know the one contribution that always makes me happiest: Heifer International, a group dedicated in part to providing animals to support the self-sufficiency of children and families around the world. Take a look at their gift catalog.

A former student of mine spent six months in Namibia in southern Africa. On her return she talked about what she ate - goat’s milk, goat cheese, and goat meat - and about how families in the area in which she worked depended on their goats for life itself. That has left me with a very vivid and meaningful picture of what it means for a family somewhere in the world to receive a goat. When I send money to Heifer International for a goat, it does make me happy, and I think healthier too.

I really didn’t need a scientist to tell me all of this. My mother told me. Here are some wonderful single sentence views of charity offered by John D. Rockefeller II, Barbara Bush, Anne Frank, Maya Angelou, Winston Churchill and others.

Find a charity that brings you joy when you contribute.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, Local Charities

Photo on Technorati by Mr. Kris

Common sense ain’t common. Will Rogers

And the Iowa House had difficulty with a common sense issue - smoking in bars, restaurants, and casinos. Now we wait for compromise. A joint committee will start negotiations on Monday.

How about this for a compromise: a smoker in every other seat?

It has been 44 years since the first Surgeon General’s report on smoking and health.

The late Louis F. Fieser, a fine organic chemist, headed the first Surgeon General’s committee. He was an expert on cancer-causing chemicals. The committee issued a 387 page report in 1964.The crux of the report? “…cigarette smoking is a health hazard of sufficient importance to warrant remedial action.” How ironic it is that Louis Fieser was a chain smoker who developed lung cancer the following year and had surgery only to live another 13 years with emphysema and bronchitis. He died of pneumonia in 1978. One of Fieser’s colleagues, R. B. Woodward won the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1965. Few would dispute that Woodward was the greatest synthetic organic chemist who ever lived. Woodward would have shared a second Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1981, but he was also a chain smoker and (not unrelated to his smoking) died in 1980 of a heart attack at 62 years of age.

Ah, but let’s not dwell on dead chemists. Let’s keep things in perspective. Let’s use our common sense. What’s important in Iowa is to make sure we have enough jobs. Wouldn’t you hate to lose your job in a smoky bar or casino? Talk about bad luck! Come to think of it lots of Iowans are dependent on smoking for their jobs: nurses, cardiologists, pulmonologists, medical receptionists, insurance claims agents. Wow! I never thought of it that way. It’s good that we have people with common sense watching out for our interests. (And here we Iowans thought we wanted a statewide smoking ban.) Maybe we should think about putting people to work at jobs that would extend their productive lives rather than shorten them.

Until common sense makes its return to Iowa, suck it up, nonsmoker. Don’t be such a wuss.

Keep the faith. I have every confidence that the Iowa Legislature will reach a good solution.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Photo on flickr by idea313
Photo on flickr by miikkahoo

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, Iowa Legislature, Smoking Ban

What a treasure!

It seemed like a good day to visit the State Historical Museum, and was it ever! Not only were the major and smaller exhibits up and running, but the Irish Fest was in full swing in the afternoon.

Thanks to Drake University President David Maxwell I took the bus. As part of a commitment to civic and global responsibility Drake University under Maxwell’s leadership has signed on to help support DART and in doing so to provide access to free rides to all members of the Drake community. The bus ride was not door to door but definitely close enough - a one and a half block walk to the bus stop and at the end of the ride across the street to the museum, definitely closer than I could have parked.

Did you know that the State Historical Museum is free? Take your friends from out out town. Tell them, “My treat.”

Once inside I looked at a couple of antique autos with Iowa connections including a Mason built in Des Moines by Fred and August Duesenberg and financed by Edward Mason. F. L. Maytag later built Mason-Maytags in Waterloo. The Duesenbergs went on to build the Duesenberg (It’s a Doozy.), the Cord, and Auburn. I loved the electric car driven by former Governor George Clarke’s wife Arletta. Patten’s Neighborhood: Memories of the Center Street Community is a fascinating 40-year history of one African-American neighborhood in Des Moines. Take some time, soak it in, and don’t miss it.

I had a nice lunch at Cafe Barrata’s at the top of the museum overlooking the city. (Baratta’s on South Union has always been one of my favorites.)

After lunch came the Irish Fest, a special event at the Historical Museum. And suddenly the Museum got very busy. I listened to the talented Bay area duo named Four Shillings Short as they played flutes and strings and sang their original interpretations of Irish folk music. You can hear them on their website.

One talented local group was the Des Moines branch of the Foy School of Traditional Irish Dance, young people who performed energetic, colorful, and precise Irish dances to the delight of family and friends. The small stage was a perfect setting for them.

The MacKenzie Highlanders played bagpipes and drum in the main hall. Have a listen and you will understand how impressive it is when you are standing just feet away.

And there was a lot more to the Irish Fest, but that is all I saw.

The exhibit Portrait of a Governor: A Life, A Legacy traces the history of Iowa’s Governors from Territorial Governor Robert Lucas to current Governor Chet Culver - lots of pictures, short bios, videos, significant facts about each period in Iowa history. Read what you like and leave the rest. You’ll enjoy it.

That is just the shortest introduction to the State Historical Museum. There is so much to see and do - a coal mine, airplanes, natural history, Ding Darling, education, special events. It is very well done. The docents are plentiful. Everyone feels welcome. Check out the special events calendar.

Waiting at the bus stop for the ride home I struck up a conversation with a worker going home. By the time we got on, we were friends. By the time he got off we knew we were neighbors. It turns out that he lives just a few blocks from me. Ride the bus; meet your neighbors. See ya.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, State Historical Museum, Drake University, DART, Irish Fest

Asbestos abatement is the containment of asbestos fibers in a building. This is usually by removal, encapsulation, encasement, or repair, but abatement also includes proper techniques for building maintenance (such as the sweeping and cleaning of asbestos-containing floor tiles, ceiling tiles, etc.).

As we have seen in Part 4 this process is regulated, expensive, and time-consuming. So why do it?

Older buildings will have deteriorating, friable asbestos in sprayed-on fireproofing and in wall and ceiling insulation and in ceiling texturing. Asbestos will also be present in caulks and putties. Boilers and pipes will have been coated or covered with friable asbestos that may or may not be wrapped. Friable asbestos is also found on reinforcing beams and ceiling tiles installed before 1981. (Floor tiles have better encapsulated asbestos containing materials [ACM], but if they begin to crack or break, fibers will become airborne then too.) When asbestos-containing material is undisturbed, that’s great, but the problem with aging asbestos-containing materials is that they are disturbed - disturbed by water, by vibration, by careless or unknowing workers who may have drilled, cut, polished, sanded, smoothed, ripped, or otherwise abrasively contacted the ACM. I can even imagine someone vacuuming textured ceilings or walls because they were dusty. Then it’s time to abate.

Would you like to see what the materials disturbed and otherwise look like? site 1 (several pictures; see especially “exposed”); site 2 (18 pictures); site 3 (a deteriorating wrap).

I’ve seen two abatements in different institutions. I saw different activities each time, and I will share some pictures of each. But first I’d like you to see how seriously Iowa State University takes asbestos removal. Being a state institution they are more transparent so we can read their protocols on-line. In the ISU manual, jump or scroll to University Responsibilities. That section is pretty impressive. The President acknowledges: I am responsible; the EH&S says: we will keep an inventory; we will write the procedures and we will follow the rules (permits, records, training, protection of workers, disposal of wastes). And you can bet money they do. I’ve met some of the people in Environmental Health & Safety at ISU; they are very open and very knowledgeable (also true in the places I have worked).

Who does the asbestos abatement?

In part 4 we saw there are federal guidelines for personnel training for asbestos removal. In Iowa there are companies who do the removal and there are companies who do the training.
So here is the fun and interesting part that you are not likely to see other places. What does asbestos abatement look like?

I am one of those people who wants to know stuff. So I visit with workers and ask questions - just like a little kid. “Whatcha doin’? … why?” Nearly all the workers have been quite happy to share their knowledge. Remember Part 4 when my former student told me, “As of this minute you are in violation of federal law…” (when he saw that asbestos wrap had been hacked away?) It’s been over 20 years, but I think the abatement firm that fixed that problem was from Ankeny. They came in, brought in their tools and equipment, they sealed the room with thick polyethylene, and they set to work. These are some pictures:

See that bucket of liquid (arrow) in the first picture? The worker told me that before they ever cut the asbestos wrap, they wrap then wet the asbestos thoroughly so the fibers don’t float off. Only then do they slice and remove a piece of the asbestos wrap. In the third picture you can see the wet asbestos in the bottom of the bag. In two of the pictures you can see that even with these precautions, all of the workers are wearing tight fitting masks with canister filters. (I took the pictures through the window of a sealed door.)

As of May 2006 the U. S. Department of Labor said these workers are paid an average of $17.04/hr. According to the ISU document, working in this industry increases the risk of lung cancer 5 fold, smoking by 10 fold but the combination, that is, for a smoking asbestos worker, by 90 fold (a synergistic increase).

The second project was more recent. In the top left picture you can see that the working room is again sealed with thick polyethylene. Then there is a box (arrow, a negative pressure pump) and a large polyethylene tube running from the box. What you can’t see is that a tube also runs from the room into the box. The box is a pump that is sucking the air out of the room and pushing it through a HEPA filter. The other two pictures show the path of the already-purified air being discharged into a courtyard.

Well, that’s it. That’s my story, and I’m stickin’ to it. People from New Jersey to California got excited about Asbestos and the Equitable Building within 24 hours of the time that the story broke on February 2, 2008. Over 2500 years of geology, chemistry, history, health, law, business, and commerce - now 5 weeks in Des Moines. When you go back and read Perry Beeman’s story in The Des Moines Register and then next week when you see the result of the DNR meeting scheduled for Tuesday March 11, pictures will spring to mind, and you’ll have some ideas of your own!

If you think it’s the end, it’s not. Just watch.

Guest Writer: James G. Lindberg (Jim) is the Purple Wren’s sweetie and is a visiting chemistry professor at Grinnell College and retired from Drake University.

Technorati Tags: Iowa, Des Moines, Central Iowa News, Asbestos, Equitable Building, Abatement