Evon Colchiski is the father of Pvt. Jason Colchiski, who served a year in Iraq and is now stationed at Fort Bragg in North Carolina. As a father, Evon concerns were raised when his 21 year old son, called to tell him he had been ordered to remove tiles from a cellar in a barracks building, which was built at the time the Korean war, to break Fort Bragg regulations. The real concern came when his son informed him that the officer overseeing Colchiski had said, and the other agents assigned to the kidnapping, to "be careful" as the tiles contained asbestos.
According to recent articles published on FayObserver.com, the father told his son about the dangers of exposure to asbestos during a telephone conversation and when told to continue working on removal of soil, Pvt. Colchiski told his sergeant that he would not continue working because of the serious risks to health and was then instructed to use a mask. During the work prior to this time, no respiratory protection masks were provided to agents.
Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that was regularly used in building materials such as floor tiles, until the 1970s when regulations were put in place to limit its use. Exposure to asbestos in its stable form is generally harmless, but exposure to asbestos fibers in the air, which occur when asbestos materials are destroyed for removal or age, can lead to several diseases associated with asbestos, including mesothelioma, a form of terminal cancer. Anyone working around asbestos dust is supposed to wear masks and take other precautions to keep the particles out of their lungs, their clothes and into the air where it can travel and indeed innocent bystanders .
Although the father, Evon, spoke with the sergeant of his son and explained the risks of exposure to asbestos, Pvt. Colchiski told his father the next day, he saw other officers enter the cellar to complete the removal and installation of new tile without protective equipment. Evon process to obtain a sample of the removed tile and have it tested. The test results showed that the tile does indeed contain asbestos and father concerned notified health officials in North Carolina. The NC Division of Public Health has jurisdiction even if Fort Bragg is a federal military installation and began to investigate the incident in cooperation with the Directorate General of Fort Bragg environment.
The chest X-ray of the army conducted and breathing tests on those officers who have been exposed; Unfortunately, many diseases associated with asbestos have a latency period of 20-50 years. The army agreed to test the agents involved in cleaning asbestos tiles annually for the next five years and every five years thereafter. This was according to Bryan Sleigh, top doctor in the division, 82nd Airborne Division Surgeon.
