15 TONS of Asbestos-laden material dumped in Bayview!!

This is what asbestos does to your lungs.

Fifteen tons of old roofing have been illegally dumped on the streets of the Bayview district in San Francisco, California. Not only has this cost the City thousands of dollars to haul away, but it has also put district residents at risk of exposure to tar and asbestos, which is known to cause lung cancer and mesothelioma, a rare cancer of the lining of the lungs, heart, chest and abdomen.

City workers removed about six truckloads from two separate piles, a task that the Department of Public Works estimated at a cost between $5,000 and $8,000. Public Works and police are offering $1,000 to anyone who can provide enough information for an arrest.

“This is more than any type of dumping that we’re used to,” said Public Works Deputy Director of Operations Mohammad Nuru. “It’s definitely a criminal case. We have the City Attorney involved.”

The environmental and health impact of abandoning debris is enough to charge the perpetrator with criminal activity. The diseases that asbestos-containing material can generate are fatal, so exposing a community to asbestos is tantamount to handing out death warrants. Mesothelioma, for example, won’t begin to show symptoms until stage three or four. This means that no matter how aggressive the mesothelioma treatment, sufferers rarely survive any longer than 18 months after diagnosis. There is no mesothelioma cure.

This type of irresponsible activity is also infuriating to companies such as Lawson Roofing Co. in Potrero Hill, whose co-owner Richard Lawson says he pays $110 to waste company Recology for every ton they haul to the dumping site.

Related: How much does cleaning up illegally dumped crap cost? - SF Weekly