Capitol tunnel workers have lung disease

The workers say they had to fight for other answers. Some had to fight to see their medical records. Some learned they already had signs of lung damage.

"Through the years," said Thayer, who has been a tunnel worker for 22 years, "We actually knew, inside our bodies, that there was things happening to us. We just didn't think it was — we thought it was old age — or just out of shape."

It turns out that Congress’ Office of the Attending Physician, which collects and keeps medical records for Capitol employees, had medical records showing at least one of the workers had lung problems. One worker's medical tests showed "scarring" on his lungs — "the lungs of a 118-year-old." Although these test results were from 1998, the worker was unaware of them until last year.

The workers claim that after they complained publicly the Architect of the Capitol refused to pay for them to see lung specialists, and told them it wanted government doctors to examine them instead. The workers chose to see an independent asbestos specialist.

By January 2007, all 10 of them had traveled to see an occupational asbestos expert — some using their own money — to undergo lung tests and highly sophisticated CAT scans to determine whether they had been harmed by exposure to asbestos and other toxins. The asbestos expert was Dr. Michael Harbut, co-director of the National Center for Vermiculite and Asbestos-Related Cancers in Detroit.

The workers allowed the NBC News Investigative Unit to report the results of their medical tests for the first time. 

Dr. Harbut told three of the workers they definitely have asbestosis: scarring of the lungs that impairs breathing and potentially can cause death. He told another four workers their tests show they probably have asbestosis, too.

"They have an increased risk," Dr. Harbut said, "of developing asbestos lung cancers, colon cancers and mesothelioma."

Mesothelioma is a rare, aggressive cancer caused by asbestos exposure.

(Note: Two of the three workers diagnosed with asbestosis had reported asbestos exposures during prior employments, and one of these two had a previous minor asbestos-related medical finding. The worker whose health records indicated “lungs of a 118-year-old” had not had a previously reported asbestos exposure.)

FREE VIDEO 'Tunnel Rats' speak out March 5: NBC's Lisa Myers interviews eight of the 10 employees of the U.S. Capitol Power Plant's Tunnel Shop — aka "The Tunnel Rats" — about their efforts to improve working conditions below the Capitol. NBC News Web Extra

Last month, we interviewed 8 of the 10 tunnel workers at an NBC News studio in Washington, D.C. NBC News Senior Investigative Correspondent Lisa Myers asked the workers how they felt when Dr. Harbut delivered the news.

"We were almost in shock," Thayer, the supervisor, said. "Everything that I had planned for the next 15 years has to be put on hold."

"I'm furious," said Tommy Baker, a tunnel pipefitter for 28 years. "What I thought was a good job and provided good living has been slowly killing me, or possibly killing me."

The workers' concerns about asbestos had received an airing in several hearings last year before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee. In its testimony, the Architect of the Capitol repeatedly claimed that asbestos-related issues were not identified as a major concern before 2005, when the Office of Compliance issued a citation to the Architect of the Capitol about them. It also claimed it didn't know whether the workers had been exposed to dangerous levels of asbestos.

FREE VIDEO Former Capitol architect on tunnel conditions June 27, 2006: Excerpts of an NBC News interview with then-Architect of the Capitol Alan Hantman. The office declined a request for a new interview. NBC News Web Extra

In an NBC News interview last year, then-Architect of the Capitol Alan Hantman noted that Congress' Office of the Attending Physician had examined the workers and found no indication of asbestosis.

Hantman, the Architect from 1997 to 2007, told both NBC News and the subcommittee that he and his managers had relied on a 2001 Public Health Service survey of asbestos in the utility tunnels. He said that survey "found the existing asbestos to be in good condition" as of that year.

Several federal officials very familiar with the asbestos issues in the utility tunnels disputed Hantman's characterization of the survey. One source recalled the 2001 report the AoC cited but claims it did not say that all the asbestos was in good condition. This same source says that if the survey report had made such a claim, it would have been "completely untrue" given other evidence of asbestos problems.

On April 10, a day after this report first aired, The Architect of the Capitol sent an e-mail to NBC, saying that the tunnel workers had received medical clearance to work in the tunnels through participation in an OSHA-mandated medical surveillance program.

"Upon receiving new medical information on the workers Monday evening, the Office of the Architect of the Capitol restricted the workers'access to the tunnels beginning today.

"We will re-evaluate each employee's medical qualifications and/or work restrictions. The AOC remains fully committed to ensuring employee safety, to solving the utility tunnel issues expeditiously, and to keeping Congress informed of our progress," the e-mail said.

Previously, The Architect of the Capitol refused to provide the NBC News Investigative Unit a copy of the 2001 asbestos survey report. We obtained a copy from another source. The report's executive summary does not support Hantman's claim, and an appendix containing relevant field data — “pertinent information” about whether asbestos was airborne or damaged — was missing from the copy. We asked the Architect of the Capitol to provide the missing data. It refused.

A second source told NBC News that Hantman’s testimony failed to mention that the 2001 survey indicated a “significant potential for future damage.”

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