Jul 18, 2007 5:22 pm US/Central
Asbestos Disease Screening For W. Dallas Residents
DALLAS (CBS 11 News) ―
Many West Dallas residents are being offered free medical testing for disease related to asbestos.
Parkland Health and Hospital System will provide residents with free chest x-rays to be examined for possible asbestos related disease.
Program organizers are seeking people who may have been exposed to asbestos fibers from the WR Grace Texas Vermiculite plant on Manila Road in West Dallas.
The plant was in operation from 1953 to 1992.
Residents eligible for testing include plant workers, those living in workers' households, anyone who played on or handled waste rock from the plant and people who lived, worked or went to school within a quarter-mile of the plant.
Those affected could also include anyone who attended Thomas Edison Middle Learning Center or Pinkston High School from 1953 to 1992.
Residents wishing to be tested should go to Parkland Memorial Hospital from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Saturday, July 21 or 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Sunday, July 22 for x-rays.
Only the first 150 participants on Saturday and the first 100 on Sunday will receive x-rays. Pregnant women and those under 21 are not eligible.
Registration will take place in the Ron J. Anderson, MD Conference Center, located in the back of the main cafeteria on the hospital's first floor at 5201 Harry Hines Blvd.
The program is in response to a community health alert from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that found that the West Dallas plant exposed employees, their families and others in the community to asbestos fibers.
Asbestos in the lungs can take decades to develop into disease.
Medical authorities say that for those exposed to asbestos, quitting smoking and getting regular chest x-rays every few years can help identify and stop future lung disease.
(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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