John Thayer, a pipefitter-welder and supervisor of the 10-man power plant tunnel crew which maintains the heating and cooling systems beneath the U.S. Capitol testified. Mr. Thayer, who works for the Architect of the Capitol (AOC), said he and his crew have been exposed to asbestos on the job.

"Just over a year ago, we found out that the AOC had been misleading us for years about the extent of our workplace exposure to asbestos," Thayer said. "We asked to see the medical records from our annual employment physicals conducted by the Office of Attending Physician. My own records stated that my lung age was 118 years old. I was 33 at the time. No one ever told me this: on the contrary, every year the doctor gave me a paper saying I was cleared to work in the tunnels. . . Even worse, the Architect had let us carry deadly asbestos home in our clothes every day for years, without telling us that this posed a real risk to our wives and children."

Thursday, March 1, 2007

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