When President Donald Trump leveled the East Wing of the White House, an interior designer sounded the alarm about a key safety issue facing the demolition of the East Wing of the White House: asbestos.
Taking to Threads for several days as the building was demolished, Sarah Boardman noted that, given the structure's age, there was likely some asbestos involved in its construction.
In a lawsuit filed on Wednesday, public health advocates moved to compel Trump administration officials to turn over information about whether the ransacking of the building exposed workers and those in the area to unsafe, cancer-causing building materials.
The Asbestos Disease Awareness Organization filed the suit on Wednesday, complaining that its Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request had been ignored, the Washington Post reported.
“We’re using the law to get the government to respond with the public health information that all Americans deserve to know,” said the organization's leader, Linda Reinstein.
The lawsuit names as defendants the National Park Service, the Department of the Interior, the Department of Labor, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Executive Office of the President, the report said. The organization is asking for any details about efforts to mitigate risks.
The first part of the East Wing construction began in 1902, but by 1942, another massive renovation began to expand the East Wing.
It wasn't until 1989 that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) issued a ban on most products containing asbestos. A court overturned most of the ban, and only a few products have been specifically banned. That, however, includes all new uses of the substance, the EPA describes.
Trump has claimed that his ballroom is necessary for "national security" purposes, but hasn't elaborated.
In Sarah Boardman's research, no permits were requested for the asbestos remediation project in Washington, D.C.
"I just looked up all the permit records for the White House. There are none for this ballroom abomination. There are no applications. And it clearly says that we own this building," Boardman wrote on Threads in October, including screen captures of the city's website.
The Post confirmed what Boardman found, too. No notification of asbestos work was filed with the D.C. Department of Energy and Environment for the project.
The paper cited officials who claimed there were “extensive” abatement efforts undertaken in September, ahead of the demolition.
“Our review, which included sampling and analysis of demolition material at the Maryland facility, along with a review of documentation of asbestos abatement performed at the East Wing before demolition, found no indication of any asbestos waste in Maryland,” said David Abrams, communications director for Maryland’s environmental department, in an email to the Post.
They didn't visit the East Wing site; however, they only saw the materials from the demolition.
A White House official said in a previous statement that abatement was done in September.
“We want to know if they did it. Why can’t they just tell us — what’s the big secret here?” said Reinstein.
The East Wing was destroyed along with the Jacqueline Kennedy Rose Garden, which included two historic commemorative trees for Presidents Warren G. Harding and Franklin D. Roosevelt, ABC News reported at the time. The Harding tree was just over 100 years old.
Trump previously claimed that his new ballroom, which will be larger than the actual White House, would not "touch" the East Wing and that nothing would "interfere with the current" East Wing structure.
Trump spent last Sunday personally shopping for marble for the ballroom in Florida. The day before, he invaded Venezuela and captured its leader.
Read the full lawsuit here.
