TUSCALOOSA — When pastor Dave Reynolds got a call from the Flannelgraph-Asbestos Abatement Center, "my ministry flashed before my eyes," he says. His church, Living Way Center, was targeted in a class-action lawsuit against churches that used asbestos-based flannelgraphs from China."We had flannelgraphs in every Sunday school room. How was I to know they contained asbestos?" says Reynolds, who is now assistant manager at a Staples store in Tennessee. The lawsuit forced Living Way and dozens of churches to pay millions to a victims fund.
Flannelgraph felts made in China contain "as much asbestos as some buildings," says a U.S.
government report. Kid Crafts Inc., the top importer of church flannelgraph sets, admitted recently that countless millions of asbestos-based felts remain in widespread use."Until 1979 asbestos was cheap and legal, so we could give more of our profits to missions," says Kid Craft founder Kelvin Mitchell, whose flannelgraph empire is crumbling. He is accused of importing asbestos-based felts through 1998.
Nick Dewey, 43, of Richmond, Va., began coughing up blood five years ago. Doctors finally traced it to his childhood flannelgraph exposure at a church in Wichita.
"I used to pull the fibers off and waft them on the wind before the lesson," Dewey recalls. "I know I'm not alone."
In the face of the gathering storm lawyers see a class-action bonanza. Meanwhile, churches are scrambling to toss flannelgraph sets and settle claims quietly.
"Was it worth it to use flannelgraphs? No," says one pastor. "I wish we'd stuck with puppets."
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