Chesapeake Middle School Students Exposed to Asbestos

Students at Crestwood Middle School in Chesapeake, Virginia were accidentally exposed to asbestos fibers when the school's heating, ventilating and air-conditioning (HVAC) plant renovation project revealed asbestos-covered pipes.

The renovation took place over midwinter break. When students returned to school on Monday, January 5, the asbestos was already circulating in the heating and ventilation system. On Tuesday, six air quality tests at different locations in the school revealed the asbestos, with one test showing 90 fibers per square millimeter. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) guidelines target anything over 70 as unsafe to breathe.

On Wednesday, the school was closed and asbestos abatement procedures undertaken. Staff and faculty remained on the premises. On Thursday, the procedures were completed and students returned to school.

Now Chesapeake Health Department officials, namely Dr. Nancy Welch, are arguing that it takes years of exposure to asbestos to cause the kinds of illnesses and cancers people are concerned about.

One huge concern is mesothelioma. This fairly rare but usually lethal form of lung cancer is triggered by asbestos particles that get into the lung and cause irritation and lesions. These lesions are what ultimately lead to mesothelioma.

Asbestos was commonly used in pipe insulation, floor and roofing tiles, tile cement and ceiling panels or sprayed-on insulation throughout the first part of the 20th century. In the 1970s, health officials began to associate its use with various respiratory system disorders, including cancer of the pharynx, cancer of the esophagus, pleural mesothelioma (cancer in the pleural lining of the lungs), peritoneal mesothelioma (cancer in the peritoneal lining of the abdomen), stomach cancer, colon cancer, cancer of the rectum, and asbestosis.

As tests from the World Trade Center cleanup prove, asbestos is virtually indestructible. Every piece of asbestos ever mined and manufactured into a product remains in the environment. In Manhattan, this contamination will put the residents in jeopardy well into the next century. In spite of that, the U.S. government continues to dissemble about the real risks of asbestos to Manhattan's residents.

The exposure of Crestwood Middle School students, even if only for a day and a half, represents a real risk - one that health officials are unwise to dismiss. Mesothelioma can take up to five decades to manifest, but when it does the prognosis is generally poor and most victims die within a year. Neither OSHA, the CDC, nor the American Cancer Society has ever established minimum, safe levels of exposure. A day or a lifetime can trigger mesothelioma.

Undisturbed, asbestos is relatively harmless, but where the material is handled or removed, and potentially broken, the fibers can escape into the air, as they did when construction workers revamped Crestwood's heating plant and attendant piping. The highest levels of asbestos in the school were discovered near the library.

Like many schools in the district, Crestwood Middle School is old. Built in 1954, it likely has asbestos in floor and ceiling tiles and spray-applied fireproofing, as well as pipe and boiler insulation. Moreover, health risks increase in proportion to school building age and deterioration, according to Laurence Malloy, an asbestos remediation advisor who heads Malloy Corporation. This risk is exacerbated by the chronic mismanagement of school facilities which results from frequent budget cuts, and this further endangers school children.

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