University of Connecticut Workers Get Emergency Asbestos Screening

As a result of University of Connecticut (UConn) officials failing to inform them of the dangers, six university employees involved in removing the carpeting and plywood from UConn President Michael Hogan's office in Gulley Hall during September of 2009, preparatory to replacing the flooring, were exposed to asbestos fibers.

Two of the six, William and Marguerite Leffingwell, used Skil saws to cut the plywood into manageable pieces before throwing it out the window into a dumpster, without wetting or bagging.

While working, they encountered mastic on the back of the plywood from a previous flooring installation, but were told that it was asbestos-free, so they continued. Because the procedure raised a lot of dust, a fan was brought in, which probably spread the asbestos fibers to the rest of the second floor.

Gulley Hall, built in 1908 and last renovated in 1964, likely contains large amounts of asbestos, which was widely used in all manner of construction materials up until the 1970s, when health officials and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) began to recognize its dangers.

In 1989, the EPA limited the domestic use of asbestos to one percent or less, by weight or volume. The limitation doesn't apply to imported products, and to this day many durable floors installed in the late 1970s contain asbestos, either in the floors themselves or in the adhesives used to fasten them.

Asbestos has been implicated in a number of diseases, including asbestosis, lung cancer and malignant mesothelioma. Asbestosis is generally acquired only after long exposure to asbestos, and even lung cancer requires repeated exposures, but mesothelioma requires only a single exposure, according to the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA; of the U.S. Department of Labor), the CDC, and the American Cancer Society, who agree that there is no minimum safe level of exposure, and that a day or a lifetime can trigger this "silent killer" disease.

Unlike most cancers, mesothelioma lies dormant for decades, gradually invading and affecting so much vital tissue that by the time it is diagnosed most doctors are forced to provide a prognosis of about a year to live.

In December of 2009, after the facts came to light, the six UConn employees received emergency medical screening at a nearby hospital, the results of which remain confidential.

This was more than two months after the work was done, and UConn officials have since acknowledged the fact that they violated both OSHA and EPA rules for the removal of asbestos, as outlined under both AHERA (the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, which applies to all U.S. schools), and NESHAPS (the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants, which extends provisions of the Clean Air Act by defining asbestos and proscribing methods for safe removal).

These acknowledgements, apparently obtained from interoffice memos, show that - while a cursory inspection for asbestos was prepared in July by Fuss & O'Neill of Manchester - no asbestos inspection was done inside walls, under existing floors, or of ceilings in Gulley Hall.

Since the violations, UConn has hired ATC Associates of East Hartford to inspect the area. The ceiling tiles were cleared; the mastic was not. The project has been shut down, and ATC has contacted the Connecticut Department of Public Health about the need for emergency asbestos remediation.

The Leffingwells would never have discovered the danger they were in except for an annual asbestos awareness refresher seminar they attended in October. At that time, the couple mentioned the mastic on the reverse side of the plywood, some of which was still in the president's office. Subsequent testing of that debris by ATC showed quantities of asbestos.

Sources: UPI, Hartford Courant

News

Resources

This site complies with the HONcode standard for trustworthy health information: verify here

If you would like to receive a FREE information packet or have questions about mesothelioma, call us at:

Toll-Free 1-877-367-6376