Residents Ask if Perry Bowl Contained Asbestos

On the night of May 2, one wall of a building at 1115 Warford St. in Perry, Iowa collapsed with a roar.

Known to residents as Perry Bowl, the structure - built in 1919 and formerly housing a car dealership and then a grocery store - is one of the oldest buildings in Perry. The collapse of a rear, southwest facing wall at 6 p.m. Central time raised a cloud of dust that had customers and nearby residents thinking of bombs or earthquakes.

According to observers, however, the real cause of the collapse is a sinkhole under the back of the building which caused the foundation to fall in. Fortunately, customers inside the bowling alley escaped harm, as did a resident who lives above the bowling alley.

After the initial collapse, fire crews responding to the scene took down the entire rear wall to stabilize the rest of the building. It is not known yet if the bowling alley can be repaired. If not, the owners say they will rebuild. Before that can happen, however, the debris needs to be tested for asbestos, say fire department officials, who on Monday notified the Iowa State Health Department, which oversees asbestos-related incidents.

Asbestos is a fibrous mineral that was used in pipe and boiler insulation, spray-on insulative coatings, floor and roofing tiles, tile glues and some acoustical ceiling panels up to the 1970s, when health officials began to recognize its dangers. Unlike some other dangerous pollutants (i.e., pesticides), which degrade over time, asbestos remains a constant threat, and neither OSHA, the CDC, nor the American Cancer Society, has ever established minimum, safe levels of exposure.

Asbestos is a naturally-occurring mineral whose microscopic strands can irritate mesothelial tissues in the lung or abdomen when inhaled or ingested. It can cause illnesses like asbestosis and cancers of the lung and digestive-system cancers. Asbestos is the only known cause of mesothelioma, and this particularly lethal form of cancer, which forms in the lungs or abdomen, does not produce significant symptoms for up to five decades. However, once patients are finally diagnosed with mesothelioma, they usually die within a year to 18 months.

Perry's was the town's only bowling alley, and has been part of the community for more than half a decade. Townspeople will now have to go as far as Des Moines to bowl. The alley was also famous for its burgers, and its trio of co-owners - all of whom were out of town when the wall caved in - has committed to rebuilding if the structure can't be salvaged.

Cleanup crews are currently on site collecting samples of debris, which will be tested by the health department for traces of asbestos. If asbestos is found, the costs may be too great to fund remediation and rebuilding, even with sufficient insurance.

Fire insurance officials have said they still haven't determined the exact cause of the accident, and the investigation is ongoing. Whatever the cause, the wall's collapse may have exposed customers and nearby residents to asbestos, and the effects of that may take decades to appear in this small but comfortable town in the heart of Iowa corn country.

Sources: KCCI, WHO-TV, The Chicago Tribune, The Des Moines Register

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