WSU Retires One Building Due to Asbestos

In Dayton, Ohio, a university has suspended operations at a downtown extension building because it contains asbestos and the university doesn't have the funds to remove it according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA's) 1986 Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, which governs asbestos actions in all American schools.

Wright State University (WSU) closed the Kettering Center, 140 E. Monument Ave., downtown Dayton, effective Monday, Aug. 31. The two entities operating out of that building - Wright State University's Center for Performance Excellence, and the Wright State University Center for Healthy Communities (part of the Boonshoft School of Medicine) - have been moved to other locations.

The Center for Performance Excellence is now operating from Allyn Hall on WSU's main campus in Fairborn. The Center offers employee training and development programs to all levels of corporate enterprise. The Center for Healthy Communities has relocated to the Miami Valley Research Park in Beavercreek. The Boonshoft School of Medicine signed a seven-year lease on August 7 to relocate its Consumer Advocacy Model mental health center to 15,000 square feet of space in the Canal North building at 6 S. Patterson Blvd. That move is slated for Sept. 1.

Meanwhile, WSU is working with the city of Dayton to find a use for the Monument Ave. building, which is currently being used by the university as a storage depot. WSU spokesperson Stephanie Gottschlich was not able to say how much asbestos the building contains, where it is located, or how much its removal would cost. Nor could she speculate how many workers would be relocated as a result of the closure.

Under AHERA regulations, which cover all U.S. schools (including primary, private, public, parochial and schools of higher education), schools must follow a seven-step protocol to prevent asbestos injuring students, teachers and school staff. These steps include: performing original asbestos inspections, and follow-ups once every three years; hiring a licensed professional to create an asbestos management plan, to examine and document asbestos in the building, and to remove or encapsulate it; disseminating the plan, as well as any planned or ongoing asbestos remediation activities, to parents, teachers and employees every year; designating a liaison to manage, amend and distribute the management plan; hiring professionals for periodic asbestos surveillance; and training a school's maintenance staff in the proper way to recognize and deal with asbestos.

In its own report on asbestos, in the winter 2005-2006 Dept. of Environmental. Health and Safety Newsletter, WSU describes asbestos as a mineral found in certain types of rock formations that - when mined and processed - takes the form of very small fibers which are potentially dangerous when disturbed, damaged or separated.

These fibers, once ingested or inhaled, can lead to asbestosis, lung and digestive system cancers, and malignant mesothelioma. The first is a respiratory illness resulting from long and/or frequent exposure to asbestos fibers. The last is a "silent killer" disease which can lie dormant for decades before producing symptoms intense enough to permit diagnosis. By that time, however, the tumor has so extensively invaded tissue and vital organs that most patients are given about a year to 18 months to live. In rare instances, when mesothelioma is caught early and treated aggressively, patients can survive up to five years.

The WSU newsletter also cites the most common occupations associated with asbestos-related diseases, and these are: janitors, maintenance personnel, construction workers, electrical workers, insulators, plumbers, mechanics, telephone workers and firefighters.

During most of the last century, asbestos was widely used in products calling for heat resistance, low thermal conductivity, low electrical conductivity, high tensile strength and flexibility. These uses commonly included building, electrical and heating pipe or boiler insulation, as well as flooring tiles, acoustical ceiling tiles, and tile mastics and glues, to name just a few.

According to WSU, approximately 3,000 different types of commercial products once included asbestos in their formulation, though that usage has since been restricted by the EPA in to one percent of product by volume or weight. Products manufactured overseas and imported do not face the same restriction.

Sources: Dayton Daily News, Wright State University website

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