Officials with the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrived in Vermont yesterday to assess a situation involving asbestos exposure at the Main Street Middle School. According to an article in the Times Argus, school officials met with representatives of the EPA and the Vermont Department of Health outside the school Wednesday. The Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) was also notified of the problem.
“We are taking this investigation seriously and we do not know the extent of the contamination at this time,” said Austin Sumner, environmental and occupational epidemiologist for the Department of Health. “Health risks in this case are most serious for the workers. They are working with this every day.”
“Vermont protocol for removing asbestos tiles requires the work area be wet down to reduce airborne particles, machinery not be used for removal, and that contaminated material be removed in the largest possible pieces,” the article notes. These guidelines were not being followed, officials note, and contracted employees from the Morrison-Clark company were not even wearing protective masks.
Chris Crothers, of Crothers Environment Group, has been working with the district for 15 years and is dismayed by this chain of events, he says. “My whole intent is people going back into this building,” explained Crothers, who is concerned about having the space ready for the start of school. “I’m here to protect the kids.”
Crothers said several school employees were in the building while the tiles were being removed. Some decided on their own to visit a doctor. The district advised all others to do the same though evidence of asbestos diseases, such as mesothelioma, usually takes more than 20 years to surface.
School is scheduled to begin on August 28 though Crothers says he is not sure whether or not that will happen. Much will depend on future air quality testing and the EPA’s assessment of the problem, he explains.
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