The asbestos expert who told the Monitor in August that the county had “a serious, serious problem” in its courthouse basement said Monday the test results show air readings above what people breathe outdoors, but low enough that the damaged insulation should be fixed rather than feared.
Dr. Arthur Frank, professor emeritus and former chair of environmental and occupational health at Drexel University, spoke with the Monitor by phone after reading the reports the county posted online Sunday night. Frank, who has done asbestos work since 1968, reviewed photos of the basement insulation in August and predicted it would test positive.
Air samples taken in five locations ranged from 0.0032 to 0.0075 fibers per cubic centimeter, with the highest reading in the basement janitorial restroom. The lab compared the results to the 0.01 fibers-per-cubic-centimeter clearance level the federal Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act sets for reopening school buildings after abatement, and all five came in below it.
“Those are above background,” Frank said. “These are not what you would get walking around the streets of your town.”
Outdoor air in cities typically carries about 0.00001 fibers per cubic centimeter, Frank said, with rural air lower still. Even so, he said the courthouse numbers were not enormously high and would meet the standard used for schoolchildren.
In August, Frank had pointed to a Jackson County, Missouri, courthouse asbestos case as a warning. Asked Monday whether the results pointed to that kind of liability, Frank said probably not, so long as the county acts.
“Given the elevated levels that are not outrageously high, whatever damaged material should be cleaned up as soon as possible,” Frank said.
The bulk sample report described the pipe insulation as on the verge of a fiber release incident under state and federal standards. Frank said the air results show fibers are already being released, and that if the damage is limited to roughly three linear feet of joints rather than the full 600 feet of insulated pipe, the repair should not be difficult.
“If it’s just on those joints and not all over the pipes, that shouldn’t be a big deal to fix,” Frank said.
Frank repeated his August recommendation that retired maintenance supervisor David Neville, who was reported to have patched the insulation himself over roughly 20 years, get a baseline exam including a chest X-ray and pulmonary function test, and said the same would be prudent for William Jackson, who reported insulation falling onto his desk before his firing in May. He said the two current maintenance employees, who started in June, probably would not need exams if the material is repaired quickly.
“All these guys need to tell their doctors that they worked in a setting where there was elevated levels of asbestos,” Frank said.
He said the exams should be done by a pulmonologist or, preferably, an occupational medicine physician, and suggested the county also check whether the elevator shafts were sprayed with asbestos, a common practice in older buildings.
