Cancer-causing material common in student residences
Gainesville Sun, Janine Young Sikes
Published May 10, 2005
but four of the University of Florida's 29 residence halls and apartment complexes contain some sort of floor tiles, pipe insulation or fire-proofing made from asbestos.
It is a circumstance reflected on many of the nation's oldest campuses built before restrictions limited the use of the nearly indestructible material known to cause cancer.
UF officials and numerous environmental experts insist that students staying in these living spaces are safe and that UF is diligent in removing the materials posing the greatest risk of exposure - that of crumbling or damaged insulation that could easily release asbestos fibers into the air. At the same time, extreme care is being taken on the upkeep and inspection of those asbestos products that remain, even as the university pushes ahead with renovations meant to eliminate it, officials said.
But about 200,000 square feet of vinyl asbestos tile, often recognizable by its 9-by-9-inch squares, still exists in UF-owned dorms and apartments.
It is that tile that is the subject of concern for the mother of a UF student, whose son lived in Reid Hall in the fall and spring semesters of his freshman year.
Wendy Blasser-Gruby, herself a licensed asbestos consultant in Boca Raton, believes her son and possibly others living in Reid Hall, where dorm capacity is 168, may have been exposed to asbestos in the past few months.
"It is very old deteriorating tile," Blasser-Gruby said. "The fibers are being released from normal wear and tear."
She wants UF to notify the residents of Reid Hall of their possible exposure.
UF officials reject the claim that asbestos is posing a health threat based on reports by an outside environmental consultant who was hired by UF at the urging of Blasser-Gruby to conduct tests on the air and dust in her son's third-floor room.
"There is no risk. That's a big N-O," said Patricia Telles-Irvin, UF's vice president of student affairs, who was notified after concerns of asbestos were raised by Blasser-Gruby in February. "We follow very clear guidelines and protocols to maintain the floor. We conducted tests. It reiterated there was no cause for concern."
Conflicting results
Asbestos fibers can accumulate in microscopic amounts in the human lung. They can cause cancer and a host of debilitating ailments. But it takes decades after exposure before illness ensues.
Blasser-Gruby is convinced UF's conclusions are wrong. She points to what she believes are contradictory results of tests conducted by GLE Associates, the national environmental consulting firm hired by UF.
No asbestos particles were detected in four air samples tested April 11, nor in four dust samples removed with a special vacuum two weeks later, reports from GLE show.
Yet, two dust-wipe samples taken April 12 - one from Randy Gruby's desk and one from the top of a television in a nearby lounge - tested positive for asbestos. In fact, asbestos particles from the dust sample taken from the TV exceeded the concentrations associated with contamination, the report states.
The outcome prompted GLE to conduct a second round of dust tests with the special vacuum, which later showed no contamination.
"A wipe sample is not enough to properly assess that area and therefore we did more sampling in the room that showed there is nothing to be concerned about," said Steven Wargo, a senior project manager with GLE and the person who took the samples.
The presence of asbestos particles in the dust-wipe tests back up an air test conducted by Blasser-Gruby, who collected air samples in the dorm room passively, a technique in accordance with recognized procedures.
Test results of her air sample demonstrate the presence of some asbestos particles, albeit less than the threshold established by the federal government.
Blasser-Gruby said she became alarmed about the potential of asbestos in her son's room in February when she noticed that the rollers on his desk chair - an ergonomic desk chair she provided him - had worn down the waxy protective coating on the tile.
Most environmental experts agree that if vinyl asbestos tile is properly maintained with wax, then the release of asbestos fibers into the air is held to a minimum.
Proper care and the use of wax was one of the recommendations by the Marietta firm of The Survey Group, which surveyed UF for asbestos in 1984.
The firm acknowledges in its report, however, that: "Asbestos floor tile has been found to be a source of airborne asbestos."
UF seeks answers
Blasser-Gruby asked UF to test for the presence of asbestos.
UF initially refused.
In a March 1 letter, Norbert Dunkel, UF's director of housing and residence education, told Blasser-Gruby her "request falls outside the scope of any testing at this time."
It later agreed to do so after Blasser-Gruby's own air sample tested positive for asbestos.
Wargo said he can't explain exactly why the dust-wipe tests showed the presence of asbestos while the vacuum tests showed none.
He referred questions to the lab technicians testing the samples.
An official with EMSL Analytical in Kernersville, N.C., the company that tested the dust-wipe samples, offered up the possibility that asbestos fibers could have drifted into a single place and not in another.
Pat Blackwelder, with EM Analytical in Dania, tested the dust collected with a vacuum. She, too, could not explain with certainty why the two different dust tests showed different results. Rather, she suggested that the wipe itself might have caused false results.
"A micro-vac is a little bit better way to go," Blackwelder said. "You have no interference as you do with a wipe."
Nonetheless, Wargo concluded that the mere presence of asbestos in a surface sample doesn't prove the presence of concentrated asbestos in the air. In other words, the asbestos could have accumulated on surfaces one fiber at a time over a period of time.
"There is no direct correlation between asbestos levels in wipe samples and ambient airborne concentrations of asbestos," Wargo wrote in his report.
Taking precautions
UF housing officials and the university's department of environmental health and safety maintain that the university complies with all of the asbestos regulations as set forth by law, including proper maintenance of vinyl asbestos tile.
It also posts notices of the potential presence of asbestos on bulletin boards in each building believed to still contain materials made of asbestos, said Mark Hill, the person in charge of managing UF's housing facilities.
Twice yearly inspections of the buildings also are conducted, he said.
"I have to presume every building contains asbestos building materials," Hill said. "We've removed a lot of it. When we conduct renovations, we do an extensive facilities survey to see if there are any materials that need to be abated."
UF's Web site indicates 20 percent of its buildings still contain asbestos materials.
Nearly all of its dorms do.
Only the Keys Residential Complex, Lakeside Residential Complex, the Hume Honors Dorm and the Springs Residential Complex are known to be free of asbestos. All have been built since 1991.
UF isn't unusual.
Many buildings constructed before 1985, especially schools and governmental buildings more likely to have extra fire-proofing, insulation and sound-proofing, continue to have varying amounts of asbestos in them, said Ann Singer, a spokeswoman with the watchdog organization The Environmental Working Group.
Federal and state funds established in the mid-1980s to help pay for asbestos removal have since dried up.
UF, as have other governmental entities, has made asbestos removal a part of all remodeling.
"We work it into all of our renovation projects," Hill said.
Murphree Hall, built in 1939, and North Hall, built in 1950, are scheduled for extensive renovations and asbestos removal this summer, Hill said.
Make-overs for Tolbert Hall and Mallory Hall, both constructed in 1950, are planned for the summer of 2006.
Subsequent renovations - two a year - are scheduled during the next seven years. Asbestos removal for those projects is estimated to cost about $3.6 million.
Furniture crackdown
UF, Wargo and Blasser-Gruby may never agree about the extent of asbestos exposure - or nonexposure in Reid Hall.
UF has no plans to notify students living there alongside Blasser-Gruby's son of the possibility of exposure to asbestos, as she has requested.
But UF does plan to revisit policies about the type of furniture allowed by students in dormitories, said Dunkel, the housing director.
"We purchase furniture for the room with the idea that it won't do anything but provide normal wear and tear," Dunkel said.
Chairs with wheels may get banned or there may be a floor mat requirement, Dunkel said.
"This is the first concern that we have ever been made aware of. The only reason is from this student's chair," he said. "We will look at that over the summer."
