Document QXRGoX0rVdRZyKQ5r3gVGRqE5

GREENW ICH T IM E , FR ID A Y , NOVEMBER 22. 1974 UCC 010036 CHARLESTON, W. VA, ;) S5.3CO (S\ 137.0C8 f CirFtDBY' MOV l 9 1974 lwagons. 4M02B NATIONAL SAFETY NEWS MO. 49,800 iI . JAN fcupPEo ay 1975 Xo Yale attacks asbestos problem--Yale University, New Haven, CT~tias embarked oii an asbestos removal program that could cost as much as or more than $800,000. The project is to remove sprayed asbestos from the ceilings of die Art and Architecture Building, using a super wetting agent, called "wet water." (Cost: 250 gallons at $18-25 per gallon or up to $5,000.) Victor Osborne, safety manager, says that disposal costs could reach $50,000, and that removal costs, including those for labor and temporary lighting, could reach $750,000. The program was launched after Osborne, using a personal body monitor, found the levels were well over federal allowances (18 fibers per cc, as compared to federal TLV's of five per cc now and two per cc by January 1976). This indication of danger was com pounded by the facts that eye irritation was so chronic and severe that the Art and Architecture Librarian had to be kept from the building, and that maintenance personnel were probably exposed to higher levels than those indicated on the monitor. Joining Mr. Osborne in Yale University's concern are: Robert N. Sawyer, M.D., Department of Preven tive and Occupational Medicine; Peter Tveskov, Asso ciate Manager, Physical Plant; Severio Fodero, Ad ministrative Associate, University Health Services. Mr. Osborne is not only concerned with removing this hazard, he is in charge of developing the techniques for its safe removal and disposal. UCC 010037 i iu r ~ ~x i v / ~i iVc'/V HAVEN REGISTER New Haven, Conn, j ? PM-107,564 S-1^4,798 Y&h To Remove. Dangerous Asbestos In By CAROLYN SUSMAN .asbestos-removal program, Os (strongly linked with the Making Staff Reporter borne's monitor registered over asbestos. Noted scientists and A wetting ageit so powerful 13 fibers per cubic centimeter doctors claim that there isn't that only one pint is used in 300 of air. The current federal limit any safe level yet known of gallons of water will be tried (considered too high by ex exposure to the substance. IDwwJ ia Tuesday as a means of remov perts) is five fibers per cubic Malignancies linked to asbes ing the sprayed asbestos ceil centimeter and that will be re tos may take 20 years to develop ings in the Yale University Art duced to two fibers in January, and continued exposure isn't re and Architecture building. 1976. The agent, known as "wet "We put it (a monitor) onto a water," has already been used librarian arid he'got almost one in weaker solution (eight ounces fiber per cubic centimeter just quired. Renowned asbestos re searcher Dr. Irving Selikoff of ML Sinai School of Medicine in New York says all unnecessary to two and one-half gallons doing normal (non-cleaningt exposure should be avoided. regular water) and worked work. The problem for mainte In fact, Selikoff told a Strat well. The more potent solution nance people is they get a heck ford audience last week of a is being tried to see if it is more of a lot more (exposure) than case where a worker had only effective. the average person," Osborne six.weeks exposure to the asbes Yale safety manager Victor explained. < tos, but developed cancer of the Osborne says at least 250 gal About two months ago, the lung because "that dust was lons of the less powerful solu building was dosed from 2 to 7 exposing bis lungs for 30 tion would be needcd to remove a.m., the hours maintenance years." the asbestos at a cost of 513*920 and custodial work might be Efforts to remove the ceil a gallon. Osborne said that dis done. Osborne monitored the ings at the art and architecture posal of the asbestos, which has, operations and made sure any -building will probably be the been linked to cancer, could -workers were fully protected first of such a large scale where cost over $50,000 and that from the falling and crumbling the substance will be removed removal of the substance from ceilings by special clothing. without contaminating anyone. Ihe entire building, including) "It's not hazardous to occupy Removal techniques are being costs for temporary lighting the building," Osbome stress develc'cd by Osborne. and labor, could reach $750,000. ed. The basic problem is the low The asbestos wiil be sprayed The extensive revamping of ceilings began flaking, particu with the wet water and taken off the building has been ordered since the discovery of very high levels of asbestos particles dur ing normal cleaning activities atthe building. Osborne has been involved: with problems at the structure larly in the library, when books ' as it becomes "gushy". Osborne i were grabbed off the top said, ii will be placid in 55-gal- shelves, when light fixtures len drums and taken to a site in were changed, or when custo dians dusted. New York city which is licensed Osborne said the ceilings to handle and dispose of the were sealed with latex paint at materials. . for over three years since com one point and that "worked out plaints about the crumbling fine" until concern began to ceilings at the building were grow about the asbestos me being filed regularly back in nace. That was compounded 1971. by complaints of eye irritations Tests conducted then found by people who worked in the asbestos levels weren't hazard building. ous, but only the air was being Asbestos contains unusual measured. Tests later conduct chemical and physical proper ed by Osborne, wearing a per ties and is considered one of the sonal body monitor to measure prime industrial causes of can exposure directly on individu cer in the world. als, found levels well over About 70 per cent of the ceil federal allowances. ing area of the building, esti In the Art and Architecture mated at 70.000 square feet is library, a prime target of the covered with the sprayed asbes tos compound. Robert Kaufmam, art and 'architecture librarian, has been kept out of the building because of chronic eye irritations * Bailee UCC 010038 Asbestos fallout Building facts 9200,000Job ofremoving asbestos callings c Almost 40,000 sq ft of sheetrock ceiling panels sprayed with asbestos must be removed from a multi-use building be* cause of the health threat posed by fall ing asbestos particles and asbestos dust circulating in the ventilation system. More than 52,000 books must first be removed before the panels can be taken out of the first floor library of Yale Uni- veraity's art and architecture building in New Haven, Conn. Thejob of clean ing and moving the books to a safer building and dismantling the ceiling panels in the library and the building's auditorium, studio and exhibit areas will cost at least $200,000. It has not been decided whether to install a new acoustical ceiling or to leave exposed the prestreased concrete floors. A new library ventilation system, probably using, air ducts,, will have to be installed to replace the 10-in. ple num system now above- the sheetrock panels , that are mounted on furring channel* Incandescent fighting equip ment built into the ceiling-will also have to be replaced. - The asbestos flaking was first noticed several years ago. A commercial sealant was applied to the ceilings this year but is apparendy ineffective. The Asbestos . Information Association* a New York. V City-based organization of eight as- . bestos products manufacturers, recoin mends sealing asbestos-sprayed ceiling, panda to prevent flaking and the resul- tant asbestos dust. . : The falling asbestos partides have : beat linked to chronic eye irritations in at least three library users, and the cus- : todial staff is now wearing protective face masks. Flalring.of spray-applied as- ' bestos and the resultant dust that rircu- ; lates in air-ventilation systems may pose a cancer threat, according to the National Institute for. Occupational Safety and Health. The ribbed concrete building was de signed by-architect Paul Rudolph, New Haven, in a pinwhed plan of over lapping and interpenetrating plat forms. The building has seven stories and 36 different levels with ceiling heights from 7.5 ft in the library to 28 ft in other areas. The same problem of flaking of spray-applied asbestos was experienced this year at the University of California at Los Angeles. Asbestos finish had to be scraped from ceilings in 800 rooms in two dormitories at a cost of $250,000. UCC 010039 L S g .5 'a S-ali I wi .5} o : > tS, c J3 ! ** ' > <u lo 2 " -2 I_ .S iOn* ' Sr? 2? j'iltS*`iTlss[o I wO CJ O i OO TM c is >. !) o g g U t 3 8 Si by Fred Strebeigh Clean Sweep: Getting Asbestos Out of the A&A 1963, was featured as a cover story and sioned. Paul Rudolph, one of the coun hailed as a major event by most Ameri try's most original architects and then can architectural magazines. Under chairman of Yale's Department of Archi A. Whitney Griswold, president of Yale, tecture, had created the $3 million build who had urged the University to "trust ing, it was said, to serve as a challenge the creative spirit and impulse of the and inspiration to students of architec greatest architects of our generation," ture and as a unifying structure for all art Yale had become a showpiece of modern students at Yale. architecture. Its jewels included Louis Kahn's Art Gallery, Eero Saarinen's In Almost immediately it became clear that galls Rink, and Gordon Bunshaft's Bei- the building was morexhallenge than For the second time in five years the necke Rare Book Library. inspiration. The floor-to-ceiling windows students and facilities at the building The Art & Architecture Building, didn't open, and some had to be washed will be scattered to different parts of the completed soon after Griswold's death, by men in bosun's chairs lowered from campus. A fire in June, 1989, burned out was the last building he had commis the roof--bringing the cost of a win- three floors of the nine-floor, 36-level building, closing it for a year of repair. Now most of the building will be closed again, in successive stages, while work ers wearing goggles and respirators re move 70,000 square feet of asbestos ceiling material. Asbestos is now known to be a cause of cancer and for some time has been known to cause a scarring of the i lungs called asbestosis, which in its ex treme form is the "white lung" expe rienced by asbestos factory workers. A continuing study--using pioneering methods which should be widely applic able elsewhere--by Dr. Robert N. Saw yer, a physician in the University Health Services, has shown that workers and perhaps occasional users of the building are exposed to amounts of asbestos ex ceeding federal Occupational Safety and Health Act (OSHA) limits. Removal of the asbestos--a fire and sound retardant which was sprayed into place in the late stages of the building's construction--will cost a minimum $250,000 and might reach $750,000, according to John F. Embersits, director of University Operations. i i Thus still another chapter has begun in i the building's history of costliness and i controversy. Its dedication on Nov. 9, UCC 010040 dow-washing to about $2,000, accord ing to Mr. Ernbersits. There was no large service elevator linking the building's many levels, and moving large or heavy objects was further impeded by con* stricted stairways. And a print-making instructor, who had told Rudolph that his students needed an open and welllit space, found himself consigned to "a bloody dungeon" in the basement. Numerous improvements in lighting and alteration of interior spaces have been demanded in the building--which since 1963 has cost the University about $500,000 for changes and extraordinary maintenance, such as window washing, according to Mr. Ernbersits. In view of all the complaints over the years. Dr. Sawyer was not surprised that he received what he called "cease and desist" orders when he first went to the administration in February to report his suspicion that aspects of the building-- particularly the asbestos--might be en dangering workers there. "I was told," he said, "not to waste my time over there"--that a study had been done by the State in 1971 and had shown negligible results. That study had used asbestos fiber counters placed in a room overnight to monitor fallout from the ceiling. "I had no axe to grind," Dr. Sawyer says. "I didn't go in looking for trouble. The trouble was coming to us here at the Health Service. We were getting a lot of complaints." One complaint came from a librarian in the art library, who had chronic con junctivitis--an irritation of the mucous membrane of the eye--and who told Sawyer of two similar cases on the staff. Dr. Sawyer also learned that the director of the library, Robert Kaufmann, was suffering from an eye injury he had re ceived away from work but which was failing to heal. Yale physicians examined his eye and found what they thought might be asbestos fibers. '. But Dr. Sawyer's main contributions were to realize--a discovery apparently made for the first time--and to document that a maintenance worker bolting a light fixture into the ceiling, or a librarian handling asbestos-coated books, would inhale more fibers than the state's fiber monitor did while sitting in a quiet room.. Under his direction, people equipped with protective respirators and "person nel monitors"--filtered pumps which sim ulate normal breathing rates--per formed dusting and cleaning chores and recorded asbestos fiber counts well in excess of the OSHA limits. When Dr. Sawyer presented these data to Yale administrators, their reaction was "Wow! Of course!" and he was on his way to his present status as Yale's as bestos czar. Now he is called on to oveisee even routine maintenance, like changing light bulbs. While Dr. Sawyer is apparently the first to correctly analyze and document the extent to which different activities in a building affect the amount of as bestos that a person inhales, Yale is not the first and certainly not the last institu tion faced with tire problem and a need to monitor it. Sprayed-on ceilings have been used in thousands of buildings, and Dr. Sawyer speculates that the degree of danger varies considerably according to such factors as ceding height and changes in humidity level. The University of California at Los Angeles, for instance, faced a similar problem with asbestos ceilings in 800 dormitory rooms. Quiet room monitoring showed an asbestos level similar to that found during the 1971 monitoring at Yale. Nevertheless the asbestos was re moved. The university did not attempt to document the asbestos level during activities such as cleaning. "We're developing knowledge and ex pertise in an area that I believe is going Workers in art and architecture library stacks (photo above) remove books from asbestos-dust-covered shelves, prior to vacuum cleaning (right). UCC 010041 to have tremendous importance," Dr. Sawyer says. "We've outstripped many ' so-called experts already in what we've done--our study has shown a quantum leap in understanding from the 1971 study." He expects that the greatest value of the work done at the Art it Architecture Building will be in reports on Yale's new monitoring and removal techniques, which will be published and made available all over the country. "I'd hate to be putting so much time into this if it were only a brush fire," he says. On Aug. 20 Dr. Sawyer submitted a 18-page interim report documenting pos sible health hazards in addition to as bestos in the building--undrinkable water, bird cadavers in the ventilation system, low railings and low ceilings. "Considering the height and accessi bility of unprotected hard objects, light fixtures, open electrical sockets, railings, ledges and open louvers," he wrote, "it is our serious opinion that physical dan ger exists for adults taller than 6*2" and children below the age of 10." The re port urged corrective measures, includ ing the removal of asbestos from the entire building. Most of the recom mendations have been accepted and work begun. The asbestos problems, however, cause the most difficulty and anxiety--particularly because. Dr. Saw yer says, the levels at which it is dan gerous are still being defined. One study, for example, by a physi cian at Mt. Sinai Hospital in New York, published in September, reported a high incidence of apparently asbestos-related lung scarring and cancerous tumors known as mesotheliomas in the families of workers who many years ago had been employed in a New Jersey asbestos fac tory. It suggested that even very mod erate and short-term exposure can, after a waiting period of 10 to perhaps 40 years, result in serious illness. That study has prompted labor lead ers to call for a reduction to virtually zero in the OSHA-allowed maximum limit. It is now defined as five fibers per cubic centimeter of air and will be re duced to two fibers per cubic centimeter in 1976. Dr. Sawyer's study found that light dusting stirred up a count of 5.3 fibers, while a worker who hit the ceil ing while cleaning was exposed--for a short time--to a count of 18.3 fibers. Work is now well under way (see photos) on the year-long project of scouring the building. The first element to go is the 52,000-volume library, which will be vacuum-cleaned, book-by-book, f\f> and removed to the Cross Campus Li brary. The equipment includes two $700 vacuum cleaners with absolute filters of a type developed for gathering moon dust from space capsules. Workers are wearing respirators for vacuuming, and when they begin to pull down ceiling panels Dr. Sawyer says they will use masks booked to an air compressor. Dr. Sawyer has been relieved of all other health service responsibilities and to be on hand at all hours for cleaning has had a bed in the building's guest suite made up for him. He has taken over Paul Rudolph's old ofifice--where there is no asbestos--for his equipment. The new frustration over the building has again focused attention, perhaps un fairly, on its architect. The charge has been frequently repeated that, as one high Yale administrator put it, "the problem with the A & A is that Rudolph was his own client." Mr. Rudolph, who says he has "be come very emotional about that partic ular building," disagrees. "I certainly didn't think I had a free hand," he re called in an interview last week. "There were building committees and buildingsand-grounds people. It seemed to me at the time that there were enough peo UCC 010042 ple looking over my shoulder at Yale. "And I certainly had no idea al the time that there was a health problem involving asbestos. Maybe other people did, but 1 don't really think so. I cer tainly don't think if anylxrdy had ever said, `You know ibis is a potential health hazard,' I would ever have put it in. Even I." Alvin Eisenman, a member of the building committee for the A & A, be lieves that one reason why the ceilings were never questioned is that the com mittee was never told about them, but he adds that "this business of blaming ' Rudolph has gone too far. The main problem with the building probably was that there wasn't anyone really strong on the building committee." Because of the extreme frustration and anxiety, there has even been talk around the University of possible legal action. While the work of many people has once again been disrupted at the Art & Architecture Building, for others it is a question of degree. "Some students come into the library with handkerchiefs tied over nose and mouth," one librarian said, "while some come in to study and smoke three packs of cigarettes in a night and don't seem to worry about asbestos."