University Daily Kansan, October 13, 1962
Page 9
Health official tests KU office for toxin from foam insulation
By DIRK MILLER Staff Reporter
A health official conducted a test yesterday to determine the safety of levels of formaldehyde from insulation Relations, KU officials said yesterday.
The test was conducted on the quality of air at the office because of the presence of urea formaldehyde foam material, which was banned this summer.
The test was requested by the state architect's office and by Robin Eversole, director of University Relations, to examine the building with the suspect insulation.
Eversole and Roger Martin, editor of Explore magazine for University Relations, said they expected preliminary results of the test this afternoon.
THE INSULATION was pumped into the office building four years ago through holes drilled into the exterior walls.
Urea formaldehyde foam insulation was banned for use in homes last August by the Consumer Product Safety Commission as a suspected
carcinogen. Studies have shown that the insulation, when improperly installed, releases minute amounts of carbon gas into the surrounding environment.
In a Sept. 30 letter to the facilities planning office, Eversole asked for the results of any earlier tests on the patients and the first test to be conducted at the office.
Eversole said some staff members had expressed some concern to her about their working environment after learning of the building's insulation.
ALLEN WIECHERT, director of facilities planning, said that recent articles in the Kansan had prompted the requests for the test. He said the results of any previous tests apparently had not been recorded.
Andy Huyett, a staff architect at the state architect's office, said his office requested the test in response to concerns about the possible dangers of the insulation. Huyett, along with John Irwin, chief of the occupational health section of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, and James Modig, assistant director of facilities planning, helped conduct the test.
IRWIN SAID the procedure of the test was to collect air samples from two
of the floors in the building and one from outside the building as a measure of the environmental formaldehyde level. The air sample was bubbled through a water solution, which abrasions it caused. A similar sample. The water solution was then taken to Topeka to be measured at the department's laboratory, he said.
None of the officials would predict the results of the test. But Irwin said a few weeks ago, before he was called upon to conduct the test, that he did not think dangerous levels would be found at the office.
WHEN ASKED about plans for the building should it prove to be dangerous, Wiechert said, "We'll just have to test this test. This will be all new information."
Martin said that during the test the doors and windows were shut at the office to simulate the worst possible damage. He also presented with formaldehyde leakage
"We tried to simulate wintertime conditions," he said.
The staff was practically unanimous in adopting this procedure to reassure themselves of the office's safety, Martin said.
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BLACK STUDENT UNION
encourages you to attend our third general meeting of the 82-83 school year
Wednesday, October 13, 1982 Satellite Union Conference Room 7:30 p.m. (be prompt)
A WALK to the meeting will start at Engel and Irving Hill Road (between Ellsworth and Hashinger) at 7:00 p.m.
Funded by the Student Activity Fae
TV boosts sagging football income
Football revenues for this season are $50,000 behind expectations, but television income is up. Susan Wachter, athletic business manager, told the University of Kansas Athletic Corporation yesterday.
"We had a slight cost overrun in football, but we expect to bring in more income," Wachter said. "Big Eight conference TV revenue is saving our lives, and we expect it to go higher."
KU's share of Big Eight TV income for the beginning of this season was listed as $140,000 on its Sept. 30 budget statement.
Money from televised games goes to the Big Eight Conference and is divided among all Big Eight schools. Schools that participate in a game receive two shares of TV income for that game.
At the meeting, board members also discussed the selection of a chairman.
The board decided that KU's representative to the National College Athletic Association, Del Brinkman, dean of the School of Medicine, would be acting board chairman, until a new chairman was chosen.
Susanne Shaw, former associate dean of the School of Journalism and former faculty representative to the Association of Intercollegiate Athletics for Women, was scheduled to be chairman of the KUAC board this week. In September she became publisher of the Corfville Journal.
As faculty representatives to the AIAW and NCAA, Shaw and Brinkman alternated yearly as KUAC member. Because the AIAW is defunct, board members decided to look for new ways to choose the board chairman.
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