lacque lanssen, arts/features editor
University Daily Kansan / Thursday, February 4, 1988
Science
9
Dale Fox, Overbrook resident, supervises Lawrence Karhoff, Lawrence resident, as he practices removing asbestos from a pipe.
Program removes asbestos threat
By Michael Carolan
Kansan staff writer
It revolutionized the building industry. It performed not only as an easy-to-apply insulator, it looked good, was soundproof, fireproof and cheap as well. It also was deadly.
"People put it on as fast as they could for 40 years," said Dale Fox, lead instructor for hands-on training at the National Asbestos Training Center run by the University of Kansas Continuing Education program. "Now that it is known to be hazardous, people are taking it off as fast they can."
And Dale Fox is one of those people behind all the asbestos that is coming off.
The Environmental Protection Agency banned the spraying of asbestos in 1974.
He is the guide who instructs architects, maintenance workers, building supervisors, contractors, consultants and countless others how to remove asbestos from the buildings that it was sprayed, rolled and laid in since the 1930s.
"I feel I've changed a lot of minds, especially people who removed it the wrong way for many years," Fox said. "It makes me good to be doing that service."
He teaches about a thousand people every year how to isolate themselves from those tiny, indefustible particles of asbestos, which cannot be destroyed when inhaled and are a cause of lung cancer and several other lung diseases.
Fox sees the need for that service because for a while people were exposing themselves to the deadly asbestos particles on a regular basis.
"I've had real problems with people who have taken the stuff off all their lives and believed that it couldn't hurt them, that's the worst to deal with." he said. "I mean, they used to have no protection, no respirators, no disposal protection, no nothing." Those people just have to relearn. he said.
"There is a safe and sane way to do this," he said. "They keep finding technology that makes asbestos safer to work around."
Fox just returned from a two-day training course for personnel at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. He also led a course in Ames, Iowa, where he trained and certified a contracting firm.
Fox said he was heading to Fort Leavenworth to train both military and civilian personnel.
The Asbestos Training Center parks its training trailers at West Campus when it is not traveling around the country teaching workers to remove asbestos.
In 1886, the Continuing Education program began that trailer and placed it on a West Campus that was located in Chicago.
"People saw the word 'asbestos' and started complaining about actual asbestos being in trailers," Fox said. He had to move the trailers to the north lot on West Campus, away from the view of 23rd Street and the residence halls.
The program offers several courses that range from two-day to four-day in class training sessi-
"We have three to four worker-certification courses," said Fox. "We'll tailor our hands-on courses to whatever they want because there are certain training standards for different states supervising asbestos removal."
The four-day course, "Practices and Procedures," is taught to those who will supervise asbestos removal and costs about $650 per person, said Dave Marden, program manager for the training program.
The center has been steadily growing, he said. It trained at 40 locations in 1986 and in 1987, people were trained at 95 places in about 40 different states. And they are adding a trailer about every six months
The inside of three of the trailers that Fox uses were converted to simulate real asbestos-removal situations. They have pipes in them that have been wrapped with an artificial asbestos insulation. Fox said he had to refurbish the simulated asbestos after every course.
Fox has taught that hands-on course in San Diego, Key West, Fla., and Maine. He has trained at buildings ranging from schools and hospitals to industrial complexes and military bases.
Pipes that carry water or steam are usually insulated with asbestos. The asbestos is taped around the pipes. Asbestos is likely to escape if the tape is broken or a repair has to be made. The trailers re-create this situation.
Fox pulls out a giant transparent plastic sack
and wraps it around the pipe. He puts his hands through two gloves that reach inside the sack. This allows the asbestos remover to work on lengths of pipes at sections at a time while totally isolated from the dangerous particles.
The fourth trailer is used for a decontamination chamber. It can be hooked up directly to an asbestos site for workers to decontaminate themselves. There are three chambers in the trailer: the workroom, removal room and the shower.
In the workroom, the workers must completely cover themselves and the room in plastic so that no asbestos particles can escape. The workers take off their plastic, airtight suits in the removal room. In the shower, the workers clean off any particles that cling to their body.
To avoid inhaling any of the asbestos particles, three different respirators are used depending on the level of asbestos the worker is dealing with, Fox said.
One is a mouth respirator which filters the air, used for areas low in asbestos fiber count. The other is a full-face respirator similar to the first one. The third respirator, which is used for working in high concentrations of asbestos, is a mask hooked up to an air compressor which forces continuous air through the mask.
Fox said there were four main objectives of the hands-on course: protecting the work area, isolating the worker, wetting the asbestos to be removed, which prevents many of the particles from escaping into the air, and removing the asbestos. The worker removes asbestos by scraping it off the surface on which it is applied.
Because of new federal regulations for school districts to inspect every building for asbestos, write detail plans on managing the cancer-causing material and train maintenance workers to remove it, many more courses are expected this year, especially from schools. Marden said.
The center will lose the state funding this year that was meant to get the center started two years ago.
Fox agrees. "With more and more people becoming aware, they will need more training."
But, Marden said, "It might be our biggest year yet."
Type of asbestos in KU buildings is not dangerous
Officials say student health risk low complete removal is too expensive
By Michael Carolan
Kansan staff writer
Kansan staff writer
Asbestos is in most campus buildings.
But don't be alarmed.
"The only time asbestos could be a problem is when it is broken into," said Dale Fox, head of asbestos-removal operations. "As long as it is intact and someone hasn't crunched holes in it, it's not dangerous."
That asbestos, which mainly insulates steam pipes and boilers, is non-friable, Fox said. Non-friable asbestos is difficult to crush and made with fibers that cannot escape into the air.
"It's probably in 100 buildings and seven miles of utility tunnels on campus," Fox said. "It would cost the University several millions of dollars to remove the asbestos because there's so much of it."
keep a close watch on the asbestos on campus."
T
Fox is notified if asbestos is seen in a campus building. Usually, a janitorial worker or someone who can identify asbestos will spot and report it, he said. Asbestos fibers can be released, for example, if someone breaks open wrapping around a pipe or cracks asbestos floor or ceiling tiles. If that happens, Fox said, a sample is sent to be analyzed at a lab in the power plant building on campus.
"We do check a lot of stuff that doesn't turn out to be asbestos," Wellman said.
Bob Wellman, microscopist, analyzes the sample to determine if it is asbestos.
If the sample tested is asbestos, it is sealed in a container and classified according to the building from which it was removed. It is kept until the building is asbestos.
The only time asbestos could be a problem is when it is broken into. As long as it is intact and someone hasn't crunched holes in it, it's not dangerous.'
Dale Fox
head of asbestos removal operations
Friable asbestos is easily crumbled, causing fibers to be released into the air. If the fibers are inhaled, they can cause lung cancer and other lung-related diseases.
According to the Environmental Protection Agency, asbestos breaks into tiny particles that settle in the deepest part of the lungs. When the lungs cannot rid themselves of the particles, the particles remain there and irritate them.
Asbestosis, which is caused by inhaling minuscule asbestos fibers, is a chronic breathing disease that makes breathing progressively more difficult. Asbestosis can cause lung cancer.
Another asbestos-related disease, mesothelioma, causes chest cancer, abdominal cancer and cancer of the lining around the lungs. Between 10 and 40 years pass before someone who has inhaled asbestos develops cancerous effects.
According to a report from the National Cancer Institute, the Institute spent $1.9 million in 1986 to study the effects of asbestos on the human body. Asbestos has been blamed for about 10,000 deaths since the Institute began studying it in the early 70s. That figure is said to be conservative because most of the asbestos-related tests reported were job-related. Mesothelioma, it is estimated, will claim 1,500 lives each year.
But the majority of asbestos on campus is non-friable and not dangerous, said Tom Anderson, director of facilities operations.
"We don't have the money to abate it, so all we can do is maintain it." Fox said. "We do
"To our knowledge and our best educated observation, we don't have any," he said.
Fox said that his staff at facilities operations removed mainly small amounts of asbestos from campus buildings.
free, Wellman said.
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A crew is then sent to remove the asbestos, seal the area and make any necessary repairs.
If a small remodeling job is to be done by the facilities operations, air samples are taken on the site to determine the asbestos fiber count. This will determine what kind of breathing apparatus the workers will need to remove the asbestos safely.
Most of the large-scale removal which is done by private contractors is completed before a building is to be remodeled extensively, Fox said. For instance, Snow Hall, which is currently being remodeled, had asbestos removed throughout the building.
The Kansas Union also had asbestos removed before the third-floor renovation. Fox said.
In early September, maintenance personnel had a larger job to deal with, he said.
After the 250-foot smokestack came down, three new small ones had to be put up. The vents, which carried fumes from the boiler in the power plant to the new stacks, were insulated with asbestos. Fox said the area had to be encased in plastic and his crew had to wear plastic suits to remove the asbestos safely.
"It was an extremely hot, hard job," he said. "The heat was the worst enemy and we worked on one hour shifts."
Although the operation saved about 60 percent of what it would have cost to bring in a contractor, Fox did not know if his personnel would continue removing asbestos on a large scale.
"We might do some" he said.
"It's a matter of time and getting the trained people to do the job.
Asbestos is made from a mineral that is mined from the earth. It is still used on automobile brake systems and some insulation. Fox said.
"If you keep it in its place," he said, "it is still real good stuff."
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