Van Pelt construction raises asbestos issues

An accident during the renovations raised fears about loose asbestos. An "unanticipated" construction mishap that sent pieces of plaster falling from the ceiling of the ground-floor Rosengarten Reserve Room in Van Pelt Library last week has raised concerns about the presence of loose asbestos material in the library. The asbestos located throughout the library ceilings is not considered dangerous, according to administration and health officials. One health official warned, however, that continuing library construction on the first and second floors could pose a future hazard to students in the building. Asbestos is a silicon-rich mineral that was first used extensively in building materials in the early 1940s as a noise and fire retardant. The Environmental Protection Agency identified it as a "hazardous pollutant" in 1971 because studies linked it to several forms of cancer, including lung cancer. Many buildings built before the 1970s -- including several at the University -- are constructed of material containing asbestos. According to the EPA, exposure to asbestos becomes hazardous only when damage to a building loosens the mineral into the air in its fibrous form. That's exactly what happened last week at the library, which was constructed during the 1960s. Last Wednesday morning, College senior Rebecca Blank was sitting in the rear of Rosengarten, on the Walnut Street side, when a large piece of plaster fell from the ceiling and landed a few yards away from her. According to Vice Provost and Director of Libraries Paul Mosher, one of the construction workers on the floor above used "too long a drill" and accidentally drilled a hole through the ceiling of Rosengarten. Blank said that a library employee "came up to me and? said, 'You have to vacate the area immediately, because there's been an unforeseen asbestos danger.' " Library staff members told Blank and about 15 other students sitting near her to evacuate, leading them toward the library's main exit. The students passed the pile of debris as they walked out. Mosher said the University's Office of Environmental Health and Radiation Safety arrived to inspect the area "in less than an hour." Matt Finucane, director of the office, said the University sent a team trained in cleaning asbestos to close off the area and clean up the debris using "special vacuum cleaners." The team also took air samples -- which showed no significant contamination. Roman Siletsky, an industrial hygienist for the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration office in Philadelphia, said he doesn't think "anyone sustained any kind of significant exposure." "Sure, there's some asbestos contamination there, but nothing anywhere near anything that would create an OSHA problem, as long as they got people out of the area, and someone came to clean it up," Siletsky said. But Blank said she returned to the library Friday and saw a small piece of plaster still on the ground, which, she recalled, had a chair over it. She also found that the office windows near where the incident took place still had a film of dried debris on them. Blank added that she was concerned that she and the students evacuated from the library on Wednesday exited by walking a few feet away from the debris. "That shouldn't have happened," Siletsky said. "They should've walked people around it and not through it." Mosher claimed that "there's only one way" to exit. However, there is an emergency fire exit in the back of Rosengarten. Siletsky said the University is now required to encapsulate the ceiling and "make sure" such an incident doesn't happen again. Last Wednesday, maintenance workers taped a sheet over the ceiling. Each time Pen begins a construction project, the University's environmental health office comes in and blocks off the area, Mosher said. "They have a pretty qualified staff there at the University," Siletsky said. "They have several certified industrial hygienists." Siletsky said the extensive library renovations occurring over students' heads -- which are set to be completed in August -- could, however, create a potential hazard. "If they're jackhammering on the second floor, and you've got an asbestos-containing material [in the] ceiling, then, sure, stuff is going to be flaking down." OSHA defines a hazardous amount of airborne asbestos as 0.15 fibers per cubic centimeter of air for an 8-hour exposure period, which Siletsky said is much higher than the amount to which students were exposed. "We don't think this was a life-threatening event," Mosher said. "We think it was serious and we took every effort to take care of it quickly and be sure nobody encounters any dangers." Blank said she'll stay away from the library in the future. "I'm graduating in May," she said. "And there's no way in hell that I'm going in there unless I have to."