Wellesley school department reviews asbestos removal policy

WELLESLEY, Massachusetts â€" The Wellesley School Committee has to come up with a new policy for asbestos abatement and removal, says School Committee chairman Mike Young. With renovations needed for the middle and high schools, the policy for asbestos removal needs a serious look, and soon. The issue was raised as part of the discussions about the future of the Wellesley High School building. The school committee has dealt with the renovation of a number of elementary and middle school buildings in recent years which included asbestos abatement. Young said that the policy for those renovations was that all asbestos abatement activity take place after school to prevent the risk of exposing schoolchildren to airborne asbestos. It was easy to work with that policy for the elementary and middle schools, said Young, because the younger children are generally out of the building immediately after school hours, leaving the buildings empty for the workers. At the middle school level, he added, it was more difficult, but still workable to maintain that policy. At the high school, however, students are often there well into the evening, cutting into the time available for workers to remove asbestos without trying to work around students in the school building. The school committee has requested that the Permanent Building Committee revisit the policy of approving after school work. Last Thursday night at a hearing run by the Permanent Building Committee and the School Committee, the issue was raised for citizen comments and concerns. The committee and citizens made a number of suggestions, including scheduling work during school vacations and holidays, as well as over the summer. Young said that no real policy was voted, however. Young says that it is premature to finalize an abatement plan before the decisions have been made on design and construction plans for the new high school. Young reassured the public that asbestos in the building is not currently a health hazard to students. Asbestos only becomes dangerous when the materials containing it are disturbed, either by wear or by design. The ceiling and floor tiles at the high school are among the materials containing asbestos, and they are currently in good repair. Once the materials are damaged or destroyed, however, they may release asbestos fibers into the air where they can be inhaled by students and others in the school building. Those inhaled asbestos fibers can cause serious health problems years after the exposure, including mesothelioma, a rare cancer that has no other known cause. Young says that until the ceiling and floor tiles are torn up when construction begins, it’s difficult to know just how much of a problem asbestos is at the high school. That will make it difficult to allot funds for asbestos removal and abatement, but by planning ahead, the school committee can keep a handle on the problem. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)