Winona state university faces $24,500 asbestos fine

WINONA, Minn. - Winona State University may be paying out a total of $24.500 in fines for workplace safety violations related to the removal of asbestos from several campus locations this year. Among the locations that were not properly cleaned of asbestos are some student dormitories. According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the university did not take the necessary precautions to protect workers from asbestos when they removed, repaired or replaced insulation this year. OSHA declined to offer any details about the seven citations because the university has contested the allegations and the matter is still under investigation. Cristeen Custer, a University spokesperson said that the university is cooperating with OSHA in their investigation. She said that the university is taking the situation seriously, and that they believe that the university’s discussions with OSHA will have a positive result. In reference to whether students could have been exposed to asbestos during the repair work, Custer responded that student safety is of critical importance to the university and the school would never jeopardize the health of its students or workers. If there had been a concern, Custer said, the college would have alerted students to the fact. According to the copy of violations posted for workers at Winona State, the follow specific shortcoming have been identified and are being investigated: Lourdes Hall and Richards Hall: asbestos work was not properly supervised when a water softener was replaced and pluming work was done in February and May of this year Required air quality monitoring was not done when asbestos was removed from piping, so it is not known how much concentration of asbestos fibers workers may have been exposed to Filtration and collection systems were not used to clean air contaminated with asbestos Workers did not wear required protective clothing during the removal of asbestos The university did not place proper warning signs at the entrances to mechanical rooms, tunnels and other places on campus where asbestos containing materials are found The university has no monitoring records for exposure to asbestos for any of the work that has been done in removing and repairing asbestos from September 1995 to September 2005 If the negotiations between the university and OSHA do not go well, the university will face fines of nearly $25.000 for its negligence of accepted safety procedures when handling asbestos and asbestos containing materials. These precautions are necessary because asbestos is a known carcinogen for which there is no known safe level of exposure. When asbestos containing materials are disturbed and asbestos dust is released into the air, it can become a ticking time bomb in the lungs or other organs of workers who inhale or swallow it. Exposure to asbestos can lead to lung cancer, asbestosis and mesothelioma, a rare cancer that affects the epithelial tissues that surround organs like the lungs, abdomen and heart. The conditions can take up to 40 years to manifest, but when they do it is almost always too late to do anything other than wait for death. (Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News)