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EPA FINDS ASBESTOS WIDESPREAD [1]
['Sam Hankin']
Date: 1988-03-12
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A total of 59 percent of the larger apartment buildings in the United States contain asbestos, which can cause lung cancer and other diseases, according to a report the Environmental Protection Agency recently sent to Congress. But housing industry officials said that the material, used widely to fireproof buildings constructed between the 1920s and mid-1970s, does
not endanger most tenants and charged that the study caused unnecessary
alarm.
The agency, in its report on asbestos in public buildings, estimated
that 208,000 apartment buildings contain asbestos, although only 23
percent, or 80,000 of the country's 350,000 apartment buildings with 10
or more units, have damaged asbestos, which can release the tiny,
carcinogenic fibers into the air. Two percent of such buildings contain
significantly damaged asbestos material, the report said.
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About 7 percent of the nation's population lives in apartment
buildings with 10 or more units, according to the Census Bureau.
Buildings constructed after 1978 do not contain asbestos because the EPA
banned use of the material in construction that year.
Overall, the study found that 20 percent of the 3.6 million
apartment and office buildings covered by the study contain asbestos, of
which nearly three-quarters have some damaged material. The agency based
its findings on a survey of 231 buildings it conducted in 1984 to
determine which ones had asbestos that can crumble easily and release
fibers of the material. The agency also checked with some building
owners and managers last year to reconfirm the 1984 findings.
A person exposed to asbestos in such buildings may stand a higher
chance of contracting mesothelioma, a cancer of the chest membrane, and
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other diseases, than those who do not live in those buildings, the
agency said in the report. But the agency has not conducted any clinical
studies of the risks associated with asbestos exposure in the home,
according to Dave Kling, acting chief of the EPA's asbestos technical
assistance program.
Congress had ordered the EPA to prepare the study and recommend
actions to take when it enacted legislation in 1986 requiring the agency
to establish a program to identify and control asbestos in schools. In
the report, agency officials advised against implementing a national
program to inspect and, if necessary, remove asbestos from office and
apartment buildings because of the cost of doing so -- $12 billion for
apartment buildings alone. Instead, agency officials proposed
implementing a three-year program to train and accredit
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asbestos-management personnel, such as inspectors and contractors.
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Even though the report itself pointed out that much of the asbestos
in apartment buildings is in areas inaccessible to tenants, such as
boiler rooms, housing industry officials accused the agency of creating
an unnecessary panic.
"I wouldn't say tenants should be alarmed," said Charles Fritts,
general counsel of the National Apartments Association, a group
representing landlords. "Most buildings are not so run down that they
have asbestos falling out of the ceilings on people.
"Asbestos is not a problem unless it gets into the air. The problem
is with peak releases which occur during remodeling or a wall gets
damaged," Fritts said. "I don't think that putting a nail in the wall"
constitutes much of a risk, he said.
The EPA estimated that 44 percent, or 155,000 of the apartment
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buildings discussed in the study, have asbestos wrapped around pipes in
boiler rooms. The study also noted that 18 percent, or 64,000 buildings,
have sprayed or troweled-on textured asbestos ceilings.
Fritts said textured ceilings do not pose a problem because most
landlords do not allow tenants to drill holes in ceilings. "And,
fortunately, children are short and they can't jump high" to damage
ceilings and release fibers into the air, he said.
John Welch, president of the Safe Buildings Alliance, a coalition of
former asbestos-product manufacturers, said that extrapolating the
results from the survey of 231 buildings to cover all apartment
buildings with 10 or more units is misleading. The study's findings are
"based on observations in a limited number of buildings," he said. Also,
he said that EPA characterized an entire building as having asbestos
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when inspectors found it only in boiler rooms or in other places
normally inaccessible to residents.
"It's not even clear that tenants are breathing asbestos. Whether
those materials are contributing to indoor levels, all data indicates
that's not the case," Welch said, noting, as did the EPA, that removing
asbestos sometimes releases more fibers into the air than leaving it
alone. Welch criticized the report for not recommending a safe exposure
level.
Fritts said it is unlikely that landlords will remove asbestos from
all apartments because of the cost. "Most owners know what's in their
buildings and they're willing to repair it. But you can't legislate
total removal because it costs $10 a square foot to $70 a square foot to
remove asbestos. At those costs, an owner can't afford to do that," he
said.
Kling defended the EPA report, saying, "We did a statistically valid
[END]
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[1] Url:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/realestate/1988/03/12/epa-finds-asbestos-widespread/b4b2745a-2859-432d-a29e-92f4335e3d8a/
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