On January 7, Adams Elementary School in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma was checked and approved for air quality after a piece of piping insulation fell from the ceiling earlier in the week.
The accidental discovery was the result of a new addition, built to accommodate the MAPS For Kids Project. Workers came across the asbestos during construction. The problem, according to PTA President Pat Calvert, is that the workers who disturbed it didn't report it to anyone.
After the discovery, the school was promptly closed and its 500 students bussed to nearby Roosevelt Elementary School while asbestos remediation went on.
By Wednesday, the school had passed both the air quality and visual inspection required by the Oklahoma Department of Labor, and the following day classes resumed at their normally scheduled time of 8:15 a.m., Central time.
In spite of that successful conclusion to what might have otherwise been a serious problem, the Department of Labor is concerned that the Oklahoma City School District isn't doing enough to address asbestos-related incidents.
According to Department of Labor Asbestos Director Talmadge Rogers, a letter to the school district - arguing the need for additional asbestos abatement in school hallways - has not received the attention it warrants.
School District Chief Operating Officer Jim Burkey admits receiving the letter but insists that the school district has no legal obligation to replace the insulation. Burkey did add that more care would be taken when replacing the ceiling at Adams Elementary, located at 3416 SW 37th Street.
School district parents are not happy with Burkey's response, and want the district to be more proactive in addressing asbestos issues.
"It is our children's health that we're talking about," noted parent Patricia Sabatino. "What if the children are there when it does break and what if it starts cracking and the asbestos starts to float through the air and our children and teachers are breathing it?"
Calvert voiced similar worries, but added that the district was taking precautions and likely would not put children in intentional jeopardy.
According to the Oklahoma Department of Labor, most Oklahoma City schools contain asbestos because many were built during the era when asbestos was widely used, and before its dangers were recognized. Adams Elementary itself was built in 1949. Other schools, like Britton Elementary, were built as early as 1931.
Asbestos was commonly used in pipe insulation, floor and roofing tiles, tile cement and ceiling panels or sprayed-on insulation throughout the first part of the 20th century. In the 1970s, health officials began to link asbestos use and exposure with various respiratory system disorders, and its use was largely discontinued, but it remains in situ in many older buildings, including schools, apartment building and other public facilities.
The most serious disease linked to asbestos exposure is malignant pleural mesothelioma. This usually fatal disease of mesothelial tissue arises from lung lesions caused by asbestos particles. This form of mesothelioma is rarely detected earlier than the third decade after exposure, and has by then progressed so far it eludes treatment. Most patients diagnosed with malignant pleural mesothelioma die within 14 months.
Burkey's somewhat cavalier attitude - which no doubt reflects the huge costs of proactive asbestos remediation in an entire school district - is nonetheless a knee-jerk reaction to a problem that will eventually haunt American jurisprudence to the tune of $200 billion, according to the nonprofit RAND Institute. The cost to American medicine, and American taxpayers, may be inestimable.
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