Remodeling uncovers asbestos: Student Center particles no threat to students

By Lauren Frame

While breaking out your swine flu face mask would have been a bit dramatic, and not to mention completely unnecessary, it was still probably tempting if you passed the signs in the Student Center last week.

Several rooms on the first floor of the building were blocked off and covered with plastic sheeting as ongoing surface renovation work required the professional removal of floor tiles and glue that contained asbestos, Bob Kjelland said.

Kjelland, director of environmental management at UK, said the asbestos abatement procedures would be finished July 21 as the final step, a 24-hour air monitoring, took place. Once the data comes back “confirming acceptable levels,” the rooms will be cleared for occupancy and the next step in their renovations, he said.

The six rooms currently being worked on, the odd numbers between 109 and 119, are located in the oldest part of the Student Center, meaning that under their 60-plus-year-old carpet, is 60-plus-year-old tile, Rhonda King, director of the Student Center, said.

That tile, along with the mastic, or glue, used to hold it down, does contain asbestos, a fibrous material that, if inhaled, can cause lung cancer or mesothelioma. But passersby have nothing to worry about, Kjelland said. As long as the tiles are whole and intact, there are no health risks.

“If the floor tile is in perfect condition, it is perfectly fine,” he said. The asbestos is only an issue “when damage becomes visible or renovations are done.”

The university-wide policy is to remove the carpet and floor tiles using a professional, “just in case,” because the tiles could be damaged when removing the carpet, posing “a risk related to the asbestos,” he said.

Kjelland said the current project is “very routine” and the contractor the university works with is an accredited professional so that “if something goes wrong, they know what to do.”

“We do more than 10 a month, probably 40 a quarter, of this nature,” he said. “It’s very simple and very cut and dried.”

Signs were put up around the rooms to notify the public, along with plastic sheeting “to act as just a barrier so folks don’t wander into it,” Kjelland said, but the rooms were not isolated because it wasn’t required.

All this trouble is worth it to King, though, who has been planning the renovations for “quite some time.”

“You have to go through some inconvenience to make things better,” she said.

The addition of new carpet, furniture, blinds and paint, much of which was chosen with the input of student managers, will help make the place look better and be more functional for students, King said.

The renovations, which will eventually take place in all rooms on the first floor of the Student Center as well as several other rooms throughout the building, had been put off, in part, because of funding, King said.

“We do what we can when we can,” she said. “Money is just not in an abundant supply.”

The other issue, King said, was finding a time when the high-traffic rooms wouldn’t be in use long enough for the asbestos abatement procedures to be completed. Once summer advising was over and the crowds were out, “it was the perfect time with very little traffic in that area,” she said.

King said the rooms were closed and monitored at all times and the asbestos removal was done professionally, so she wasn’t worried about anyone in the building.

“Trust me,” King said, “with my asthma, I would not be in here if there was a problem.”