RSSAnother Ike oddity: asbestos
for the Yakima Herald-Republic
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Many Eisenhower High School students have accepted that their school is old and has a few oddities. A missing tile here and a stuck window there are integrated into everyday academic life.
One thing some students might not see or know is that Ike contains asbestos.
Asbestos is a silicate mineral that builders once used for thermal insulation and fire-proofing because it is a highly fire-retardant material.
However, it is now a banned material because it can be very dangerous. When asbestos fibers become airborne, they can be inhaled into the lungs and cause serious health problems, such as mesothelioma and lung cancer.
Still, asbestos can be found in many older buildings. Its use became widespread during the Industrial Revolution. And it continued to be a popular building material through the 1970s.
In 1989, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency banned most asbestos products. But this regulation was overturned in 1991 by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit in New Orleans.
Still, some specific asbestos-containing products remain banned. They include flooring felt, rollboard, and corrugated, commercial or specialty paper.
And the regulation continues to ban the use of asbestos in products that haven't historically contained asbestos, or "new uses" of asbestos.
Ike was built in 1956, smack-dab in the middle of the asbestos era. According to Jim Wright, Ike's assistant principal and student services director, the ceilings contain asbestos. So does the adhesive used to glue down the floor tiles. Some of the pipe lining is insulated with asbestos, too.
Although these asbestos-containing materials aren't easily accessible to students, students still have to be careful in the building. For example, in the gym students aren't allowed to throw balls toward the ceiling; if the ball hits the ceiling it could cause asbestos fibers to meander through air.
"It's kind of weird to think that asbestos is at Ike," says 15-year-old Anne Smart, Ike's sophomore class president. But, "Other than not hitting the balls toward the ceiling, it doesn't really worry me."
Smart says she feels safe, and that if asbestos at Ike was truly a big problem "we wouldn't be allowed to come to school."
Every two years, certified inspectors come to campus to make sure the asbestos is well-contained.
"What asbestos we do have is contained and monitored," Wright says.
Plus, Ike's asbestos is carefully watched by the school's maintenance staff, says 44-year-old Doug Chote, a custodian.
Since the tile adhesive contains asbestos, custodians are on the lookout for upturned or torn tiles, he says. The maintenance staff also replaces damaged pipe and furnace insulation materials with new asbestos-free insulation.
"I'm very proud of our maintenance staff," Wright says. "They are trained to keep us safe and healthy."
Along with the maintenance staff, the part-time nurse at Ike, Marjorie Miles, is also trained to keep an eye out for asbestos-related problems and symptoms in students.
Miles says she hasn't noticed asthmatics -- or anyone else -- having particular asbestos-related problems at Eisenhower. Some symptoms of health problems linked to asbestos, she says, could be shortness of breath or wheezing or a persistent cough that gets worse over time.
However, Miles says, "The asbestos at Ike is so small that I don't believe that students are affected by it. Most problems, air quality problems, are found outside of school," like pollution and allergens.
But that doesn't mean there aren't problems indoors at Ike.
Last year, Lisa Gredvig's classroom flooded, causing the floor tile to get upturned. Immediately, the room was quarantined, and the old tiles were removed. The room was also scraped clean of the asbestos adhesive, and new tiles were installed.
Instead of quarantining a room because of asbestos, 17-year-old senior Steven Gifford, Ike's Environmental Club president, has a different idea. He says, "The best solution to asbestos would be to just get a new school."
