Charles Gierke, the control agency's Asbestos Program Coordinator, said risk assessment at the site was subjective because it was outdoors. Monitoring airborne asbestos levels indoors is a more crucial and accurate procedure, he said. Red Pine Industries, an asbestos abatement contractor, used fire hoses to spray down dirt and debris. A backhoe scooped up excavated ground and laid it in trucks for deposit in a specialized landfill Monday, as part of the immediate abatement procedure. Asbestos is a mineral that can be left alone in the ground, but is a known carcinogen when airborne with no known safe exposure level.
Exposure occurs when particles are inhaled.
The fibers can become trapped in lung tissue and pose a cancerous and respiratory threat 30 years later, according to control agency documents. In the 1960s and 1970s, demolished debris was commonly buried over, asbestos included. The Federal Clean Air Act labeled asbestos a hazardous air pollutant in 1972. Asbestos was used in over 3,600 products and frequently used to insulate boilers and steam lines in industrial buildings, Connell said. Such was the discovery at the University Village site.