It's only when you disturb it, cut into it, you create a hazard. Kenny Mantor, project manager for Barcom, general contractor on the project, concurred, saying that to his knowledge, none of the areas containing asbestos had been worked on. Workers told a different story, however. They cut through the pipe insulation in those rooms, removed pipe altogether and disposed of it in dumpsters, workers said. Thompson said something as simple as driving a nail into an asbestos-containing floor tile could be considered a disturbance.
Workers fear they have been breathing in asbestos fibers all along.
Then they came back a week later and said they had checked it and there was no asbestos, and to remove all the pipe out of there. So we started removing it and then Malek started working in there and got the tests themselves. Some places they tested came back positive, and some of those were the same places they already tested. So we were all exposed. At a safety meeting held on April 25, workers were brought up to date regarding the abatement plan.