Housing Agency Cited for Safety Breaches

Air-quality investigators have issued a violation notice to the Los Angeles Housing Authority for improperly handling and removing asbestos-laden tiles from city-owned apartments for the poor, officials announced Wednesday.

South Coast Air Quality Management District officials also said they have expanded their probe to determine whether similar violations have occurred at nine of the city’s other housing projects.

The actions came after the AQMD’s lab tests found potentially dangerous amounts of the cancer-causing mineral in tiles and tile glue removed from an apartment at William Mead Homes in Boyle Heights.

The AQMD charged the city agency with nine violations of state and federal health codes, alleging that tile removal workers were not provided protective gear, including respirators; surveys were not conducted before the tile removal work to determine whether asbestos was present; and work areas were not secured with containment equipment to protect residents of the housing projects.

“AQMD’s asbestos regulation is designed to protect communities from asbestos contamination,” said Barry Wallerstein, the air district’s executive director. “Not following proper guidelines for asbestos removal may put the public at risk.”

Violations can carry fines of $100,000 or more, officials said.

The Housing Authority is taking steps to address the problems identified in the violation notice, including the use of properly equipped and trained private contractors rather than city workers to remove tiles in buildings where asbestos is suspected, said Eric Johnson, acting housing services manager for the agency. “We wanted to first protect the families and the workers,” he said.

The Housing Authority has launched its own investigation with a private environmental specialist that will include a survey of older apartments to determine which have asbestos that require special handling.

The Times reported last month that Housing Authority employees had been complaining for five years to their supervisors that they were removing asbestos-laden tiles without protective gear and doing it while tenants were still in the units. AQMD officials detailed the investigation in a briefing Wednesday before the City Council’s Environmental Quality Committee, describing the initial violation on July 7 involving work at the William Mead housing project.

Housing Authority officials, who in May halted the practice of having unprotected city workers remove tiles, told the committee that the tile workers have been sent for health exams, but that the results are confidential. Tile worker Louis Torres said the test, paid by the Housing Authority, consisted of a chest X-ray. Torres said his did not find any evidence of asbestos-related health problems, but said he has been told by state health officials to get a more detailed physical exam.

Under state law, the disturbance of any material that has 1% or more asbestos triggers requirements that the material be wetted down before removal, that workers wear protective gear that includes respirators, the site be tented to contain airborne fibers and the material be disposed of in leakproof containers.

Housing Authority workers followed none of those procedures at the William Mead site.