Asbestos removal prompts concern among parents

Marisa O’Neil

Parents of 52 children at Harbor View Elementary School pulled their

children out of class Tuesday as disagreement about the school’s

construction continues.

The walkout came during work to remove or seal asbestos from

classrooms in the school’s final construction phase. Bowing to parent

complaints about the removal taking place with students on campus,

Newport-Mesa Unified School District Supt. Robert Barbot decided the

work will only take place after school hours.

“The parents had concerns,” district spokesperson Jane Garland

said. “There were no problems and it didn’t put anyone at harm. We

did this to relieve parents’ anxiety.”

Notes went home last week telling parents that the work would

start Monday and signs were posted throughout the campus, said Bonnie

Martin, director of project manager McCarthy Construction.

The problems started Monday when gaps appeared in the tent

covering the work area, Principal Mellissia Christensen said.

Work stopped while the plastic was repaired, but parents protested

when it resumed while their children were still in class. Today, 52

students stayed home, Christensen said.

District officials, including Barbot, met with parents Tuesday

morning. Work will now take place from 2 to 6 p.m. this week, and

should finish by Saturday, Martin said.

“We are following, by letter of the law, all procedures and

guidelines from the [Air Quality Management Department] and

[Environmental Protection Agency], over and beyond what is required,”

Martin said. “We hired a third-party company for air-quality

monitoring and all of our levels to date are well below permissible

exposure limits.”

The asbestos in question is in window putty and some plaster

walls, Martin said. Maximum acceptable levels for airborne fiber

particles during the removal are .01 fibers per cubic centimeter.

According to a report from Ambient Environmental, which is

monitoring air quality during the procedure, the samples have ranged

from .002 to .005. The company also uses differential pressure air

filtration devices with HEPA filters to keep fibers in the work area.

If the work is done correctly, the process is generally safe, said

Michael T. Kleinman, a professor of community and environmental

medicine at UC Irvine.

Operating procedures keep the public risk low, he said.

“If I thought it was a safety issue, I’d be leading [students] all

out of the school myself,” Christensen said.

But parents said it’s more than the potential danger to their

students that worries them.

“It should have been caught,” said parent Meg Harrison, who did

not pull her child out Tuesday. “But it took parents making phone

calls to stop it. So many things have not gone the way they said they

would. It’s a question of credibility.”