Unless the ceiling's falling down, students at Brigham Young University shouldn't have to worry unduly about asbestos - even though warning signs have been posted in their dorms.
They just need to cut out games of indoor hallway basketball.Craig Barrus, who works in the construction department of the LDS Church-owned institution, said the advisories have recently been posted to meet Occupational Safety Health Administration regulations issued last October.
They are not a signal of impending or major danger, said Barrus.
In fact, Barrus said, nearly all of the 400 buildings on campus - except the most recently built - contain asbestos in the ceilings, walls or floors and usually all three.
"It's impossible to say there's no danger, but I believe, and experts will agree, that the danger is fairly minimal," said Barrus.
The notices posted in buildings such as the Deseret Towers dorms are to alert students to a possible hazard "if the asbestos is disturbed."
An indoor game with a ball or an object thrown against the textured ceilings could dislodge asbestos dust. Then there could be a potential problem, said Barrus.
"We're hoping the posting will cut down on that kind of disturbance."
Barrus points to a Feb. 20 U.S. News & World Report article that supports his contention that concern with asbestos is overblown.
"Across the nation, school districts that can't buy new library books are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to deal with asbestos because they mistakenly believe their children are in great danger," said the article. "Total spending nationwide has been $10 billion. Experts say it could reach $30 billion. Much of the money, though, is probably being spent in vain."
Richard Wilson, a physics professor at Harvard University,
quoted in the story, calls worry over asbestos "a phantom risk."
Articles in the New England Journal of Medicine and Science magazine declared the asbestos threat exaggerated despite a fair amount of panic over the early reports that breathing any asbestos dust would lead to lung cancer, asbestosis.
The EPA reversed itself with its 1990 "Green Book" when it said "removal is often NOT a building owner's best course of action to reduce asbestos exposure."
In its 1979 "Orange Book," removal had been recommended as the best way to "completely eliminate the source of exposure" as a permanent solution.
Barrus said that given the lack of firm evidence that the presence of asbestos is a health hazard and knowing that disturbance only creates a problem, BYU has no plans to start ripping out the asbestos in campus facilities.