Asbestos removal may have endangered workers and public in Fort Worth
The EPA’s approval of an experimental asbestos demolition method at a Fort Worth apartment building in 2007 may have exposed workers and the public to carcinogenic fibers, according to a new federal report.
The EPA should notify all workers who took part in the experiment and people who were in the vicinity of the work, according to the report from the agency’s inspector general.Fort Worth was the first urban area to test a “wet” method of demolition, in which crews can take down a building without first removing the asbestos.
Instead, workers soak walls and ceilings with soapy or foamy water during demolition to try to keep the fibers from being released into the air. Fort Worth used the method to demolish a building at the Oak Hollow apartments on Boca Raton Boulevard.The technique is an alternative to the EPA’s approved methods. The wet method was intended to save money as well as offer additional protection to workers, who could stand several yards away while soaking a structure.However, settled-dust results obtained from testing during demolition experiments at Fort Chaffee, Ark., and at the Oak Hollow apartments “demonstrated asbestos fiber releases,” according to an inspector general’s “early warning report.”
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