A university contractor will begin sealing floors in 59 faculty and staff offices in two campus buildings Monday night as part of a project that will prevent the release of asbestos fibers from worn floor tiles.
The work follows inspections by state officials that turned up evidence of worn sealant on asbestos-containing floor tiles in the offices. Environmental testing has turned up no evidence of unhealthy conditions in the offices or buildings, and the amount of asbestos in the tiles is extremely low, less than 5 percent.
But the sealant will ensure that no asbestos fibers are released or exposed due to wear and tear on the floors. The work is being conducted by a company that specializes in asbestos abatement.
The offices are located in Prince Lucien Campbell and Lawrence halls. After this initial phase of work, another 102 offices in nine other buildings, where the problem is less urgent, also will receive additional sealant.
The first phase of work, which will take place evenings after 6 p.m., should be complete by the end of the week. The next phase will begin soon after.
The UO Department of Environmental Health and Safety was aware of the wear and was in the process of putting protective measures in place when the Oregon Occupational Health and Safety Administration received a complaint from a university employee about the floors. The state conducted tests and found no evidence of unhealthy conditions in the buildings, confirming tests done earlier by the university.
But even though the state did not find evidence of unhealthy conditions, citations may be issued over possible shortcomings in the floor maintenance program. It’s possible that the state will issue up to four citations ― two each for PLC and Lawrence halls ― that carry fines of $1,600 each.
But the university isn’t waiting to hear if it will be cited before addressing the concerns.
Doug Brooke, associate director of environmental health and safety at the UO, stressed that testing has shown no one is in danger from the floor tiles, which are common in many older commercial and residential buildings. As soon as the university learned of the issue, it began doing air monitoring that showed that if any asbestos has been released it is well below the allowed exposure level.
The air monitors detect any fibers in room air, but they don’t distinguish between fibers from asbestos and those from paper, fabric or other sources. But Brooke said that even if all the fibers detected were from asbestos ― a highly unlikely result ― the amount still would be well below allowable limits.
The wear is generally caused by chairs rolling over the floor tiles. The floors all had been waxed or otherwise sealed at one point, but office floors were only rewaxed upon request and some have lost most of their protective coating, Brooke said.
Asbestos is only hazardous when it is broken up or becomes friable, which means it has become crumbly or brittle. Solid tiles pose little threat, Brooke said, but they must be sealed with wax or other coatings to ensure they don’t shed fibers.
The damage on office floors is limited to areas around chairs and other furniture, and the new sealant will be applied to those areas. Ultimately, it will be up to building managers or department heads to decide whether at some point to cover the tiles with carpet or replace them as a longer-term solution.
In a smaller number of offices, about 15, small area rugs will have to removed and disposed of. The rugs concealed but did not prevent wear to the floors.
Due to their location, the rugs may contain small amounts of asbestos fibers, which UO health and safety officials said are not harmful because they are not easily released from the rug. However, since removing asbestos fibers from the rugs cannot be guaranteed, the rugs will be thrown away out of an abundance of caution.
Before that happens, the university will work with the owners to replace the rug or compensate them for the loss. The rugs will be disposed of according to state laws on asbestos abatement.
Mike Eldredge, the UO’s asbestos program manager, became aware of a potential problem in 2012 and addressed that with additional sealant on affected floors. That was only a temporary fix, and in fall 2013 Eldredge presented mitigation options to Gwynn Daniels, the UO’s director of environmental health and safety, advising that further work was needed. Funding for the work was approved in 2014.
A plan to fix the floors was under way when the complaint was received in May and the state began its investigation, which took about three months. That included air sampling, which showed any asbestos release was far below allowable limits.
The environmental health and safety office is now working with campus operations to develop an improved floor maintenance plan.
Asbestos abatement is a continuing project for the university, which spent more than $1 million on such work in the year prior to receiving the current complaint. The UO spent another $350,000 on abatement as part of the Earl Hall renovation project.
―By Greg Bolt, Public Affairs Communications