Berkeley, California, (Mesothelioma News) - A classroom used for music and cooking classes remained open-and in use-five months after a California elementary school teacher warned administrators that the room might contain hazardous asbestos.
Asbestos-a popular building material until scientifically linked to deadly diseases such as lung cancer and mesothelioma-is particularly troubling in school settings, mesothelioma lawyers and experts say. That's because most asbestos-related diseases have long latency periods, often decades, so those exposed in their youth can be struck down in the prime of their life.
Among asbestos-related cancers, mesothelioma-difficult to diagnose and typically presenting a grim prognosis when finally detected-is one of the most painful and deadly, usually leading to death within 12 to 18 months of diagnosis.
While mesothelioma lawyers have had great success in obtaining large, often multimillion-dollar judgments and settlements against those who improperly handled, used, or disposed of asbestos, mesothelioma researchers have fared less well, with long-term treatments, let alone a cure, still proving elusive.
The Berkeley classroom, in Washington Elementary School, was shuttered in June 2010, after the asbestos hazard was verified by the California Division of Occupational Safety and Health (Cal/OSHA).
But administrators at both Washington Elementary and the school district had been warned five months earlier-in late January 2010-that asbestos might be present in one classroom and that students and teachers risked being exposed to it.
One of the teachers who used the classroom, music teacher Darwin Greenwell, alerted school authorities about the potential danger. Greenwell says that he entered the classroom one day in January to find that all the carpet runners had been removed. The runners were covering a long linoleum seam on the floor, and once they were gone, Greenwell could see that the seam had come apart, exposing deteriorated floor tiles.
Greenwell-who had years of experience in construction and is also a licensed California real estate broker-suspected that the shredded, loose, partly pulverized tiles were made of asbestos. "I gave it an 85 to 95 percent chance of being asbestos tiles," he said, "because I have removed this exact same kind of tile in my own family's properties, and it almost always tested positive for asbestos."
Asbestos in a pulverized state is particularly worrisome since the asbestos fibers can easily be inhaled into the lungs of those nearby. They can also be carried home on an individual's clothing and inhaled by family members. Over the years, mesothelioma lawyers have brought many asbestos lawsuits based on this type of secondary exposure.
Greenwell says he reported the potential presence of asbestos to his immediate supervisor and to the school's principal, Rita Kimball. Both, he says, told him to keep teaching in the room because there was no other space available. Greenwell also spoke with the superintendent's office about the issue and wrote two letters to the superintendent.
According to Greenwell, no action was taken, and on May 14 the superintendent's executive assistant told him that "this situation is not the superintendent's responsibility" and that Greenwell would "need to file a work order." Greenwell says he found this response inadequate. Processing a work order, he had found, could take a long time, and the classroom's floor needed to be repaired immediately.
The school district's public information officer, Mark Coplan, counters that no carpets had been removed from the floor of the classroom, and that Cal/OSHA had been called in due to a report that the exposed seam in the room represented a "tripping problem," not because of any asbestos danger. He did confirm that upon inspection, asbestos was found in the classroom flooring and that the classroom was closed down.
The subsequent removal of the asbestos was also mired in contention. After the classroom was closed, the school district hired an Emeryville, Calif., company, RGA Environmental, to perform asbestos abatement, which was carried out on July 9.
But photographs and video taken by Greenwell during the abatement process indicate that it was conducted without removing or covering white boards, posters, and fabrics mounted on the walls, or ceiling hangings made by the children. Even dinnerware and cooking utensils on the shelves, and cleaning materials and storage bins near the sink remained uncovered and exposed to asbestos dust.
After the company completed the abatement procedure, Greenwell and a reporter from The Berkeley Daily Planet inspected the room. They found that all the materials that had been left in the room during abatement were covered with thick dust, as were the floors, walls, cabinets, and shelves.
This, mesothelioma lawyers and experts say, is a particular concern in the case of asbestos: In many instances, even if the material is located, it is often removed and handled so inappropriately that the so-called "abatement" increases, not decreases, the risk of cancer, mesothelioma, and other asbestos-related diseases.
This news story was brought to you by the mesothelioma lawyers at Cooney & Conway. For more than half a century, we've brought relief-and recovery-to those injured by the negligence or harmful actions of others. In the process, we've litigated some of the country's most significant asbestos lawsuits, helping victims of mesothelioma, lung cancer, and other asbestos-related diseases get answers-and justice.
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