Approach includes new data management, further employee training
About 90 of the 200 buildings on USC’s Columbia campus contain asbestos, a material that can pose health risks when disturbed, and the university has formulated a plan to ensure that workers handle asbestos according to defined procedures.
Asbestos was originally used in building materials such as ceiling and floor tiles installed prior to 1981. However, the substance is not dangerous when contained in the materials.
“As long as it’s in good condition and it’s not disturbed and it’s not getting in the air, it’s not a hazard,” said Ken Mixon, USC’s industrial hygiene manager.
The university’s plan to control maintenance and construction projects that may interfere with asbestos includes routing all of USC’s work orders — about 35,000 per year — through facilities.
This process will make sure that the proper procedures, permits and surveys are being completed, according to Tom Syfert, associate vice president for Environmental Health and Safety and Risk Management.
“We’ve met with all the contacts in the different departments, and we’ve met with the regional campuses. This is a major update of the asbestos plan that we’ve been doing,” Syfert said.
The plan includes improving data collected that identify asbestos areas and bettering the overall data management, consolidating the information in a database that will show what areas have had previous asbestos work.
In addition, maintenance and custodial staff will be further trained in the process of coming into contact with asbestos.
“We’ve done a lot of training, but we’re going to redo some training just to further reinforce the asbestos awareness for the people on campus,” Syfert said.
The last part of the asbestos plan is submitting initiatives to obtain additional personnel and increase the man power to help with the program.
Asbestos removal is an expensive process. A renovation that included removing asbestos from the fireproofing of the Jones Physical Science Center building cost nearly $5 million, according to Syfert. The Jones’ renovations also included gutting some of the building and redesigning and rebuilding laboratory space.
“That was a great opportunity to get in there and remove the fireproofing,” Mixon said. “The building is not completely asbestos-free, but we got the vast majority out.”
All of the asbestos from Patterson Hall was removed prior to renovations, according to Syfert. The total Patterson renovation cost $31.8 million. Syfert estimated that removing all of the asbestos in buildings across campus could cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
“Our plan is to do some risk assessment and decide where it would be best to sink our money into abatement and try to eliminate those as they present themselves, but that’s down the road,” Mixon said.