Asbestos in workplace mortifies agency again

NIH environmental branch failed to post warnings for workers

The Charlotte Observer

Asbestos has been found in the building housing the federal agency that helped educate the world to the dangers of asbestos.

In late October, federal workplace safety officials cited the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences for failing to warn workers at its headquarters in Research Triangle Park of the presence of asbestos in the heating plant.

As a result, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration required the institute, an agency devoted to figuring out what elements in an environment make people sick, to post a notice of "unsafe or unhealthful working conditions."

Institute officials say there is no evidence that any workers have suffered as a result of the asbestos.

The institute's main campus, part of the National Institutes of Health, was built in the early 1980s, a time when awareness was spreading about the dangers of asbestos, thanks in part to research conducted or sponsored by NIEHS.

Officials at the environmental health agency say the construction plans were clear - no asbestos was to be used in its new buildings. For nearly two decades, institute officials assumed that was the case.

Then, about three years ago, contractors found asbestos in the insulation around some pipes and valves that were being worked on to accommodate the new research campus for the Environmental Protection Agency being built nearby.

OSHA did not cite the institute in 1999for any violations, but noted that the institute was developing "specific written procedures" for letting employees know about the presence of asbestos.

Nearly three years later, OSHA received another complaint about asbestos at the institute. On Oct. 30, OSHA cited the facility for a "serious" violation for failing to have warning labels or signs to alert employees to the presence of asbestos in the heating plant.

A serious violation, according to OSHA, is one in which there is "a substantial probability that death or serious physical harm could result and that the employer knew or should have known of the hazard."

Scott Merkle, chief of the institute's health and safety branch, did not dispute the finding, but said the institute got caught while it was trying to address the problem. He said a contractor had been preparing to remove the asbestos in the area OSHA inspected, and that was why there were no warning labels attached to the pipes.

It is unclear how much asbestos remains, Merkle said.

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