Arizona’s Apache Junction Unified School District (AJUSD) reports that it will have required asbestos management plans for its schools in place by early August, an announcement triggered by the fact that some residents/parents were concerned about the presence of outdated reports, making their worries known to local news outlets.
AJUSD parent, Matthew Mott, became alarmed about the situation when he read about the fact that the district had been recently fined by the EPA for violations that included failure to re-inspect three schools for asbestos and failure to have asbestos-management plans at those three schools. So he went to the local high school, where his children once attended, and requested the plans for that building, only to be encountered by staff that didn’t even know the plans existed, reports an article in the Apache Junction Independent. He went to the other schools cited in the violations and found the scenario to be the same.
The schools mentioned in the EPA report include Apache Junction High School, 2525 S. Ironwood Drive; Cactus Canyon Junior High (formerly called Desert Shadows), 801 W. Southern Ave.; and Superstition Mountain Elementary, 550 S. Ironwood Drive.
According to the Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act, school districts must know where asbestos materials are located inside each of their buildings. A map of those spots should be available and a management plan should be in place so that asbestos exposure does not occur during renovations or demolitions. Also, a member of the school staff, often a janitor, should be trained in handling asbestos hazards or emergencies including what to do if friable asbestos is exposed.
Mott says he takes this situation very seriously, recognizing that exposure to asbestos can cause serious diseases that affect the lungs, such as asbestosis, mesothelioma cancer, and other kinds of cancer as well. The EPA concurs.
“Asbestos in schools has the potential to harm the health of students, teachers and maintenance workers,” Jared Blumenfeld, EPA’s regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest. “EPA takes these violations seriously, and we are satisfied the schools have now conducted inspections and put their asbestos plans in place.”