Asbestos in New York City public school buildings--public policy: is there a scientific basis?

Our plain-English summary of Asbestos in New York City public school buildings--public policy: is there a scientific basis?, by R. Wilson, A.M. Langer, R.P. Nolan, et al (Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology, 1994).

The study

• Authors: R. Wilson, A.M. Langer, R.P. Nolan, J.B. Gee, M. Ross
• Journal: Regulatory Toxicology and Pharmacology
• Published: 1994;20(2):161-9
• Cited by: 6 articles, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher

Abstract

The most recent of New York City's asbestos emergencies occurred in the late summer of 1993. It prevented schools from opening that fall, precipitated much media excitement, and caused a flurry of widespread abatement activities. This resulted in large measure from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's subjective school building inspection policy concerning identification of asbestos hazards in buildings and the subsequent Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act mandate for inspection. Data on concentrations of asbestos in the air, important for the calculation of risk to building occupants, were not required and therefore not obtained, as part of the abatement strategy or priority setting. Based on fiber-in-air measurements obtained elsewhere, the calculated risk to NYC school children, using the most pessimistic models, was less than six excess cancer deaths per million lifetimes equivalent to smoking less than a dozen cigarettes in a lifetime. The NYC administration responded to pressure from parent groups concerned with perceived asbestos risks to their children by closing the schools. The hysteria occurred because much of EPA's policy lacked a scientific basis for risk evaluation and assessment.

In plain English

This policy commentary examined why New York City kept public schools closed over asbestos concerns in late summer 1993. The authors argued that federal Environmental Protection Agency inspection rules relied on visual inspection, and that the city's asbestos survey did not include air sampling, so their risk calculation drew on air measurements obtained elsewhere. Using a pessimistic model with no safe threshold, they calculated about six excess cancer deaths per million lifetimes for school children. They likened this to smoking about 15 cigarettes in a lifetime; the article's opening summary says fewer than a dozen. They stated that chrysotile, the type generally found in commercial buildings, rarely causes mesothelioma compared with crocidolite, so the real risk would be lower. They noted that removal has often raised airborne asbestos for some time, and that maintenance workers can face high dust exposures. The authors concluded that much of the agency's policy lacked a scientific basis for risk assessment. They said air sampling in the schools would have made their calculations more reliable.

We wrote this plain-English summary from the full article with the help of AI, and a second AI model checked each sentence against the article. It is not the authors' wording; the abstract and the article are their own account.

What the study did and found

• Design: Policy commentary and analysis, including a worst-case risk calculation; not an original study of exposed people
• Who was studied: New York City public school buildings and the children attending them, during the asbestos emergency of late summer 1993
• Exposure: Asbestos-containing materials in school buildings, mainly chrysotile, with crocidolite discussed for comparison. Risk was modeled as rising in direct proportion to dose with no threshold.
• Main results:
  • Hazard decisions in the schools were based on visual inspection, not air monitoring data.
  • The risk calculation for New York City school children was based on fiber-in-air measurements obtained elsewhere.
  • For New York City school children, under the most pessimistic model, the calculated risk was approximately six excess cancer deaths per million lifetimes.
  • The article body compared this risk to smoking about 15 cigarettes in a lifetime.
  • The article's opening summary instead compared it to smoking less than a dozen cigarettes in a lifetime.
  • The added risk for students staying in school for 1 year while air measurements of abatement were done was put at 1/13 of that, or 8% (less than one excess cancer death per million).
  • The authors described these risks as too small to measure and below the one-in-a-million level the EPA often regards as 'de minimis'.
  • The authors stated that chrysotile, as opposed to crocidolite, rarely causes mesothelioma, so the real risk is lower than the worst-case figure.
  • The authors stated that removal has often increased asbestos levels in building air for some time after abatement.
  • The authors noted that maintenance workers can be exposed to high concentrations of dust.
• The authors' conclusion: The authors concluded that the closures occurred because much of EPA's policy lacked a scientific basis for risk evaluation and assessment. They also said that asbestos-containing materials in good repair in school buildings are unlikely to meaningfully increase occupants' lifetime risks.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The New York City school asbestos survey did not include air sampling. The authors said such sampling would have improved the reliability of their risk calculations.

Topics

Medical terms in this study, explained in our Lexicon: Abatement.

Related studies

• Airborne asbestos levels in school buildings in Italy — A. Campopiano, S. Casciardi, et al. (2004)
• Radiological abnormalities and asbestos exposure among custodians of the New York City Board of Education — S.M. Levin, I.J. Selikoff (1991)
• Asbestos: scientific developments and implications for public policy — B.T. Mossman, J. Bignon, et al. (1990)
• Asbestos-related disease in custodial and building maintenance workers from a large municipal school district — J.R. Balmes, A. Daponte, et al. (1991)
• Asbestos-containing materials in New York City buildings — P. Lundy, M. Barer (1992)
• Exposure to Amosite-Containing Ceiling Boards in a Public School in Switzerland: A Case Study — D. Vernez, O. Duperrex, et al. (2019)

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