State officials alerted to school asbestos hazard

Our plain-English summary of State officials alerted to school asbestos hazard, by R.J. Smith (Science, 1979).

The study

• Author: R.J. Smith
• Journal: Science
• Published: 1979;204(4390):285
• Cited by: 1 article, as counted by NIH iCite
• Read it: PubMed · Publisher
• In J-M's library: Johns-Manville's company medical library held a copy (J-M no. 004683).

In plain English

This was a short news item in the Briefing section of Science, not a research study, and it reported no original data. The author described findings by officials and others about asbestos in buildings and hair dryers. Asbestos had been sprayed in thousands of school buildings between 1940 and 1973 as soundproofing, fireproofing or decoration. The Environmental Protection Agency formally alerted state health officials on 16 March. In New Jersey, 10 percent of schools were found to contain sprayed asbestos. Air levels there were said to approach those in homes of asbestos workers, though their significance was described as not immediately clear. A Mount Sinai scientist was quoted as saying a strong association between such exposure and higher cancer risk had not been shown so far. Air near sprayed stairwells in the Council on Environmental Quality building was reportedly 30 times the level then considered safe. A consulting firm's tests found that hand-held hair dryers often had asbestos linings that flaked into fibers. The item noted these tests did not conclusively prove the fibers could be inhaled or that the amount expelled posed an increased cancer risk.

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: News item (Briefing section of Science); not an original research study
• Who was studied: School buildings in the United States where asbestos had been sprayed between 1940 and 1973, including New Jersey schools. Other buildings were also named: a UCLA dormitory, the Yale School of Arts and Architecture, and the Council on Environmental Quality building in Washington. Also covered: hand-held hair dryers in household use, estimated at as many as 13 million.
• Exposure: Sprayed asbestos in buildings (soundproofing, fireproofing or decoration) flaking into the air, and asbestos linings in hand-held hair dryers. No fiber types were named.
• Main results:
  • In New Jersey, described as the most thorough search so far, 10 percent of schools were found to contain sprayed asbestos.
  • Ambient air levels in these schools were said to approach levels in homes of asbestos workers, but the significance was described as not immediately clear.
  • A scientist at Mt. Sinai medical school was quoted as saying a strong association between such exposure and a heightened risk of cancer had not been shown so far.
  • In the Council on Environmental Quality building (built in 1965), the asbestos level in the air near sprayed stairwells was reportedly 30 times the level then considered safe.
  • Tests by a consulting firm in Rockville, Maryland, found that common hand-held hair dryers often contained asbestos linings that flaked into tiny fibers. Federal authorities estimated as many as 13 million such dryers were in use, roughly half of the total.
  • The Consumer Product Safety Commission decided not to act on a petition by the Environmental Defense Fund to recall the dryers until further tests were done.
• The authors' conclusion: As a news item, the article drew no research conclusion of its own. It reported a Mt. Sinai scientist's view that a prudent approach would be to reduce the exposure, either by stripping or by sealing the asbestos.
• Limitations the authors state:
  • The hair dryer tests did not conclusively prove that the fibers were small enough to be inhaled or that the total amount expelled posed a risk of increased cancers.

Related studies

• Asbestos hazard evaluation in Rhode Island schools — G.A. Faich (1980)
• Asbestos contamination in United States schools from use of asbestos surfacing materials — W.J. Nicholson, E.J. Swoszowski, et al. (1979)
• State responsibility for the control of asbestos in the schools — L.P. Stavisky (1982)
• Environmental and occupational health hazards associated with the presence of asbestos in brake linings and pads (1900 to present): a "state-of-the-art" review — D.J. Paustenbach, B.L. Finley, et al. (2004)
• Erionite in road gravel associated with interstitial and pleural changes--an occupational hazard in western United States — P.H. Ryan, M. Dihle, et al. (2011)
• Government and Navy knowledge regarding health hazards of asbestos: a state of the science evaluation (1900 to 1970) — K. Franke, D. Paustenbach (2011)

Browse more research in Science, or return to medical research.