Air Samples At Downtown Binghamton Building Pass The Test
Demolition at the Ross Building in downtown Binghamton, NY is permitted to move forward after air quality monitoring at the site showed no indication of dangerous asbestos in the air. Link Environmental Services of Binghamton installed air quality meters at the demo site last week, said Vice President John Link.
According to Link, none of the six air monitors had identified harmful asbestos fibers in the air. The air collected inside each monitor is sent to a Binghamton laboratory at the end of each workday for testing.
Construction at the Ross Building began about a week ago. Prior to any demolition, warning signs indicating the possibility for asbestos at the site were posted in an effort to alert crews and neighboring businesses.
Ron Sall, Chairman of the Downtown Binghamton Business Association and owner for Sall-Stearns, a Binghamton retailer, said that he was pleased that no asbestos had been detected at the site.
Despite the promising test results, over 35 downtown Binghamton business owners have compiled a letter of concern to Binghamton Mayor Matthew Ryan, expressing the need for an “emergency economic assistance program” that would assist small downtown businesses in the event that a major street or block becomes closed to the public due to construction.
Tina Kuenzil, owner of a coffee shop on downtown State Street, claims that her business is down about sixty percent due to the closure of nearby streets and sidewalks.
Construction and demolition is about 75% complete, according to a spokesperson for Bianchi Industrial Services, a Syracuse-based construction company that is handling the structural work at the Ross Building. This week, rubble at the site will be removed, and work should be finished by July 18th.
Air monitoring will continue at the site until all work has ceased, according to officials. All asbestos that is removed from the building basement will be brought to the Broome County Landfill, encased in containers that will be disposed of in a specific site within the landfill.
Asbestos exposure has been linked to the development of pleural mesothelioma, a deadly cancer that has no known cure and a survival rate of less than 1%.
