Mesothelioma alert: Carcinogenic asbestos to be removed from two NYS schools

In Dunkirk, New York, two area schools will soon be getting some much needed upgrades and improvements. According to Dunkirk City School District Superintendent Gary Cerne, the district plans to be well under budget for these needed projects at the middle school and high school.

"The current building project, it looks like with the bids coming in low, about $800,000 under. We might be about $1 million under budget which is huge on a project that’s just over $7 million," Cerne explained.

"So we talked about prioritizing several things at the middle school that need to be done up above the gym, which is actually some windows to science rooms. The mortar is just falling out and it’s something that should have been done years ago," he said, adding that work on the middle school gym also needs work.

"We want to shift the court over to one side so that way we have room for bleachers on the other. Right now we have portable bleachers we use but when the people in the first row sit there their feet are on the court," Cerne said.

"The third thing was some asbestos in some old tile that will be taken care of. Mostly [at the] middle school," he added. Asbestos removal is a key way that schools can protect the health of their students. Asbestos exposure is conclusively linked to the development of mesothelioma, a rare form of cancer. Mesothelioma affects less than 3,000 Americans each year, and while there are palliative treatment methods available, including chemo, there is no known cure. Asbestos exposure can also cause many other respiratory problems.

.

This entry was posted on Monday, January 25th, 2010 at 4:12 pm and is filed under New York, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.