2008 Woodie Awards
Asbestos closes Hartman Theatre
Benjamin Pomerance
Issue date: 9/28/07 Section: News
Originally published: 9/27/07 at 6:45 PM EST
Last update: 9/27/07 at 6:44 PM EST
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Danger. Cancer. Lung disease hazard.
The words on the signs blanketing the perimeter of Plattsburgh State's Hartman Theatre sound like a pronouncement of doom.
Yet PSUC Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Director Keith Tait wants students and faculty to realize the situation is not as perilous as the messages imply.
"Yes - asbestos was found in Hartman Theatre," Tait said. "And yes, there is currently an important process taking place there to remove the asbestos from that facility. But unless students are sneaking into the theater through the locked doors and walking around, nobody has anything to worry about."
The quantity of asbestos, a mineral whose fibers have been clinically linked to several potentially fatal lung diseases, that was discovered in Hartman Theatre was much too low to pose a serious health threat, Tait said.
"The concentration of fibers that were detected through the tests was less than 0.01 fibers per cubic centimeter of space," Tait explained. "To put this in comparison, the Permissible Exposure Limit (the scientifically proven amount of a hazardous substance a person can be exposed to without the potential of health problems) for asbestos is 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter. All signs point to this incident having no effect whatsoever on anyone's health, even on people who were working in this theater every day."
Concern about asbestos in Hartman Theatre began when PSUC's Theatre Department staff participated in an asbestos awareness training session during the summer of 2006. Within weeks after the clinic, people began questioning the likely presence of asbestos in the theater's fire curtain.
For Tait, the discovery was no surprise.
"You have to realize this is an older campus," Tait said. "We haven't had a major new building constructed here since I was a student here in the '70s. When these buildings were being built, people didn't know about the health risks of asbestos. It was the best fireproofing material available. The fact that it was used in a theater's fire curtain makes perfect sense."
The words on the signs blanketing the perimeter of Plattsburgh State's Hartman Theatre sound like a pronouncement of doom.
Yet PSUC Environmental, Health and Safety (EHS) Director Keith Tait wants students and faculty to realize the situation is not as perilous as the messages imply.
"Yes - asbestos was found in Hartman Theatre," Tait said. "And yes, there is currently an important process taking place there to remove the asbestos from that facility. But unless students are sneaking into the theater through the locked doors and walking around, nobody has anything to worry about."
The quantity of asbestos, a mineral whose fibers have been clinically linked to several potentially fatal lung diseases, that was discovered in Hartman Theatre was much too low to pose a serious health threat, Tait said.
"The concentration of fibers that were detected through the tests was less than 0.01 fibers per cubic centimeter of space," Tait explained. "To put this in comparison, the Permissible Exposure Limit (the scientifically proven amount of a hazardous substance a person can be exposed to without the potential of health problems) for asbestos is 0.1 fibers per cubic centimeter. All signs point to this incident having no effect whatsoever on anyone's health, even on people who were working in this theater every day."
Concern about asbestos in Hartman Theatre began when PSUC's Theatre Department staff participated in an asbestos awareness training session during the summer of 2006. Within weeks after the clinic, people began questioning the likely presence of asbestos in the theater's fire curtain.
For Tait, the discovery was no surprise.
"You have to realize this is an older campus," Tait said. "We haven't had a major new building constructed here since I was a student here in the '70s. When these buildings were being built, people didn't know about the health risks of asbestos. It was the best fireproofing material available. The fact that it was used in a theater's fire curtain makes perfect sense."
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