Boston Globe: DA cites asbestos in seeking relocation

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THIS STORY HAS BEEN FORMATTED FOR EASY PRINTING

DA cites asbestos in seeking relocation

By Saltzman, Globe Staff  |  December 10, 2004

Middlesex District Attorney Martha Coakley said yesterday she wants the state

to move all her employees out of the Middlesex County courthouse in Cambridge

as quickly as possible amid growing alarm over asbestos in the 22-story

building.

Speaking the day after an occupational health specialist toured the

30-year-old building and found what she called potentially hazardous asbestos in

numerous locations, Coakley said she will ask state officials, probably early

next

week, to relocate her 70 to 80 employees.

Coakley, who oversees 230 employees countywide but has her headquarters at

the courthouse, said she has no idea where the state would move the workers. But

she wants them out.

''I'm not going to play Russian roulette with employees' health and safety, "

she said in an interview.

State officials first raised concerns about asbestos used for fireproofing of

the courthouse when the building was under construction in 1969. But the

asbestos has touched off concerns in recent months because the state is

preparing

to remove the carcinogenic substance from the building's elevator shafts as

part of a $14.3 million renovation project scheduled to start next spring.

The state plans to remove the asbestos as employees, who number in the

hundreds, continue to work in the building.

B. Perini, the head of the state division that oversees government

properties, and A. Mulligan, the trial court's chief justice for

administration and management, declined to comment on Coakley's desire to move.

But they issued a joint statement yesterday saying that tests conducted by

the state in October showed no problems with airborne asbestos at the

courthouse.

''The health and safety of the occupants and users of the building are the

number one priority, " the statement said. ''We would not be proceeding with the

project if we thought that it would risk the health and safety of the building

occupants and those who visit the building. "

Dr. L. Oliver, a Brookline specialist in occupational and

environmental medicine hired by a pro-bono lawyer representing some employees in

the

building, toured the courthouse for five hours Wednesday and concluded that

asbestos should be removed throughout the building and that all workers need to

be

relocated.

Oliver, who has testified before Congress on the dangers of asbestos in the

workplace, said she saw loose asbestos, sometimes falling in clumps, in

elevator shafts and in machine rooms above them. She saw flaking asbestos

elsewhere

in the building, she said, including on structural beams above drop ceilings

that maintenance workers sometimes remove to change light bulbs and run

electrical wires.

Though Oliver said that most longtime occupants of the building have probably

been exposed to ''very low levels " of airborne asbestos, maintenance workers

and other trades people were probably exposed to higher levels if they lifted

ceiling panels.

Asbestos, a known carcinogen, is potentially dangerous when it is exposed and

friable -- that is, crumbling or flaking -- and can enter the air as dust.

In 1989, the state tested the air at the courthouse after three employees --

two of them maintenance workers -- died of cancer within two months. The

results of those tests could not be determined yesterday.

Oliver toured the building at the request of A. Milne, who has

volunteered to investigate asbestos problems on behalf of the Massachusetts Bar

Association, the Massachusetts Academy of Trial Attorneys, and the Middlesex Bar

Association. Coakley, Superior Court Clerk J. Sullivan, and District

Court

Clerk L. Moscow back the effort.

The building houses about 130 Superior Court employees, 80 district court

employees, and at least 150 employees at the Cambridge Jail, which houses 320

prisoners. In addition, Milne said, about 200 people visit the building every

day

for jury duty.

In 2002, Milne filed a suit on behalf of 58 employees of the Norfolk County

Probate and Family Court who had complained of problems at the 100-year-old

courthouse in Dedham, including inadequate ventilation, overcrowding, security

concerns, and other health and safety hazards. As a result, the state moved the

workers to a new courthouse, nearly triple the size, in Canton.

In the matter of the Cambridge courthouse, Milne reviewed some 3,500 pages of

documents that he obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. A

sample that he provided the Globe indicated that asbestos has long been a

concern.

An inspector from the state Department of Labor and Industries in 1969 said

that a fireproofing subcontractor was spraying asbestos on the exposed steel

structure and that the wind was blowing it onto other workers.

In 1992, officials from the same department inspected the courthouse and

wrote that ''structural asbestos is found throughout the building. " However, the

officials wrote that no one had come up with procedures for handling loose

asbestos, as the department had ordered in a 1989 report.

In 2000, the documents show, Barbara A. Dortch-Okara, Mulligan's predecessor

as chief justice for administration and management, wrote Perini to say that

state-hired consultants had determined that asbestos in the building might pose

a hazard to employees.

Dortch-Okara requested that Perini, who heads the state Division of Capital

Asset Management, ''begin an immediate and thorough investigation of the

asbestos problems at the East Cambridge Courthouse, not only in the elevator

areas,

but in all areas of the building where the asbestos-containing fire retardant

was used. "

But nothing was ever done, Milne said.

As part of the project to remove asbestos from the elevator shafts, Milne

said, the state recently began dismantling cooling towers that contained

asbestos

atop the building. As part of the work, the contractor wanted to tear a hole

in a ceiling of the jail, which occupies the top four floors. But Sheriff

V. DiPaola, who oversees the jail, refused to let him, citing safety

concerns.

In their joint statement, Perini and Mulligan said they have worked closely

with state public health and environmental protection departments, among

others, to make sure asbestos in the elevator shafts is removed safely. They

said

further that the state took 166 air samples in the building in October. Only

three tests in two locations indicated any asbestos fibers, and all three met

the

most conservative federal standards.

However, Milne said the tests were a largely meaningless snapshot. ''A

representative test would be to lift up a ceiling tile, run some wires over the

ceiling tiles, which has happened at the courthouse over the years, bump into

the

asbestos, which is falling off the beams, and measure that, " he said.

Saltzman can be reached at jsaltzman@... <IMG

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