Asbestos Exposure at Gateway Arch Closes Museum

An asbestos exposure mishap at the Gateway Arch in St. Louis not only delayed a renovation project at an estimated cost of $350,000, but it also exposed park service employees and others to the cancer-causing mineral. And now there’s uncertainty as to who’s responsible for covering the cost of removing asbestos from the iconic U.S. landmark. After a month-long standstill in response asbestos exposure at the Museum of Westward Expansion, the Gateway Arch’s underground museum, major improvement work resumed Dec. 15. Breathing the microscopic asbestos fibers is known to cause the deadly cancer known as mesothelioma. Workers Initially Unaware of Asbestos Exposure at Gateway Arch Last November, workers with contractor McCarthy Building Companies cut into asbestos insulation around an old steam pipe at the museum. Park officials responded by evacuating the area and halting renovations. According to Kathy Schneider, project manager for the National Parks Service, the delay would normally last only a few days while the area was sealed and the pipe removed. In this case, McCarthy workers determined they severed the same pipe a month earlier, not realizing deadly asbestos had contaminated the area. “The fact that it wasn’t discovered for a month meant the whole site was contaminated,” Schneider said. Guests Were Not Exposed to Asbestos During that month, an estimated 50 park service employees — and perhaps 100 designers and guests — enter...
Source: Asbestos and Mesothelioma News - Category: Environmental Health Authors: Tags: Asbestos Exposure & Bans Source Type: news