Okaloosa County, Florida - asbestos was recently discovered by surveyors during the renovation of the County Commissioner chamber in the Okaloosa County, Florida courthouse.

The renovation is being carried out to expand the commission chamber and allow more people to attend meetings. A survey for harmful materials was completed before renovations began, according to Okaloosa County facility maintenance director Donald Turner.

However, while most samples came back negative, a few showed that asbestos is present in the courthouse. Most of the asbestos is located in floor tiles in the building. Turner says that the courthouse is safe for visitors and employees as long as the asbestos is not disturbed.

Inhalation f asbestos is the sole cause of two lethal diseases: asbestosis and mesothelioma. The former is a chronic lung disease that causes pain and difficulty breathing for its victims. Mesothelioma, a type of asbestos cancer, is a highly aggressive disease that is not responsive to current treatments.

Current asbestos legislation requires that in most states, an asbestos survey must be carried out before a public building or commercial can be renovated or demolished. This is necessary because asbestos must be removed from a building before these activities can be carried out. Renovations or demolition of a building where asbestos is present can potentially lead to the release of large quantities of airborne fibers, posing a significant health risk to people in the area.

The Okaloosa County Courthouse was built in 1955, and is therefore of an age to have been built using asbestos-containing materials. The peak period of asbestos use in America was between the 1940s and 1980s. In these decades the substance was added to some three thousand products, including many different types of construction materials.

While asbestos was cheap to use at the time, the true cost is now being seen in the poor health of people who worked with asbestos last century, and in the greatly increased cost of renovations and demolition due to the necessity of removing asbestos prior to such activities.

The County Commission has allocated some $40,000 for the removal of the asbestos from the courthouse commission chambers. Asbestos was actually discovered in other locations in the building as well as in the commission chambers, but it will only be removed from the commission chambers. In most cases, asbestos can safely be left where it is, as the only danger is when fibers are disturbed and become airborne.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008 at 4:53 pm and is filed under Asbestos Exposure, Florida, Jobsite Exposure. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS feed. Responses are currently closed, but you trackback from your own site.