Clean-Up Project Results In Asbestos Risks -- MesoLink.org -- 12-16-05

A clean-up project that was being conducted at the University of Hawaii-Manoa campus has resulted in asbestos waste and other potentially hazardous materials being dumped in trash bins around the building, according to officials. The director of the University's Environmental Health and Safety office, Roy Takekawa, stated that an outside firm had been employed to remove the dumped waste as well as to check for further asbestos in the building.

The clean-up project at the site had been underway since the first week of November, with student members of the Board of Publications going in on Sundays in order to conduct the clear up in the press building on the site. Scrap metals, paints, inks, and a range of other materials were disposed of from the building in order to create more room.

Material removed from the building was loaded into a van in order to be deposited in trash bins around the campus due to the nearest bins being filled already, stated a spokesperson. However, after a white, powder-like substance was discovered in the van, the UH Environmental Safety Office was called in to investigate.

Takekawa stated: "It's not like lab chemical waste. In this day and age, you just can't take an old can of paint and throw it in the dumpster."