Recently during a renovation project at the Abilene Public Library located in Abilene, Kansas the question of the presence of asbestos was raised and now city commissioners are having the building assessed by a Manhattan consulting group. HWS will be putting together a report for the commission in the near future. The firm is said to be approved for this type of work by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.

City manager Allen Dinkel has stated that after hearing from the sub-contractor that asbestos may be present in the building he expressed his own concerns to Hans Fischer who is the architect working on the project but was told that it was not Hans Fischer’s responsibility to look into such matters.

Asbestos was used in a variety of building materials during the early twentieth century. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that the dangerousness of the substance was realized. Upon the creation of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration asbestos began to become regulated in order to ensure safe practices when dealing with the toxic substance.

Exposure to asbestos has been known to result in the development of a number of fatal diseases including mesothelioma, asbestosis, and lung cancer.

Dinkel has stated that the renovation project has not yet been interfered with but that the project does have a limited amount of funds because asbestos was not an issue when the job was bid on. The original bid for the renovation was $1.74 million.

According to Dinkel, though, there is a contingency fund that was set up for situations such as this. The commission will know more upon receiving the report.

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