A number of Western Washington University Students will not be able to return to their dorm rooms located at the school in Bellingham, Washington after Christmas Break due to flooding and the discovery of asbestos-containing materials. Students returning to the Gamma Hall dormitory will be faced with having to attempt to save some of their belongings from the flooding and relocating until emergency repairs can be completed.

Repairs to the building are expected to cost approximately $650,000. The high price has much to do with the discovery of the asbestos-containing materials in the building which was constructed in 1962. It wasn’t until the 1970’s that the use of asbestos in building supplies began to become regulated by the government when congress formed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Because the building has such extensive amounts of asbestos in the walls and sheetrock much of it will have to be demolished and rebuilt before students will be able to return to the dormitory.

Exposure to materials containing asbestos has been known to lead to a number of irreversible diseases which include asbestosis, mesothelioma, and lung cancer. Treatment options for those diagnosed with such diseases are often very limited due to their long latency period. In many cases such diseases are already in the advanced stages of development by the time the discovery is made.

The flood in the sixteen rooms of the dormitory is the result of a broken radiator pipe. University officials expect that the repairs to the building will be completed by the end of January 2009.

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