Students and teachers at Colorado’s Louisville Middle School can feel free to take a deep breath. Asbestos tests at the school have returned negative for asbestos, and the school will reopen this week.

Asbestos in the school could have had deadly repercussions, as it is well known that asbestos is the major cause of the rare cancer mesothelioma, an aggressive cancer that commonly attacks the soft tissues of the lungs.

Environmental health officials that studied the school have now declared that the asbestos found in an older section of the school is not harmful. The asbestos tests showed that asbestos was not present in levels detectable by the tests.

Principal Adam Fels notified parents Saturday that air samples taken last Friday showed no detectable level of asbestos.

The school was evacuated Friday afternoon when asbestos was found in an area of the building that is currently ongoing major renovations.

Students were forced to attend classes on Friday held in portable classrooms. The portable classrooms were on site because the school was using them to house students until the new Louisville Middle School was opened at the end of April.

“Homework and academic due dates are all being adjusted in recognition that students could not access their work over this weekend,” said Principal Fels in a letter posted on the school district’s Web site.

The source of the asbestos is still unclear. No students were present in the area of the asbestos release on Friday.

The issue of asbestos exposure in schools is a nationwide health and safety concern, as school districts are often without funding necessary to conduct asbestos abatement.

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