Asbestos News

Parents of children at Carmi White County High School in Carmi, Illinois, are concerned that removing asbestos while school is in session could be dangerous for their children, reports WFIE.com, a local NBC affiliate.

According to the news source, a letter was sent out to parents in March explaining that asbestos removal was taking place at the school. School officials have said that though the abatement project will be carried out while school is in session, air quality will not suffer as a result.

Jeffry Faust of Environmental Consultants, an agency hired to supervise contractors, agreed that removing asbestos on school property during the school year is relatively common.

"The work takes place inside what we call negative pressure, HEPA filtered containments, so that all of the air is controlled," he said. "That's done within plastic side containers. In addition there is actual construction barriers. So a student couldn't walk up to a plastic side containment; all that is done behind ply wood barriers."

Students and staff members who inhale dangerous asbestos fibers can potentially develop a range of serious illnesses in the future including lung cancer, malignant mesothelioma and asbestosis.