Oct 2, 2008 6:31 am US/Eastern
Construction Site Shut Down Due To Asbestos
CATONSVILLE, Md. (WJZ) ―
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A Baltimore County construction site has been shut down over concerns that a possibly cancer-causing substance is in the air.
CBS
A Baltimore County construction site has been shut down over concerns that a possibly cancer-causing substance is in the air.
Mary Bubala reports neighbors living around the Catonsville construction site say they want to know if their health is in danger.
Asbestos dust has been blowing from a development site into nearby businesses and homes. Construction has stopped for now, while engineers and neighbors figure out the extent of the exposure to people and workers.
Construction on a senior housing complex in Catonsville has stopped, while the developer deals with asbestos. Rock crushing naturally occurring asbestos sent the harmful dust into nearby neighborhoods.
"You can't necessarily know if it's going to affect today. It might affect you 20 years from now, so we're just very worried," said Charles Yost.
Community members are speaking out. They're asking for the exposure to end and information on damage already done.
"We all sort of became very alarmed as to what does this mean to us personally and we still don't know. That's where we stand. We don't know," Yost said.
Wednesday night's meeting brings together all of the players to answer questions.
"When they start operating again, if there's no dust, it will be safe for neighbors," said Jonas Jacobson with the Baltimore County Health Department.
He says there are no other regulations for naturally occurring asbestos. So on its own, Enterprise Homes has hired a geotechnical engineer to confirm asbestos fibers are in the air. They stopped rock crushing on site, but what harm has already been done?
People who live on Copeland Road say the dust was coming in and out of their houses for three weeks in September. Parks and schools are also nearby.
"I'm not prepared at this point to say that the community should not be concerned, but I do think that what we'll try to do is understand exactly what the magnitude of the exposure is," said Dr. Cliff Mitchell with the Maryland Department of Health.
Enterprise has promised to monitor air quality for its workers and eventually to sample nearby homes for asbestos.
There's no timeline for that testing, but the developer--not the government--will make sure the air quality is OK.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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