Coach Claims Asbestos Still Poses Health Hazard at IAB

Pointing to a fist-sized hole and several other smaller gashes in the insulation around pipes on the third floor of the Indoor Athletic Building (IAB). Harvard's fencing coach yesterday said that asbestos still has not been completely removed from the building.

Although a spokesman for the Environmental Health and Safety Office yesterday said that all necessary work on asbestos insulation at the IAB has already been completed. Fencing Coach Branimir Zivkovic claimed that users of the building may still face a serious health hazard.

Zivkovic added that besides the pipes in and around the fencing room, several other areas of the IAB including the basketball courts and storage rooms have uncorrected asbestos problems. The fencing team and wrestling team are the only varsity squads that use the IAB.

Asbestos, a common insulation material has been linked to cancer and several other fatal diseases, illness may occur when airborne fibers enter the lungs.

Louis J. DiBerardinis industrial hygienist in the Environmental Health and Safety Office, who is responsible for handling all reports about asbestos, said, however, that he inspected the building and didn't see any significant hazard unless there was some hidden room they didn't show me."

DiBerardinis said that he would take air

samples later this week in the fencing room, adding, "I'll bet that air samples will show that there is as much asbestos there as there is in Harvard Square."

Nevertheless, the fencing team continues to be concerned, Zivkovic said that several members of the team may stop coming to practice, explaining. "Parents have been calling to say they won't let their children practice here any more."

Team Captain Stephen Kaufer said that the Environmental Health and Safety Office "is ignoring all the small cracks in the insulation that appear all over the room. If they say they've finished the work," he added, "I suggest they double-check."

Zivkovic said that he requested as early as September 14 that the University take some action, adding that since he "received no satisfaction" he had an independent lab analyze samples two weeks ago of the insulation from the team's practice room.

The lab determined that the insulation contained 70 percent asbestos and could pose a potential health hazard, Zivkovic added.

John Lee, coach of the wrestling team, however, was less concerned about his team's safety in the IAB.

"As far as I'm concerned everything is fine," he said, adding that he had "no desire to invoke out of the building since I don't know where we would go."

In the past year asbestos has been removed from at least seven buildings at Harvard as fear about the dangers of the insulation has received much publicity.

Other buildings where asbestos has been removed or sealed off in the past year include William James Hall, Mallinckrodt and Contant Laboratories, the Law School's Harkness Commons, several of the undergraduate Houses and Larsen Hall at Radcliffe Yard