News Releases - 2003

Illinois EPA Asks Illinois Attorney General To Take Enforcement Action Over Asbestos-Contaminated Masonry Building Blocks

Springfield, Ill. -- The Illinois Environmental Protection Agency today requested that the Illinois Attorney General's Office take enforcement action against a Missouri firm that shipped exterior decorative masonry building blocks containing asbestos, that were recently discovered in an Illinois school.

The enforcement referral followed recent sampling results that confirmed that at least three of the blocks used in construction of a new athletics facility building at the Williamsville High School in Sangamon County contained chrysotile asbestos. A janitor at the school earlier this month observed foreign material in some of the split-faced exterior blocks."The manufacture of new asbestos-containing materials has been banned by federal law since 1989 and we want a complete investigation of how this material showed up in masonry building blocks and steps taken to address any contamination that has occurred," said Illinois EPA Director Renee Cipriano.

Illinois EPA and Illinois Department of Public Health inspectors supervised additional sampling after being notified by Williamsville school officials of the testing arranged by its environmental consulting firm of the suspect material, which tested positive for 40 percent chrysotile asbestos. Aggressive indoor air sampling and sampling of soil on the exterior of the building where the blocks were cut came up negative, indicating no immediate health hazard was found at the school other than the exposed asbestos in the blocks. The Williamsville School District has erected a fence restricting building access to the entrances that will remain in place until the contaminated blocks are remediated.

Appproximately 1,400 of the blocks were shipped from Kirchner Block & Brick Inc. of Bridgeton, Missouri for the Williamsville School project. The local distributor and masonry contractor indicated they were unaware of any asbestos materials in the blocks. It is unknown whether any more of the blocks used on the exterior wall contain asbestos.

The three split blocks sampled contained transite, a product of fibers and Portland Cement. Asbestos traditionally was used for the fibers for many thin cement products, such as pipe and wallboard, but has never been used as aggregate for cement blocks. One of the exposed pieces of transite had what appeared to be a protruding nail, indicating that demolition debris may have been used as a substitute for the aggregate materials. Asbestos-containing transite is not acceptable as an ingredient in construction materials.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources were notified by Illinois EPA and are investigating Kirschner's Missouri manufacturing activities.

"We want any shipment of these contaminated blocks into Illinois to stop immediately and a complete accounting of any that may have been used on projects in our state in the past and appropriate corrective action taken to prevent any potential health hazard, " Director Cipriano added.

Illinois EPA is concerned that potentially hazardous asbestos fibers could be released if blocks containing asbestos materials were cracked, split, drilled or cut.