February 16th, 2007

Part of the Oklahoma State University building has been exposed to asbestos recently, although classes are now expected to continue as scheduled. It was late in the week when the Math and Science building basement was found to be contaminated with asbestos, which is a known carcinogenic that can cause a disease called mesothelioma as well as a range of other health problems.

Gary Shutt, OSU director of communications stated: “The Environment Protection workers have contained the area and we will know more throughout the night. They will take the asbestos and monitor it overnight, and then from the asbestos take an air sample to see the asbestos level of contamination.”

The level of contamination will enable the university to decide what course of action to take in the long term, as this type of situation has arisen before. The basement of the building houses the computer servers and mainframes for the university.

“They are using fans to cool off the computers to help prevent any possible problems with the computers,” Shutt said. “The cool weather has allowed the workers to open doors and windows to help with the cooling of the computer equipment.”