Indiana is one of several states that relies on the Environmental Protection Agency to ensure that its schools protect children from asbestos.
In high doses, it can cause cancer and other diseases. But a new report of the internal supervision of the organization shows that the EPA is not prioritizing asbestos.
The EPA oversees most states, but conducted only 13 percent of all asbestos compliance inspections from 2011 to 2015. States responsible for their own asbestos monitoring did 87 percent. This means that states that do not do their own monitoring do not receive as many compliance inspections.
The Indiana EPA Region, Region 5, conducted even fewer inspections than the others. Hilda Canes Garduno is a project manager in the EPA Office of Inspector General. He says asbestos has not been banned in the US and is still a danger to children.
“It's entirely possible that newer or renovated schools contain asbestos-containing building materials,” he says.
Money for the asbestos program comes from a joint fund for the regulation of toxic chemicals. This past fiscal year, 90 percent of that fund went to programs they lead — leaving very little for the EPA to address issues like asbestos. Canes Garduno says every EPA region should be required to have an asbestos strategy.
“We're thinking about how, even with their very limited resources, they might still be able to conduct inspections,” he says. caution.”
Another troubling finding in the report was that half of EPA districts conduct asbestos compliance inspections of schools only when they receive a tip or complaint.
The Indiana Environmental Report is supported by the Environmental Resilience Institute, an Indiana University Grand Challenge project that develops Indiana-specific forecasts and informed responses to environmental change problems.
