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For Hospital Tumble, Best Seat's in House -- Airborne Asbestos, Lead Will Make Area Risky

Posted on: Saturday, 5 November 2005, 18:00 CST

By Tom Charlier charlier@commercialappealcom

They're enthralling to watch, but building implosions like the one slated Sunday for the old Baptist Memorial Hospital can spew noxious clouds of pollution that people with respiratory conditions should avoid, researchers say.

Local officials have established three viewing sites for the 6:45 a.m. event, each more than 1,500 feet - and probably upwind - from the hospital. In addition, demolition teams say they have removed dangerous asbestos and toxic materials from the building beforehand.

But recent studies from two other implosions of large buildings - one in Baltimore and the other in Calgary, Alberta - indicate the demolition this weekend will produce what researchers call a "severe but short-lived impact on community air quality."

The October 1998 destruction of Calgary General Hospital created a dense dust plume that drifted much farther than expected - more than 12 miles. And despite the removal of toxic material before the implosion, testing afterward detected airborne asbestos fibers and lead.

In Baltimore, the August 2000 implosion of a 22-story apartment building caused levels of airborne dust to rise 20-fold nearly seven- tenths of a mile downwind.

"We saw a huge effect on air quality," said Tim Buckley, an associate professor of environmental health science at Ohio State University who, in 2003, was senior author of a Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions study on the Baltimore implosion.

Dennis Stefani, air quality specialist in environmental health for the Calgary Health Region, said toxic materials are a major concern in implosions.

The intense forces they unleash can "aerosolize" and emit into the atmosphere lead and even non-friable asbestos - the kind that contractors aren't required to remove beforehand.

In Memphis, the 21-story, 960,000-square-foot hospital is being torn down to make way for the 1.3 million-square-foot University of Tennessee-Baptist Research Park.

The tower will come down with such force that earthquake researchers plan to monitor seismic waves transmitted into area sediments, said Arch Johnston, director of the Center for Earthquake Research and Information at the University of Memphis.

In such an event, a massive dust plume is inevitable, said Brent Blanchard, senior writer at Implosion World.com and an engineer in the industry.

"You're going to have a dust issue in Memphis ... no matter how the building is brought down," Blanchard said, adding that much of it should dissipate within 1,000 feet of the site.

The weather - particularly the wind - will be a major factor influencing the pollution.

National Weather Service meteorologist Jody Aaron said wind forecasts weren't available Thursday, but his "best guess" is a 5- 10 mph wind out of the southwest. That would put the viewing areas upwind from the hospital and in relative safety.

Chandler Demolition Co., the Memphis-based demolition contractor, has submitted a dust-control plan to the Health Department.

Bob Rogers, pollution-control manager with the department, said the plans indicate that crews will "start hitting it with water" immediately after the implosion. He said the department is satisfied with the precautions planned.

Ricky Chandler, president of the demolition firm, said that in addition to applying water, the company also will have street- sweeping and parking lot-sweeping equipment to remove dust.

"The dust is a given. It's how you control it and clean it up afterwards," Chandler said.

The firm also has worked with nearby building operators to shut down their heating, ventilation and air-conditioning units to seal out dust.

Nearly two hours before the implosion, Memphis police will cordon off a perimeter stretching from Jefferson to as far south as Vance and from Manassas to Camilla.

Chandler officials said that despite the larger size of the patient tower, the dust it emits might be comparable with the amount released in the May implosion of the much smaller physicians and surgeons building and interns residence. Those structures were older and involved more dust-producing material.

To minimize the amount of toxic material in the dust plume, Chandler removed 750 cubic yards of asbestos material, going "above and beyond" regulatory requirements, vice president David A. Chandler said.

Health Department technical specialist Diane Pierce, who made 15 to 20 inspections of the building, said all known asbestos- containing materials for which regulations require removal "have been taken care of."

Despite all the precautions, Buckley and Stefani say the pollution from implosions can be dangerous - especially to people with asthma and other respiratory problems.

The Baltimore study advised that citizens could best avoid risks "by staying away" from implosions.

"It's enticing to see these, but I think the remedy from a public health standpoint is to stay home and watch it on TV," Buckley said.

- Tom Charlier: 529-2572

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Live from the Medical Center

What: Implosion of the old Baptist Memorial Hospital

Where: WKNO-TV Channel 10

When: 6-7 a.m. Sunday

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Source: Commercial Appeal, The

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