Asbestos is an extremely dangerous mineral that has been used across industries for many decades. Although it’s now mostly banned, asbestos used in old buildings still exists. This asbestos is also extremely dangerous as the older asbestos gets, the more it breaks down. When it breaks down, the tiny fibers of asbestos can be inhaled and cause damage in the lungs. It’s very important for these old buildings to be properly torn down and have a certified asbestos abatement done on them.

    One of the old factories in the United States that contains asbestos is the former B.F Goodrich tire plant. The B.F Goodrich tire plant has been undergoing an abatement process headed by the Environmental Protection Agency to rid it of any asbestos and make it usable and safe again. Federal employee Mike McAteer has been the on-scene coordinator for the project, and reports that the asbestos abatement is going even better than expected.

    When asked about how the abatement was going, McAteer stated that, “We’re done with 12 of the 19 piles, so we’re just a little bit ahead of schedule. I’m expecting at the rate we’re going, we should have the piles done by the middle or the third week of August. I’ve been doing this for a long time, and it’s rarely that we ever get to say, ‘It’s going better than I thought it was going to.”

    The Environmental Protection Agency has been working hard to keep the asbestos abatement process going smoothly and quickly. The abatement crew has been working 10 hours a day, six days a week in order to get the asbestos moved out quickly.

    Safety in regards to asbestos removal is very important, so the workers have been completely suited up with hazmat suits and respirator masks. They also have been getting lucky in regards to the weather during this abatement. The weather has been extremely rainy, which leads to the workers not having to manually spray down the piles of asbestos fibers.

    Along with the hard work of the asbestos abatement crew and the lucky weather, McAteer says that there’s another factor that has led to the removal going so swiftly.

“A lot of times on these projects where you’re hauling material to a landfill, trucks are always the challenge You set up with trucking companies, and on certain days, they don’t provide enough trucks. On this job, we have two trucking companies that have kept up every day with the trucks that they’ve promised, which is really good. We don’t always get that. It’s kept us moving without any problems,” he said.

    Hopefully this project will continue to go as smoothly as it has been, and the B.F Goodrich Tire Plant will soon be removed of all of its asbestos.