GAO's Review of Federal Efforts To Reduce Asbestos Hazards in Schools

GAO discussed federal efforts to reduce asbestos hazards in schools and the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) efforts to address the potential health risk of asbestos-containing materials in schools built or renovated between 1946 and 1972. GAO previously reported that the lack of definite federal criteria has resulted in states and localities using different criteria in arriving at the cleanup decisions. Until EPA develops more specific criteria about when asbestos poses a serious problem requiring abatement actions, school officials may continue to overreact and spend money needlessly or underreact and expose school occupants to hazardous conditions. EPA conducted research on the asbestos issue to to validate a quantitative measure for assessing asbestos exposure and to issue guidance based on this measure. GAO noted, however, that the measure has been shown to be an unreliable indicator of asbestos exposure. GAO concluded that the decision as to whether the presence of these hazardous materials presents a significant risk in individual schools will continue to be a highly subjective decision for local school districts.