Bill to Remove Asbestos From Schools Sent to Reagan

The Senate on Friday passed legislation mandating a stepped-up campaign to rid the nation’s schools of cancer-causing asbestos and sent the bill to President Reagan.

The measure, approved on a voice vote, would require the Environmental Protection Agency to issue regulations directing states and school districts to act against asbestos in an estimated 30,000 schools attended by about 15 million children.

The bill is a congressional response to the EPA’s much-criticized current asbestos program, which does not require removal but only that schools be inspected and that the community be alerted to the presence of asbestos.

The legislation would give the EPA a year to prescribe proper school inspection procedures, spell out when asbestos must be removed and set standards for its safe transportation and disposition.

Responding to an EPA estimate that as much as 75% of the removal work so far has been shoddy and unsafe, the bill would require the agency to establish training and accreditation for contractors and would mandate that school districts employ only certified workers.

The legislation would also direct the EPA to do a year’s study of asbestos problems in an estimated 700,000 public and commercial buildings around the country and to tell Congress whether the school regulations should be applied to those structures.