Courtrooms Closed After Asbestos Found : Environment: The known carcinogen may have contaminated facilities leased from hotel for two weeks before its detection.

Health officials Monday temporarily closed nine courtrooms leased by San Diego County at a downtown hotel after asbestos was found in the rooms.

Although the contamination may have occurred as early as two weeks ago, county health officials ordered the courtrooms in the Hotel San Diego closed over the weekend, after an environmental test revealed asbestos in the carpeting and on other surfaces. The rooms house two Municipal and seven Superior courts.

On Monday, county officials said they were uncertain how many court employees, jurors, witnesses, attorneys, law enforcement officers and members of the public may have been exposed to asbestos, a known carcinogen.

The asbestos was released into the courtrooms after a judge in Room H-7 ordered the ceiling repaired because part of it had fallen to the floor. The asbestos then was tracked into other rooms, probably by a vacuum cleaner, according to a hotel spokesman.

County spokesman Robert Lerner said the delay occurred because court employees failed to recognize the asbestos for what it was. According to Lerner, it was a week after the contamination occurred before anybody began asking questions about the white dust found on the carpet and other surfaces.

Then it took several more days before the dust was reported to the county as possible asbestos contamination, Lerner said. The testing for asbestos was done over the weekend by a private firm hired by the hotel.

“Hotel workers improperly dislodged asbestos-containing materials, but the incident was not immediately reported,” a county statement said Monday.

Attorney Stephen Burchett, who represents Western Sun Hotels-Hotel San Diego Ltd., owner of the hotel, said Monday evening that the contamination occurred Aug. 13.

Burchett said the contamination was limited to the courtrooms, and that guest rooms were not affected. However, he said the hotel owners have ordered additional tests on the guest rooms, and the results will not be known until later this week.

“We did what the judge told us to do. We took down the material, and it later turned out to be asbestos,” Burchett said.

A statement released Monday by county officials said the contamination occurred Aug. 15, two days later than when Burchett said it happened. According to the county statement, people who were in courtrooms H-7 and H-6 on that day “had a brief elevated exposure.” Otherwise, the exposure was “minimal.”

Ed Lehman, business agent for the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Local 3500, criticized county officials for waiting two weeks before taking action. Lehman and Local 3500, which represents Superior Court employees, have been battling county officials for two years over asbestos contamination at the downtown County Courthouse, on Broadway across the street from the Hotel San Diego.

“Sometimes a brief elevated exposure to asbestos is all it takes to contract cancer,” Lehman said. “We’ve been trying to get the attention of the Board of Supervisors about health and safety at the courthouse. . . . I guess that we now have to expand this issue to include the Hotel San Diego.”

According to Burchett, the asbestos was spread to the other courtrooms by either the air-conditioning system, foot traffic or the vacuum cleaner used by county custodians to clean the courtrooms. The air conditioner that services Courtroom H-7 only services the ground floor, including the lobby, and the basement, Burchett said.

Courtrooms H-7 and H-6 are on the hotel’s ground floor, and the other courtrooms are housed in the hotel’s basement, mezzanine and floors 2, 4 and 5. County officials said the asbestos was found in the carpeting and other surfaces in all the courtrooms.

Burchett said that an engineering firm hired by the hotel over the weekend to test air samples suggested that most of the asbestos was tracked from one courtroom to another by a vacuum cleaner used by county maintenance workers.

“The vacuum cleaner used to clean H-7 is also used to clean the other courtrooms,” Burchett said. “That vacuum cleaner is not used to clean the guest rooms. That’s probably the culprit.”

He said asbestos was found in 14 of the 18 air samples tested over the weekend.

County officials said the owners of the hotel are responsible for cleaning up the asbestos. The cleanup presents another financial burden to Western Sun Hotels, which is now in bankruptcy, Burchett said.

Lerner said it will take as long as two weeks for the cleanup to be completed. Burchett said the carpeting will have to be removed from at least one courtroom.

The county leases the hotel rooms to alleviate crowding in the main courthouse.

In the meantime, trials and hearings were transferred across the street to the County Courthouse. Court administrators said there are enough empty courtrooms now available because several judges are on vacation.