Asbestos Work at Universal Sound Stages Is Investigated

State job safety and air quality officials are investigating allegations of illegal asbestos work at Universal City Studios, where film production crews say they have endured clouds of irritating dust during earthquake repairs to asbestos-containing buildings.

The investigations by the South Coast Air Quality Management District and state Division of Occupational Safety and Health stem from complaints about demolition of sound stage walls that in some cases contain asbestos insulation.

According to witnesses, studio officials for weeks after the Jan. 17 quake deployed construction workers with crowbars and sledgehammers to shatter the stucco walls, creating storms of plaster dust and allowing the crumbly insulation to escape the walls and tumble to the ground.

A spokeswoman for MCA Inc., Universal’s parent company, said the firm has taken “every precaution possible.” Spokeswoman Christine Hanson said, “In all places that we knew there was asbestos, we handled it properly.”

However, after weeks of growing distrust of company safety assurances, film crew members last week hired a private lab to test the insulation and learned it contained asbestos. The film workers, who spoke on the condition that they would not be identified, said they then called both Cal/OSHA, the state job safety agency, and the air district, which have since sent inspectors to the scene.

Film crew members--seven of whom provided The Times with detailed accounts--said they were furious because studio officials previously had issued notices on the location of asbestos, indicating that the company was aware of the asbestos in the sound stage walls.

Nonetheless, the workers contended, no precautions were taken to hold down dust or contain and dispose of the debris during weeks of smashing the walls.

Insulation containing asbestos was “cascading out of the walls, . . . and it was left in huge piles two feet high, and shoveled into open dumpsters,” one angry worker said. “This went on for six weeks.”

Among those raising concerns was actor Roy Scheider, star of the television show “seaQuest DSV,” which is filmed on several of the sound stages. “My fears were the same as the rest of the crew,” Scheider said in an interview.

Scheider, who spoke out at a meeting last Friday between studio officials and the “seaQuest” cast and crew, said company representatives told him they were “tripling (their) efforts to see that these sound stages are safe. . . . They don’t want anyone saying they don’t care.”

However, MCA officials said the company handled the situation correctly, and relied on the advice of asbestos consultants.

“We have located some asbestos, and each time that we find it we remove it and contain it,” Hanson said.

Spokesmen for Cal/OSHA--which regulates worker exposure to asbestos--and for the air district--which is concerned with asbestos releases to the general environment--said they are in the beginning stages of their inquiries.

“We’re looking into whether or not they’re complying with our rule that applies to asbestos demolition,” said air district spokesman Sam Atwood.

Officials said that if there were violations, the demolition contractor would share liability. Hanson said late Wednesday she did not know who the contractor was.

Widely used in insulation and other building materials, asbestos is safe when intact. But when pulverized or broken, it can release tiny lung-scarring fibers that have been linked to lung cancer and other ailments.

Although most asbestos disease sufferers were exposed for years, some people with limited exposure have also been stricken, prompting experts to say no level is safe to breathe.

The studio workers include employees of Universal and a production company involved in the “seaQuest” show. They say their asbestos worries grew soon after the Northridge quake, as Universal moved to inspect and shore up wooden timbers supporting the large, boxlike sound stage buildings where movies and television programs are filmed.

To expose the timbers, Universal brought in construction workers to smash the stucco walls. Film crew members said the operation, which lasted weeks and involved several sound stages, created enormous amounts of dust and debris that was herded into open dumpsters with brooms and shovels and skip-loaders.

“I would walk to work in a cloud of dust every morning, because they were out there scooping it off the streets,” said one member of the crew.

Dust previously had been an occasional nuisance in the sound stage buildings, but crew members said it became extreme as they attempted to work while construction workers bashed at the outer walls.

Some workers were hacking and coughing and found it hard to breathe. Several said the dust was so thick they saw it dancing in the lights that illuminate the sets.

But workers said that when they voiced concern to Universal’s safety office, as several said they did, they were told the dust was non-toxic.

However, last week a crew member scooped a sample of the insulation from one of the demolished walls and took it to a private asbestos laboratory. The lab report, provided to The Times, says the sample contained a moderate level of about 9% asbestos, but in a pulverized, or hazardous, condition.

Alarmed and angry, some crew members called the air district and Cal/OSHA, and even 911. “We all kind of feel like we’ve been lied to,” one said.

Hanson and Jim Watters, executive vice president of studio operations for Universal City Studios, said the company has done its best to contain asbestos under the “emergency circumstances” of shoring up quake-damaged buildings.

“We do not purport to have all the answers” about events of the last few weeks, Watters said. “I can’t tell you we haven’t made mistakes because I don’t know.”

Some film crew members recalled that MCA last fall issued notices on the location of asbestos materials--indicating it was present in some of the sound stage walls.

These advisories--required by a state asbestos notification law--admonished workers not to disturb the asbestos material, according to copies provided to The Times.

“Asbestos is a known human carcinogen,” the notices said. “As moving, drilling, boring, sanding or otherwise disturbing the identified asbestos-containing construction materials may cause exposure to airborne asbestos fibers and may present a health risk, no activities that may disturb asbestos shall be attempted by anyone who is not qualified and equipped to handle asbestos.”

Said one angry crew member: “The only thing they have been doing is sanding, boring, ripping, tearing and knocking this stuff down on 60 people that have been inside sound stages for 15, 16, 17 hours a day.

“Why were these people ripping these stages apart . . . when they had an asbestos policy, (and) they knew there was asbestos in the walls?” he asked.

Hanson said Wednesday the notices said asbestos was in fireproofing in the sound stage walls. When officials did not see fireproofing, but only ordinary blown-in insulation, they assumed it did not contain asbestos, she said.

Crew members on “seaQuest” said that on the night of March 2--hours after their telephone complaints to health and safety agencies--studio safety officials ordered them to evacuate a sound stage they were using and leave their equipment behind.

The next day, they said, that sound stage and neighboring areas were cordoned off while moon-suited asbestos workers cleaned them up. The film crew was told to use another sound stage, but members refused until provided written assurances the area was safe.

On Friday and again on Monday, MCA officials provided workers with test data showing very low levels of airborne asbestos in three of the sound stages. However, crew members said the tests were of little value, since they were taken without the heavy banging and foot traffic that stirred the dust to begin with.

“When they told us it was safe, it was not safe,” one said. “We’re not trusting these people anymore.”

The air district and Cal/OSHA administer separate rules governing repairs and demolition of asbestos-containing buildings.

However, both agencies require asbestos removal by registered asbestos contractors, rather than ordinary construction workers. The agencies also require that asbestos be gently wetted and stripped to avoid generating dust, and that asbestos material be promptly bagged, labeled and disposed only at a landfill licensed to accept it.

Both agencies also require advance notice of asbestos removal, so they can inspect the job if they choose.

Both Cal/OSHA and the air district were notified last week of the impending removal of asbestos roofing material above three of the sound stages. Agency officials said they received no other notifications of asbestos work at Universal since the earthquake.