Put the words "
asbestos" and "school" together in a newspaper, and things will happen. The (knee-jerk) (prudent) course of action is to isolate the area until a professional can inspect, test, and report.
Air-borne
asbestos fibers are a hazard; undisturbed
asbestos may be a hazard. Until a qualified individual makes this judgment for this particular situation, the magnitude of the problem cannot be determined and evaluated, certainly not in this forum.
The handling of
asbestos and asbestos-containing material falls under US National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) regulations (40 Code of Federal Regulations [CFR] 61) and may be augmented by state regulations. Handling
asbestos in schools may have additional special requirements (see below). The disposal of
asbestos and
asbestos material is regulated under US solid waste regulations (40 CFR 239 – 258) and state solid waste regulations.
Asbestos is not a "hazardous waste" as defined by the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) regulations (40 CFR 260 – 299), however, a landfill must have a special license to dispose of the material.
The
Asbestos Hazard Emergency Response Act (AHERA), a provision of the Toxic Substances Control Act, requires local educational agencies to inspect their schools for asbestos-containing building material and prepare management plans that make recommendations for the reduction of
asbestos hazards (40 CFR 763).
Another consideration is that many environmental regulations have lower quantity limits to which the regulations do not apply, or for which a different set of regulations apply. This is often a matter of the ability to enforce regulations or have a workable set of regulations that can be enforced for a given enforcement budget, rather than a real difference in
safety, risk, or hazard. (For example, if one were to try to dispose of a drum of
acetone, the RCRA hazardous waste regulations would have to be followed. However, an old
bottle of acetone-containing
nail polish can be tossed into the trash by a thousand different people.) The
asbestos removal and disposal regulations, both state and federal, may have such minimum values. Again, this must be determined by a qualified professional.
As pointed out by others, this is a school issue. Regardless of liability issues, there are also bidding and contractual rules that will need to be followed. This may not be a "theater department" budget item, but rather a "school property" or "Building project" or "renovation" type budget item that must be scoped, specified, and bid.
Wrapping the
insulation would not be a good idea because of all of the dust/fibers that will get put into the air as you disturb the
wire while trying to wrap it.
You should be able to find more comprehensive information here:
USEPA
http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/asbestos/
http://www.epa.gov/opptintr/asbestos/pubs/asbestos_in_schools.html
(I've been having a little trouble with the internal links)
http://www.epa.gov/compliance/resources/newsletters/civil/enfalert/aheraalert0721.pdf
http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/asbestos.html
http://www.epa.gov/iaq/asbestos.html
OSHA
http://www.osha.gov/SLTC/asbestos/index.html
Joe