Asbestos dumping likely to affect another area

Jul 22, 2008 News

The asbestos currently being removed from the University of Guyana is being dumped in the pathway of the Mandela Avenue dumpsite in Georgetown.

President of the University of Guyana Students’ Society (UGSS), Jason Benjamin, has said that he discovered and confirmed on Sunday, last, at approximately 10:30hrs, the deadly substance (asbestos) being dumped at the site.
In a letter to Kaieteur News, he noted that some deposit workers appeared to be ignorant by allowing themselves to be part of the removal process with their bare hands and no face masks.
Benjamin stated that he enquired from the workers why the substance was being dumped there; they noted that their supervisor told them that the stuff was to ‘build the roadway’.
The President of the UGSS also stated that the asbestos materials were thrown out of plastic bags onto the roadway, sending particles into the air.
Benjamin said that he visited the campus on Sunday. “As we proceeded further into the campus, we noticed that the security staff (campus security) was not equipped with any sort of protective gear from the airborne carcinogenic substance, including those who were having lunch in their work area.”
According to Benjamin, some workers were also removing the asbestos in a manner that made it become airborne.
When contacted for a comment on the issue, Mayor of Georgetown, Hamilton Green, said that the asbestos should not be dumped, but that it should be buried, since it can severely affect residents in surrounding areas of the Mandela Avenue dump site.
Mayor Green, who is currently overseas, told this newspaper that, before he left Guyana, arrangements were to be made between the technical crew and the UG officials on how the substance should be disposed.
Mayor Green noted that there should be some level of coordination between the two parties for the disposal of asbestos, since it does not make sense to remove the problem from one place and then take it in another area.

Meanwhile, Benjamin stated that staff and students of UG have to dwell in the area, and if the contractors continue to work in an unsafe manner, the students and staff will be at risk.
He added that the UGSS executive body will indeed use the legal system as their fist to glory should any casualty encounter.

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