SPRINGFIELD—NIU’s Health Center will move somewhere in May so asbestos can be removed from the building before the carcinogen exceeds allowable standards.

However, the center’s location will be decided later. Rising airborne asbestos levels were detected since monitoring began in 1988, NIU President John La Tourette told the Board of Regents Wednesday.

“Within a year, it is likely that asbestos levels will exceed healthy levels,” La Tourette said.

La Tourette declined to talk about the sites being considered, but did say that off-campus sites are being looked at.

Rosemary Lane, University Health Services director, said the walk-in clinic might remain on campus, but other services, such as X-ray, might not.

About 100 faculty and staff from the health center, hearing impaired services, disabled student services and physical therapy laboratory will be relocated in late May for one year.

“Air samples reveal airborne asbestos levels below the danger point set by Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the state of Illinois,” Eddie Williams, NIU Finance and Planning vice president, said Friday.

However, La Tourette said because the situation is expected to get worse, “it is prudent to move while students are gone for the summer.”

Although the health services building does not contain the worst type of asbestos, the contaminated air could eventually cause cancer, Lane said.

Lane, a medical doctor, said the health center was fireproofed years ago with a type of asbestos called chrysotile.

Chrysotile “is shaped like corkscrews and (is) easier to cough out of the lungs, throat and nose,” she said.

In contrast, minute pieces of more dangerous types of asbestos are barb-shaped and become permanently lodged in the respiratory tract, causing cancer easier, Lane said.

The Illinois Board of Higher Education’s Fiscal Year 1991 budget approved the $3.8 million remodeling cost for the building.

This was not included in Gov. James Thompson’s recommended budget in March, but NIU and board officials contacted the governor and state representatives about the project’s urgency, Williams said.

“Hopefully the governor and legislature will restore this project to a high level of priority, La Tourette said.

The board governs NIU, Illinois State University at Normal and Sangamon State University in Springfield.