NIU could receive funds for the removal of asbestos from the University Health Service building if the Illinois Board of Higher Education approves its capital budget.

Eddie Williams, vice president for finance and planning, said the budget includes funds for remodeling the health center, which might include the removal of asbestos.

Williams said if experts recommend the asbestos removal during the remodeling work, it will be done.

“We’ll go with whatever approach is best at the time,” he said. “We might go with total (asbestos) removal, or encapsulation.”

He said the budget has been approved by the Board of Regents, and the IBHE has it “high on its priority list.”

As a result of Contel workers removing ceiling panels containing asbestos last semester, all work done on the health center’s walls or panels now must be cleared with the university’s safety officer, Williams said.

“We want to see that (unauthorized work with asbestos) doesn’t happen again,” he said.

The university is continuing air level testing for asbestos in the health center.

The testing began in the summer of 1986, when the health center’s basement was inspected because of the need to expand classes to rooms in the basement, Health Center Director Rosemary Lane said.

The testing has not disturbed everyday work at the center, but the employees there “are concerned that the air levels remain within the required limits,” Lane said.

After the basement was inspected, the company hired by NIU “saw asbestos as a drawback for using the basement (as classroom space) there,” Lane said.

One classroom in the basement no longer is being used by the physical therapy staff because “you can visibly see asbestos on the ceiling,” Williams said.

Lane said physical therapy staff chose not to use the classroom because they “didn’t feel they should use the room with asbestos exposed to the air.”

Williams said the health center’s asbestos levels are tested about every six months and are “well under” Environmental Protection Association and Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards.

“We’ve placed the facility on a monitoring program to be sure there is no health hazard involved,” Williams said.

Asbestos originally was placed in the health center as a fire repellant on certain steel beams and pipes, he said.