Pointe Claire cleaning up as best they can

BY RAFFY BOUDJIKANIAN

raffy.boudjikanian@transcontinental.ca

The City of Pointe Claire will be spending over $200,000 on two separate clean-up contracts in the next few months, and most of that is due to the presence of asbestos, according to Pointe Claire Mayor Bill McMurchie.

"We're cleaning a bathroom at Stewart Hall and you would wonder where the asbestos was in the wall of a bathroom," McMurchie said.

"It's asbestos fibre in the plaster," he said. Stewart Hall Building was constructed in 1916, when the health hazards posed by asbestos were not very well-known. However, McMurchie explained that the asbestos in the building posed no immediate danger, since it is not exposed to the public. Only those parts of the plaster that have to be changed will be removed.

"We have to be conscious of the fact that we're dealing with asbestos and that's a special contract," McMurchie said, explaining why the contract with N. Faucher construction company will come up to $106,280. Workers will be using specialized equipment to ensure they or the environment around them are not harmed by asbestos.

Pointe Claire's City Hall, meanwhile, will have two of its furnaces replaced, once more requiring the work of a company that specializes in dealing with asbestos to remove it from the area safely. That contract is for $98 100. C.I.I. Technologies did not return phone calls as of press time due to the Easter break.

Asbestos is a common name given to six different types of minerals including chrysotile, amosite and crocidolite. They were widely used in construction at the end of the 19th century and the dawn of the 20th due to their flame-retardant nature as well as tensile strength and resistance to electricity and chemical damage.

However the use of asbestos has become heavily regulated and sometimes banned outright since it was discovered inhalation of these minerals' fibres can lead to serious illnesses.