MSES provides asbestos management services for thousands of school district clients throughout the State of California. We assist districts in assessing and managing asbestos in buildings during normal operation and in buildings undergoing renovation and demolition with services that include:

• Building Assessments: MSES building assessments of suspect asbestos-containing materials (ACMs) generally involve three phases: walkthrough inspection, collection and analysis of bulk building material samples, and development of a report on the assessment results. The walkthrough inspection includes a visual inspection of the building, particularly areas where materials suspected of having ACMs may be located.

  MSES assessment includes an evaluation of the location, quantity, condition, accessibility, and friability of such materials. If suspect ACMs are located, MSES staff collect bulk samples for analysis by laboratories which are accredited by the American Industrial Hygiene Association (AIHA) and the National Voluntary Laboratory Accreditation Program (NVLAP) of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). The MSES formal report includes assessment findings, results of laboratory analyses, and recommendations.

• Asbestos Abatement Monitoring: School districts undertake asbestos abatement because of renovation activities, demolition of a building, or the poor condition of ACMs. Asbestos removal activities must comply with USEPA, OSHA, state, and local regulations; and must be performed in a manner that protects building occupants from excessive exposure to asbestos fibers. MSES routinely provides third-party oversight to help clients comply with these regulations. We also develop specifications for asbestos abatement, perform air monitoring during abatement, and help measure occupant exposure to asbestos by conducting air monitoring before, during, and after removal.

• Operations and Maintenance (O&M) Programs: The presence of asbestos in a building and the resulting potential for occupant exposure does not necessarily mean that removal of the materials is the only course of action. Exposure potential can often be controlled with an effective O&M program. MSES has helped hundreds of building managers develop and implement O&M programs, helping them defer the high costs of asbestos removal. We design O&M programs to reduce the potential for exposure of building occupants and employees to ACMs left in place. The primary objective of such programs is to prevent the disturbance of these materials.

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