No significant health risks to students from TOSH construction, says P.E.I.'s Public Health Office

P.E.I.'s Chief Public Health Office has concluded there were no significant health risks to students during the renovations at Three Oaks Senior High School. 

The office's independent review was brought about because of concerns from parents and the release of air quality tests from March of 2017.

Those tests revealed air quality at the school did not always meet recommended guidelines, and one day there were high asbestos readings.

In its review, Public Health took the symptoms that were reported to them from parents. They compared that with other studies and looked at the construction processes that were carried out — including when and where they occurred in the school and the procedures that were followed. 

"What we need to do is look at each particular material one at a time because there was a concern about lead exposure, there was another about asbestos and another one about dust," said Dr. David Sabapathy, deputy chief public health officer. 

"When we look at each one of those we have to determine, was there any exposure to students and for how long, how many students were exposed and then to determine from that is there a health risk related to that."

Sabapathy says there were no significant health risks found when looking at hazardous materials — in this case asbestos and lead. 

When you have elevated levels over a short period of time, if someone has an underlying health condition like asthma, it can make their symptoms temporarily worse.— Dr. David Sabapathy

"The processes that are in place from the contractor are adequate to protect both workers and students," Sabapathy said.

"Now there was a break down in those processes and I think that is what caused that concern."

Sabapathy said the review looked at the instances where the protective processes broke down.

"So we looked in a lot of detail at those and for those particular events," he said. 

"They were time-limited but they were also areas where students were not close to those materials so they would not have that exposure, so that's how we draw those conclusions." 

When it came to dust, Sabapathy said the first thing that needed to be determined was if that dust could have contained hazardous materials.

"Hazardous materials were not being handled at the time when those elevated levels of dust were found and that was an important finding," he said, adding dust can cause some short-term symptoms.

"When you have elevated levels over a short period of time, if someone has an underlying health condition like asthma, it can make their symptoms temporarily worse."

Sabapathy went on to say that he couldn't rule out that dust may have caused new conditions in some students but there is no evidence showing there would be any long-term health risk.

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