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Hotel near KCI closed over asbestos concerns
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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) - A hotel near Kansas City International Airport was shut down because of asbestos concerns, but health authorities said the exposure of people who stayed there was likely much lower than that of workers exposed during renovation work.
The Clarion Hotel was closed March 9 and could remain closed for two months while bedding, linens, mattresses and curtains are destroyed.
“Everything that is in there is going to have to be decontaminated,” Don Pickard, a spokesman for the Kansas City Health Department, said Monday.
Officials believe as many as 20 workers could have been exposed, and Pickard said letters are being sent to all people who stayed at the Clarion between Dec. 15 and its closing.
“The prudent thing to do for anyone who had exposure is to get them some kind of notification,” Pickard said.
Bert Malone, interim deputy director of the Health Department, said two investigations are now under way: one by the city, with the aid of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and the other by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Asbestos, a fire retardant, has serious health risks that include lung cancer.
Officials said the hotel owners had a renovation permit but did not have permission to remove asbestos, and that the workers were not trained or certified, as state law requires, in asbestos removal.
Bernard Hurley, a cleanup specialist who said he has been appointed the spokesman for hotel owners Hulsing Properties LLC, said the owners did not know there was asbestos present. Hurley is the head of Family Environmental Compliance Services and was hired by Hulsing after the hotel was closed.
“We are following all the procedures more stringently than what the law requires,” Hurley said. “The owner is being completely proactive.”
Hurley said only 30 of the hotel's 190 rooms were in use during the renovation.
The Clarion Hotel was closed March 9 and could remain closed for two months while bedding, linens, mattresses and curtains are destroyed.
“Everything that is in there is going to have to be decontaminated,” Don Pickard, a spokesman for the Kansas City Health Department, said Monday.
Officials believe as many as 20 workers could have been exposed, and Pickard said letters are being sent to all people who stayed at the Clarion between Dec. 15 and its closing.
“The prudent thing to do for anyone who had exposure is to get them some kind of notification,” Pickard said.
Bert Malone, interim deputy director of the Health Department, said two investigations are now under way: one by the city, with the aid of the Missouri Department of Natural Resources and the federal Environmental Protection Agency, and the other by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.
Asbestos, a fire retardant, has serious health risks that include lung cancer.
Officials said the hotel owners had a renovation permit but did not have permission to remove asbestos, and that the workers were not trained or certified, as state law requires, in asbestos removal.
Bernard Hurley, a cleanup specialist who said he has been appointed the spokesman for hotel owners Hulsing Properties LLC, said the owners did not know there was asbestos present. Hurley is the head of Family Environmental Compliance Services and was hired by Hulsing after the hotel was closed.
“We are following all the procedures more stringently than what the law requires,” Hurley said. “The owner is being completely proactive.”
Hurley said only 30 of the hotel's 190 rooms were in use during the renovation.
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