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Steam cleaning

Steam cleaning

Congress Street by the Haymarket T stop remained shut this morning (as did the Holocaust Memorial) as respirator-wearing workers repaired a burst steam pipe that gave way last night, sending a steady stream of steam - and, it turns out, asbestos - into the chill night air.

Boston Public Health Commission spokeswoman Katinka Podmaniczky writes:

We do not believe there is any risk to public health from last night's steam-pipe rupture. Our Office of Environmental Health joined the state Department of Environmental Protection and others in taking airborne asbestos fiber samples, and we did not detect any airborne asbestos in our sampling. The street was fully clean of all asbestos debris. Risk from asbestos comes from prolonged exposure to air-borne particles over a number of years. In this situation, asbestos would have mixed with the steam, fallen to the ground, and been cleaned up.

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Comments

they are all out side my office - they are EPA folks

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The mayor finds a way to tell Trigen that they are not welcome in Boston anymore. This is an unacceptable public health and savety hazard and for what? Not to mention their plant is a blight on Chinatown.

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Where do you propose buildings get their steam if Trigen/Veolia is banned?

Pipes break. That is life. If the cleanup is done compliant to all environmental laws, the threat to public health is very limited.

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Um, the buildings can get their steam from in-house boilers as most buildings do. Steam pipes dont break if they have proper maintenance and upkeep. Veolia is willfully negligent in their maitnenance program, just look at the number of busts they have. Could you imagine if this was a natural gas system so poorly maintained? Its a safety hazard, its only a matter of time before one of these bursts occur whil someone happens to be right near the break.

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They already solved that, now "Veolia Energy", same company of course.

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Added to original post above.

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I hope these workers aren't wearing aspirators. They look more like respirators.

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