Students Complain of Fumes

Students said this week the air quality in the main studio of the Graduate School of Design (GDS) remains dangerous, despite a complaint filed last spring with the U.S. Department of Labor.

The anonymous complaint, filed in May, reported inadequate ventilation systems and said noxious fumes from students' projects were reaching employees' offices.

"Employees [on the fifth floor] are exposed to paint vapors and the possibility of fire due to round-the-clock spraying of paint to finish student projects," said the complaint filed with the Occupational Safety and Hazard Administration (OSHA).

The University responded to OSHA by noting that spray-painting is prohibited in the building. University officials also posted signs with a phone number for students to call if they see anyone spray-painting.

Spray-painting is considered a form of vandalism, said W. Kevin Cahill, GDS facility manager.

But students say that paint is not the only offensive material being sprayed. Fumes persist from students spraying acetone, a carcinogen used in Xerox transfer of prints.

An industrial hygienist from the Department of Environmental Health and Safety said that acetone emissions in the GDS do not constitute a safety threat because exposure does not exceed eight hours a day, five day a week.

But students who work at individual desks in an open, five-tiered area called the "trays" disagreed.

"The air quality is bad," said Sharon Johnston, an architecture student in her final semester.

Students often have to yell at others to stop spraying, especially in inclement weather, said a third year architecture student, who spoke on condition of anonymity. MIT has one spray booth per floor in its warehouse building, he added.

The GSD has no spray rooms--one of the complaints in the report to the Department of Labor--and students have 'o go outside to use sprays because of the ban on spray-painting inside the building.

Cahill said a preliminary study has been done on the possibility of providing students with spray booths, but no definite plans have been made.

Others in the building say the air quality problems are not isolated to the "trays".

George Doyle, manager of the GSD wood shop, said the ventilation and dust collecting systems in the wood shop are "not adequate for the use of the shop and number of tools."

The wood shop has a small, six-year-old fan that was installed more than six years ago, when the wood shop space was used as a copy room.

Though the fan may have been able to handle the copy machine fumes, Doyle said it has been less successful at dissipating the "nauseating" fumes emitted by students cutting plexiglass and other materials.

Doyle said the air circulating in the wood shop can be sucked into the central heating, ventilation and air conditioning system that redistributes air to the library and other parts of the building.

Dust from cut plaster and exotic woods can be lung and skin irritants. Last year, a student developed a skin rash resembling poison Ivy after cutting some exotic wood, Doyle said.