Grand Valley experts told the audience at a March 29 meeting that results from indoor air quality tests at select buildings on the Pew Grand Rapids Campus were found to be safe.
The meeting was held in the L. William Seidman Center to share the test results and information regarding an MDEQ study of emissions of ethylene oxide from Viant Medical, Inc. in Grand Rapids.
Grand Valley hired an independent company, Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber, Inc., to test the indoor air quality in the L. William Seidman Center, The Bicycle Factory, the DeVos Center, and Winter Hall, which are all located near the Viant facility.
Officials said measured results from testing on February 16 were low and considered to be in the safe range. Grand Valley scheduled additional testing March 16 which verified the initial results.
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Panelists at the meeting included Grand Valley experts Dave Huizen, occupational health and safety program director; George McBane, professor of chemistry; and Rick Rediske, professor and researcher at the Annis Water Resources Institute.
They said the results were "very low, either below or just above the detection limit."
They said based on all of the sampling information, as well as the results of two sets of modeling, all the risk levels for Grand Valley employees and students using the most conservative model for estimating total cancer risk are less than the risk threshold for public health intervention.
Grand Valley experts said they agree with the MDEQ that the measured and modeled concentrations do not pose a short-term health concern to faculty and students at the Pew Grand Rapids Campus, and the additional lifetime cancer risk, while not zero, is too small to warrant concern.
They said it is highly unlikely that even one GVSU person will contract cancer because of ethylene oxide from Viant.
Other panelists included Deb Alderink, occupational safety and health manager with Fishbeck, Thompson, Carr & Huber, Inc., and Tammi VanTil, air dispersion consultant and president of Madison Consulting. Ed Aboufadel, assistant vice president for Academic Affairs at Grand Valley, served as moderator.
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