I have a csv file which has two columns, a numeric ID (`IDVAR`) and an associated value (`VAL`). The second variable contains non-alphabetic garbage characters which need cleaning up. The structure looks like this:

```
IDVAR   VAL
001     abc - 1
002     zfas $^6
003     asdf_78
004     hg :65

```

I want to throw out the `"-", "_", "1", "$", "^"` etc. from the 2nd variable only, i.e. remove a specified set of characters from `VAL`, without touching `IDVAR`.

Post-Solution Edit: Many thanks to SiegeX for such an elegant solution. Please note that my file is indeed comma-separated, so I just have to add an "-F," option to his awk command.