Posted on January 31, 2011 by Frank Dito

More PCBs Found In New York City Schools

Despite the City of New York continuing to downplay the significance, more and more test results have shown high levels of PCBs in New York City Public Schools. These results have come from spot checks conducted at various schools throughout the City. Last year, the City of New York entered into a stipulation with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency wherein a few of the more than 1,600 public schools were required to be tested for PCBs.

If levels higher than those allowed by federal law were found, the City was required to cleanup what was believed to be the source of the contamination; namely, caulking in the windows at these particular schools. However, once the caulk was removed from the windows at a few select schools, another source of contamination became apparent. The thousands of fluorescent lights hanging in our children's classrooms could be leaking PCBs into the air, causing levels more than 10 times the EPA limit of 50 parts per million.

The City, despite these findings, maintains that there is no danger as the exposure is not likely to cause immediate harm to children. What the City has sadly missed is that children are and have been exposed to PCBs in our public schools for the long term. Most public school children will be in the same school building for at least six (6) years. No one knows what the true effect of such long term exposure, despite PCB being a known carcinogen whose manufacture has been banned.

The City claims that it will cost over a billion dollars to remove and replace all the fluorescent lighting in the schools. The actual cost has been debated by the City, the EPA and parent groups. The City's words about about lack of immediate harm to students provides their true reason and true motive for such a price tag. Declaring a crisis would potentially displace 1.1 million students from their schools while the PCBs were removed and the classrooms were cleaned.  Procuring space for these 1.1 million students, setting up temporary classrooms and cleaning up what I believe to be a much bigger problem than anyone has allowed us to believe would easily eclipse the $1,000,000,000 estimate. Such a scenario would bankrupt the City and create a problem that has not short term solution. I am sure that there will be much more to this story, as my previous posts to this blog have shown. 

Tags: , , , , , ,
Posted on August 10, 2010 by Frank Dito

PCBs Found in our Staten Island Schools at Dangerous Levels

The Department of Education announced that 8 Staten Island public schools were cleaned of dangerously high levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) contained in caulking around the windows and doors. The schools, Bernstein Intermediate, Barnes Intermediate, Morris Intermediate, PS 3, PS 8, PS 32, PS 44 and PS 55, recently had their cleanups completed. The EPA banned the use of PCBs in 1976 but removal of the caulk was not contemplated. Although the EPA requires schools that have PCB levels of 50 parts per million or higher remove the caulk, in another example of classic government decision making, the EPA doesn't require testing! What that means for parents of school children is there is an untold number of schools that could have PCB levels that exceed the EPA threshold and they won't know anything about it. PCB contamination is a larger problem than we have been led to believe.

On January 19, 2010, the City of New York entered into an agreement (pdf) with the EPA to address the risks posed by PCBs in some New York City public schools. The agreement calls for the City to perform testing at 5 public schools to determine the best way to reduce exposure to PCBs in caulk, essentially a "plan for a plan." The City has made no promises to remove the contaminated caulk. Instead, they will look into cleaning the schools, improving ventilation and addressing the the problem of deteriorating PCB laden caulk. There appears to be no overall time frame for the initial testing of the 5 schools, let alone the eventual remediation of New York City's 1,600 public schools.

For those schools that have higher than allowed PCB levels, students will continue to be subject to these toxins while they sit in their classrooms. PCBs are known to affect the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems and are potentially cancer-causing if they build up in the body over long periods of time. How school children may be affected by long-term exposure to PCBs is unknown. Children may be exposed to PCBs by breathing in dust, touching contaminated caulk directly and putting their hands in their mouths after touching PCB contaminated caulk.

The EPA recommends (pdf) that contaminated schools are cleaned frequently with wet cloths, the use of HEPA filters in vacuums, washing window sills, walls and objects in rooms that have high levels of PCBs and adding exhaust fans. I wouldn't know if the City is following these guidelines but with the recent cuts in school funding, I am sure that they are not. Years ago, asbestos was considered a "miracle" product that many believed caused no harm to the thousands of workers exposed to it. Many claimed that the federal government didn't move fast enough to limit the risks faced by workers exposed to asbestos. Are we going to be faced with the same criticisms tomorrow for not acting fast enough on PCBs in our schools? Unfortunately, we cant benefit from hindsight if our children are injured.

In what I have feared, the City of New York has announced the results of the tests of the first 3 schools to be tested. The results detected PCB in levels above the federal guidelines for long-term exposure. The levels dropped once caulking and old flourescent light fixtures were removed. The remaining 2 schools in the pilot program won't be tested until next year, again possibly exposing New York City public school students to dangerous levels of PCBs.

Tags: , , , , , ,