[CPEO-BIF] Other contaminants in schools

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Readers of this listserve know that we've been paying a good deal of 
attention lately to the exposure of schoolchildren to hazardous 
substances. Our focus has been on pollutants in the soil and 
groundwater, but students are also exposed to toxic substances from the 
buildings themselves.

We've just heard from one parent, Dr. Daniel Lefkowitz, who is trying to 
get regulatory agencies to deal with one such problem, PCB-laden 
caulking material. - LS




Lefkowitz explains, on his web site:

"How This Started

"I am the parent of a child attending the French Hill Elementary School 
in Yorktown Heights and in the fall of 2004, discovered hazardous levels 
of PCB in the window caulking and soil around his school.

"Why did I test for PCB in caulking? In the summer of 2004, I read an 
investigative study by Dr. Bob Herrick of the Harvard School of Public 
Health who tested for PCB in window caulking in 24 buildings built 
before 1977. (Note: the EPA banned PCB in 1977). His study found that 
one third of the buildings tested contained caulking with hazardous 
levels of PCB.

"Since my son's school was built in 1969, and had its windows replaced 
in 2003, I was curious to find out whether the removed caulking 
contained PCB. If there was PCB, how high was the level? Did the 
contractors release PCB into the classroom during the window removal 
process? To help answer some of my questions, I spoke with the EPA. The 
EPA suggested that I find a piece of caulking on the ground and send it 
to a lab for testing. Lucky for me, I found caulking on the ground left 
by the contractors from the work they performed one year prior. The 
sample came back with levels of 38,000 parts per million (ppm) of 
Aroclor 1260. Since the EPA's allowable authorized limit for PCB in 
materials is 50 ppm, the caulking was considered hazardous material. 
Mathematically speaking, the caulking sample contained 760 times the 
EPA's allowable limit for PCB...."


To access the "PCBs in Schools" home page, go to
http://www.pcbinschools.org/


--


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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