[CPEO-BIF] Long Island (NY) vapor intrusion

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Testing for toxins on Long Island
As EPA and health officials check for soil vapor intrusion, many 
residents are worried about the health risks

BY JENNIFER SMITH
Long Island Newsday
July 5, 2007

When the Khanzadas bought their Franklin Square house in 2001, the 
family didn't realize it was next door to a Superfund site.

But a few years later, investigators with the federal Environmental 
Protection Agency came knocking. They were concerned that toxic vapors 
from the shuttered Genzale Plating Company next door were seeping into 
the basement of the two-story home on New Hyde Park Road.

In a series of events likely to become more common on Long Island, tests 
showed that air inside the Khanzadas' house and two others nearby had 
elevated levels of trichloroethylene -- a common industrial degreaser 
used by machine shops and dry cleaners that is also a potential 
carcinogen. The EPA put a carbon air filter in the basement and 
installed a vacuum system at the hazardous waste site to suck 
contaminated vapor from the soil. Six months later, they took the filter 
out and told the family everything was fine -- an assurance the 
Khanzadas are taking on faith.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-livapo0705,0,6367530.story?coll=ny-top-headlines

--


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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