[CPEO-BIF] New York City is gambling with the health of its children

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

New York City is gambling with the health of its children


This is not the first time that a New York City school in an old  
industrial building has been closed due to vapor intrusion, and it  
won't be the last. City officials should do a comprehensive review of  
school indoor air quality, not only at schools built in old  
factories, but throughout the city, since groundwater throughout the  
city appears to be contaminated with PCE, TCE, and other highly toxic  
volatile organic compounds.

The reported levels of TCE inside PS51X are FIFTY times the exposure  
standard U.S. EPA uses in my community, and if EPA is ever allowed to  
issue a more protective exposure standard the number could go higher.

Stating that there is no immediate health risk misses the point. It  
is true that much higher levels of TCE are necessary to cause acute  
health effects, but students and staff have likely been exposed to  
unsafe levels on a continuing basis. Thus, there is a chronic health  
risk, with exposures increasing the risk of cancer and other health  
problems.

Lenny Siegel



Toxic Bronx New School to be shuttered in fall: city education officials

BY RACHEL MONAHAN

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS
August 6, 2011

A Bronx school building that parents say is making their kids sick is  
so contaminated with high levels of a toxic chemical it's being  
shuttered in the fall, city education officials said yesterday.

For roughly two decades, the Bronx New School has held class in a  
former industrial building, where tests of air quality detected  
unsafe levels of TCE.

Also known as trichloroethylene, the chemical and its devastating  
effects took a star turn in the film "A Civil Action."

Breathing the chemical in small quantities causes headaches and  
dizziness. In larger doses, the chemical can kill or lead to nerve,  
liver and kidney damage.

...

For the entire article, see

http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/education/ 
2011/08/06/2011-08-06_toxic_bronx_new_school_to_be_shuttered_in_fall_cit 
y_education_officials.html

See also http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/bronx/ 
bronx_school_padlocked_over_toxic_ufiI4YILrBauSp8rbT7MlJ

For evidence that this is not a new problem: http://www.cpeo.org/pubs/ 
2350Fifth.pdf



--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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