General News

PCB threat needs to be taken seriously, Weingarten tells Council

by Jim Callaghan

May 8, 2008 7:01 PM

Saying it was better to be safe than sorry when it comes to the potential for toxic conditions in the schools, UFT President Randi Weingarten testified before a joint hearing of three City Council committees on April 29 to discuss the danger of PCBs in the city’s schools.

“The UFT is concerned about any health and safety condition affecting students and staff, and we take the threat posed by PCBs in schools seriously,” she said. “Even before the Daily News broke the story early this month about finding PCBs in caulking at eight of the nine schools it randomly surveyed,” she added, “we had already reached out to various agencies, including the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, for guidance regarding PCBs in exterior caulk and other building materials.”

As soon as the union learned about the Daily News test results showing elevated levels of PCBs in exterior caulk, she told the Council members, “we immediately urged the city Department of Education to have independent consultants conduct environmental assessments at these schools.”

The union has been working with the DOE, the School Construction Authority and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene to develop more effective monitoring and better cleaning methods for schools that are potentially problematic, Weingarten told the Council members.

Weingarten said “a coordinated and programmatic response from federal, state and local agencies” is needed so that school systems can implement a proactive inspection, monitoring, removal and replacement program to address PCB building materials.

“We know this Council shares the UFT’s concerns about any school health risks,” she said. “But because so little is known about the health effects of low-level exposure to PCBs, we feel the prudent course of action is to ensure minimal risk of exposure to PCBs both indoors and outdoors.”

Weingarten recommended the city put in place the following six steps and procedures:

• Immediately implement more stringent dust controls and improved clean-up and housekeeping procedures for schools with current exterior masonry/window removal and replacement projects.

• Follow published best practices for the removal of exterior caulking that is assumed to contain PCBs. Best practices for the maintenance and removal of caulking include using tools with vacuum attachments and covering exposed soil with protective coverings.

• Include the removal of PCB caulk and other PCB building materials as part of the capital plan. The city budget should include any available federal, state or city funding to pay for the removal of PCB caulk and other PCB building materials where necessary once the scope and cost of such a project can be determined.

• Conduct a survey of the condition of caulking in schools constructed or renovated prior to 1980. Determining the scope of the problem is the first step in deciding how to address this citywide, and a survey would help assess the need for corrective action.

• Develop and implement procedures for managing caulk that is in good condition. These procedures must include preventing the disturbance of such caulk and the release of contaminants.

• Create a city DOE Division of School Facilities/School Construction Authority response and assessment unit that can immediately investigate reports of damaged PCB caulk in schools and quickly clean up possible contamination.

Prof. John Tharakan of the Department of Chemical Engineering at Howard University, an expert on the subject who also testified, said the UFT’s plan was a good, commonsense approach for addressing PCB caulk in schools.

Also, because very little is known about the health risks and effects from these types of exposures to PCBs, the union also asked that the U.S. EPA, the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and other appropriate agencies move quickly to begin such exposure and health-risk assessment research.

“Numerous UFT members have asked about potential PCB harm to themselves or to their fetuses,” Weingarten said. “Two researchers recommend that we advise pregnant women or women of child-bearing age to have tests to determine PCB serum levels. But that advice is problematic unless we can also assist our members in interpreting the test results. For instance, should tested women be urged to transfer from a building if tests show the women with detectable serum levels of PCBs?”

In the absence of research evidence, Weingarten added, “we cannot give our members assurance that PCB exposure will or will not pose a risk to them or to their fetuses.”

The UFT submitted a Health Hazard Evaluation request to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, she said, “asking that it assess both the indoor PCB exposures in schools and the potential health risks to pregnant women and women of child-bearing age so that the city DOE and the UFT can develop reasonable guidance for all employees.”

Weingarten said she didn’t understand why the DOE had “lawyered up” in its testimony because it had done a commendable clean-up job in the seven schools that the Daily News identified as schools where PCB containing caulk was identified. But, she said, when it comes to systemwide solutions, “there is nobody in charge. The schools are fending for themselves.” She said, “there is no climate of support from Tweed.”

Kathleen Grimm, the deputy chancellor of finance and administration for the DOE, said there were no “serious risks in the schools we have tested,” but said “there was a lot more work to do.”

Councilman James Gennaro, chair of the Environmental Committee, lambasted Grimm for not having better protocols in place for PCB contamination and asked her, “How did you think you could get away with coming here with this inarticulate plan?”

The deputy regional administrator designee of the federal EPA was criticized by Councilmen Robert Jackson and Eric Gioia, chairs of the Council Education and Investigations Committees, respectively.

After hearing testimony that the DOE was required to clean up PCB contamination only if tests showed a level higher than 50 parts per million, Gioia said, “This creates a disincentive to test.”

It’s like not going to the doctor, Gioia added, “because you are afraid to find out how sick you are.”

Gioia called the EPA a “toothless federal agency” and accused it of not having any clear protocols 31 years after the manufacture of PCBs was outlawed.