Monday, January 10, 2011

PCB's First

So what if your children attend a school with lights that leak dangerous, cancer-causing PCB's into the air?

The point of education is for children to be in the classroom receiving instruction so that they can ace their standardized tests.

So ignore the leaking PCB's, just the way the DOE is:

Concerned parents whose children go to a school in Annadale, Staten Island that was found to have toxic levels of PCBs were meeting Sunday night to get some answers from experts.

That informational meeting was being held at the Eltingville Post Office.

Many parents are thinking of not sending their children to school on Monday unless they get some more answers.

Work crews seen leaving P.S. 36 in Annadale on Saturday told NY1 they are electricians hired by the Department of Education to remove leaking light fixtures. The lights came under scrutiny for causing dangerously high levels of PCBs inside the school.

Polychlorinated biphenyls are known carcinogens that were banned by Congress in 1978, but they were not required to be removed.

Two classrooms at the school were found to have levels well above the government safety standards.

Tests showed PCBs at 1,000 to 12,000 parts per million, when the acceptable level is just 50 parts per million.

"We're alarmed that there is potential PCB contamination, upwards of 200 to a couple of thousand more than it should be according to federal guidelines," said City Councilman Vincent Ignizio. "I am not convinced this school, as it currently stands, is safe for occupancy."

"I drop off my two children every day and now I have to worry when I drop them off, they may come home with something? That's just unacceptable," said parent Vincent Bonavita.

In a letter to the teachers' union, Deputy Mayor for Education Dennis Walcott said the affected classrooms were closed and will remain closed until the city is sure there is no health concern.

More air testing is being done to understand any potential exposure to PCBs.

However, a Community Education Council president told NY1 that he witnessed the tests on the school and said that the affected classrooms were not closed off.

No wonder the bed bug infestations are increasing in NYCDOE schools.

The DOE doesn't even care about ridding a school of cancer-causing PCB's.

Why should they care about bedbugs?

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