Asbestos found in city schools is hampering the education department's ability to speed up its 10-year plan to remove PCB-contaminated lighting fixtures, school officials said Wednesday.
The asbestos found in the wiring means workers replacing the lights in 772 schools will take longer because of the slow process of removing the cancer-causing materials, Deputy Schools Chancellor Kathleen Grimm said.
The work would also have to be limited to weekends and holidays when students aren't in the buildings.
"We need to be careful in terms of what kinds of commitments we can make," Grimm said at a City Council hearing on the plan. "If we can go forward and accelerate this, we'll be happy to, but I think it's irresponsible for us to say, 'Okay, we'll do it.'"
But that's not good enough for many, including some Council members, who want the process sped up.
"Ten years is totally unacceptable," Councilman Robert Jackson (D-Harlem) said. "We cannot afford to gamble with the health and well-being of 1.1 million schoolchildren."
Hours before the hearing, New York Lawyers for the Public Interest filed a notice of its intent to sue the Education Department and School Construction Authority over the PCB-removal plan.
The notice, filed on behalf of four parents of public school students and the nonprofit New York Communities for Change, said the plan violated the Toxic Substance Control Act
PCB's, asbestos, bed bugs - as the NYCDOE website says "Children First...Always!"
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