NY City Move Quickly Remove PCB lights in School-While CT Just Found PCBs in Schools

NYCity to replace possibly toxic PCB lights at IS 204 within two months. PCBs are suspected carcinogens and neurotoxins, which is why long-term exposure to PCBs is cause for considerable concern, a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency official said. The city has agreed to accelerate the timeline to replace potentially toxic lights at a Long Island City middle school after a PCB leak was found in the building earlier this month.

The city Department of Education plans to finish changing all of the light fixtures at Intermediate School 204 within two months, agency officials said Tuesday. Education officials had previously said the lights would be replaced at some point in the next nine years.

“It’s tragic that we have to wait until PCBs leak before we act,” said City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside), who rallied Tuesday with concerned parents outside IS 204. Parent Nancy Nizza, 49, of Astoria, said she considered home schooling her sixth-grade son when she learned of the leak. Read more.

In CT PCBs Were Found at Both Southington Middle Schools Buildings

The school committee is facing contaminated building material as well as the probability of contaminated soil from an oil spill at DePaolo in July 1980, when an underground storage tank cracked and leaked more than 5,000 gallons of heating oil into the ground. According to Record-Journal archives, only 68 gallons were recovered because the oil mixed with clay, making it difficult to extract. Read more.