Call Comes After Leak Found At I.S. 204
City Council Member Jimmy Van Bramer rallied with State Sen. Michael Gianaris, Assemblywoman Catherine Nolan, New York Lawyers for Public Interest and New York City Communities for Change on Wednesday, Sept. 25, to call on the Department of Education (DOE) to accelerate their timeframe for removing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) from city schools.
Several weeks ago, a PCB leak was found in a contaminated classroom light fixture during the school day at I.S. 204 in Long Island City. According to a Sept. 24 press release from the District 30 Community Education Council (CEC 30), the group, along with District 30 Superintendent Dr. Philip Composto, emailed Deputy Chancellor Kathleen Grimm with a request to expedite remediation of the light fixtures.
Since then, the DOE has said they will be replacing the light fixtures inside the school, according to a press release from Van Bramer’s office; the CEC 30 press release stated that the new fixtures will arrive on Friday, Oct. 5.
The DOE has given their PCB removal program a 10 year time-frame to the remove the toxic substance within hundreds of city schools.
“Ten years is absolutely way too long to wait,” said Van Bramer of the DOE’s time-frame to remove PCBs from city schools. “Our children cannot continue to learn each day underneath a ticking time bomb. The Department of Education needs to addressed this situation immediately before it’s too late for thousands of students, faculty and teachers.”
PCBs have been linked with cancer, asthma, birth defects and other respiratory and development disorders. Moreover, a recent study showed that PCBs can have a lasting negative effect on a woman’s reproductive system, even years after exposure.
