CA Home Tagged "Uninhabitable" in Mercury Incident

October 9, 2010 - The home of a student, who took mercury to school on a school bus and prompted the lockdown of three schools, has been tagged "uninhabitable," according to firefighters.

The student spilled mercury in his home on the 200 block of 30th street, according to San Diego Fire-Rescue spokesperson Maurice Luque.

Mission Bay High School and two elementary schools were put on lockdown after the student allegedly took mercury to school and showed it to several classmates.

"One of the students, who was shown this mercury I guess, got some of it and took it on some paper to a ROTC instructor to show him and then he became concerned, as well he should have, and then notified school police," said Luque.

At least seven students at Mission Bay High School, a teacher and the bus driver were exposed, Luque said. Two of the students, including the student who took the mercury to school, and the bus driver tested positive for high levels of contamination. They were decontaminated and showered on campus.

Mercury is highly poisonous.

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MA Mercury Search Continues

September 25, 2010 - Teams of environmental and public health workers continued to screen the homes of Grafton Street School students today after an accidental spill of mercury Tuesday at the elementary school.

The home screenings, which were expected to continue through the weekend, were prompted by the discovery of high levels of mercury on the belongings of 60 to 70 students, according to Catherine Young, an on-scene coordinator with the federal Environmental Protection Agency. The EPA is one of several federal, state and local agencies responding to the spill.

Parents of students who were in Building 2 at the school at the time of the spill were asked to bring their children's clothing and backpacks to the school Thursday for testing.

Ms. Young said 60 to 70 items showed unsafe levels of mercury, 50 to 60 showed no contamination at all and 30 to 40 showed low levels of mercury.

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Danger Below? MN Schools Weigh Land Risks

September 20, 2010 - The Stillwater school district had the perfect site for its new Early Childhood Family Center — centrally located in the district and a bargain at $3.2 million, including a building worth $900,000 for free.

Just one problem: An environmental study found toxic contamination on the site. School district officials terminated the deal last month.

Just miles away in Baytown Township, St. Croix Preparatory Academy built a $21 million school in an area known to have water contaminated with trichloroethylene. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency said the site meets all environmental safety guidelines, but critics have argued for more than two years that students and staff might not be safe down the road as more is known and environmental standards change.

The two decisions highlight a growing debate: When is it appropriate to construct a school building on or near a contaminated site, and how do you handle the real or perceived threats?

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NY Schools Treated for PCB Still Show Signs of Contamination

August 19, 2010 - Three schools that were treated for PCB contamination in the past year still contain PCB amounts that are higher than federal guidelines for what is acceptable, the Department of Education said.

The results of the tests on the schools—PS 199 in Manhattan, PS 178 in the Bronx and PS 309 in Brooklyn—are part of an agreement between the DOE, the city's School Construction Authority and the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

PCB, or polychlorinated biphenyls, is considered a harmful material, but the EPA said that the potential presence of PCBs in schools and buildings should not be a cause for alarm. The three schools were the only ones of the more than 1,500 schools tested in New York City as part of the three-agency agreement.

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You Want To Build A School Where in Florida?

March 13, 2009

CBS4 I-Team has uncovered -- plans to try and build a school right next to what was a toxic waste site. In fact, it was so contamined, it made the government's list of Superfund sites in need of clean-up. The government says it cleaned up the landfill and capped it, but it's what happened next that has shocked some residents there.

"Poison, poison," replied Fort Lauderdale resident Claude Marquez. A poison -- the mention of which makes 85-year-old Claude Marquez shudder. Dioxin -- it's his neighbor.

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Polluted school site in Danbury Connecticut

July 20, 2008 - In the month since the city announced the site of the new Roberts Street elementary school was polluted by "historic urban fill" -- rubble that contained unacceptable levels of lead, arsenic, mercury and other chemicals -- the public response has been muted.

"We really haven't gotten a call," Antonio Iadarola,Public Works director, said this week.

To bring attention to the situation, the city will hold a public meeting to explain the contamination and the city's response to it Monday at 7 p.m. in the Common Council Chambers at City Hall.

Ordinarily, the city might be content at the lack of public outcry over the problems at the site. But in this case, it needs the participation of the owners of 25 homes around the 7-acre playing field off Osborne Street where the city is building the $19 million school.

That's because when the city used the fill, perhaps a half-century ago, to build the playing field, it spread some of the fill onto the lawns of the adjoining properties. It wants to test the soil of those homes to learn the extent of pollution in their yards.

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Health Department assessing exposure to PCBs in Massachusetts neighborhood

June 14, 2008 - The interviews, which started June 4 and will run through at least June 21, will assess their level of exposure to PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls), chemicals that are believed to cause cancer.

About 29 interviews have been completed, and an additional 35 have been scheduled, according to Suzanne Condon, director of the state's Bureau of Environmental Health.

People who have worked at New Bedford High School or Keith Middle School, or people who live in the neighborhood of the schools, are eligible to participate in the interviews, she said.

Current and former students at the schools may also participate, according to the Department of Public Health.

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Queens, New York Residents Protest Toxic Schools

March 13, 2008 - Advocates and community members gathered Tuesday in front of State Senator Frank Padavan’s Bellerose office to protest his lax legislation concerning environmentally contaminated school sites and to announce a leafleting campaign to educate constituents in Padavan’s district about the issue.

School sites leased by the City do not require the same type of community, political and environmental review processes as schools owned by the City. This loophole allows for schools to be located on contaminated sites posing health threats to children, according to the organization.

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Tale of two toxic schools in New Jersey

February 20, 2008 - The issue of children's exposure to toxic chemicals while at schools and day care centers has exploded as a political issue in New Jersey, as a result of several high profile cases reported by media. A series of tragedies across the state have exposed major flaws and breakdowns in DEP's toxic site cleanup program

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Water beneath Watertown, Massachusetts preschool is contaminated

February 15, 2008 - Storyville Preschool is sitting on a disposal site.

The Union Street property has recently been classified as a Tier II contaminate site after an environmental agency discovered dry cleaning solvent in the property’s groundwater.

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Contamination Discovered at Escondido, CA Preschool

September 18, 2007 - Several dozen preschoolers settled into a new city preschool facility in Washington Park on Monday after tests last week showed the playground soil at their old building was polluted.

City workers discovered the contamination at the Tiny Tots program's Youth Activity Building, at 305 Mission Ave., while they were preparing the ground to add a swing set and other equipment to the building's playground, Escondido Recreation Superintendent Robin Bettin said Monday.

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Letter signed by parents, citizens in Ithaca New York and officials asks state for more TCE tests at elementary school

September 13, 2007 - The state should conduct additional testing for TCE and other toxic chemicals at South Hill Elementary School, according to a letter signed by a coalition of parents, citizens and elected officials.

The letter is being sent today to the New York State Department of Health. It demands additional indoor air testing in classrooms as soon as the heating season begins because trapped air holds in more toxins.

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