NYC Will Speed Up Replacing PCB-Contaminated Light Fixtures in 100 Schools

Light fixtures at P.S. 8 are contaminated with PCBs. MK Metz

The Brooklyn Eagle notes that a New York City plan to accelerate work on more than $1 billion of infrastructure projects includes removing old lighting fixtures contaminated with toxic PCBs from 100 city schools and libraries sooner than planned.

More than 700 schools across the city have PCB-containing lighting fixtures and caulk, and many are dripping the stuff. PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) have been linked to cancer, respiratory, endocrine, reproductive and immune disorders.

No word on which 100 schools will be decontaminated on the accelerated schedule.

According to the Eagle, about half of the city's contaminated schools are in Brooklyn, including P.S. 8 in Brooklyn Heights; P.S. 9 in Prospect Heights; P.S. 15 in Red Hook; Arts & Letters in Fort Greene; P.S. 29 in Cobble Hill; I.S. 98 Bay Academy in Bay Ridge; M.S. 51 in Park Slope; Brooklyn Secondary School for Collaborative Studies; Khalil Gibran International Academy and hundreds more.

In June, the city said it would remove leaking fixtures from P.S. 146 Brooklyn New School and M.S. 448 Brooklyn Secondary School for Collaborative Studies (at 610 Henry Street). Parents had complained that the city was giving them the runaround.

And in August, a judge rejected New York City’s argument to dismiss a parent lawsuit demanding that the city quickly remove leaking lighting fixtures from classrooms.

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