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PCB Exposure NY City Schools Side Effects Could Result In Cancer Lawsuits

  PCB Exposure Injury Lawsuit. Have you or a loved one been exposed to PCB’s (Polychlorinated Biphenyls)? This toxin has been linked to a variety of ailments, including some cancers, such as nonHodgkin’s lymphoma and testicular cancer in children who were exposed to PCBs. Three New York City schools have tested with higher-than-acceptable PCB levels […]

PCB Exposure

 

PCB Exposure Injury Lawsuit. Have you or a loved one been exposed to PCB’s (Polychlorinated Biphenyls)? This toxin has been linked to a variety of ailments, including some cancers, such as nonHodgkin’s lymphoma and testicular cancer in children who were exposed to PCBs. Three New York City schools have tested with higher-than-acceptable PCB levels exposing the children at these schools to unsafe levels of this toxin.

Our PCB lawyers are offering free lawsuit consultations to anyone whose health and property has been damaged by PCBs. We urge you to contact us today to protect your legal rights. Our firm is already representing families who have been adversely affected by the damaging, long-term effects of exposure to PCBs.

New York City Schools and PCB Exposure

Three New York City schools have tested with higher-than-acceptable PCB levels: P.S. 199, located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side; P.S. 178, which is on Baychester Avenue in the Bronx; and P.S. 309, in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. All three tested with PCB levels in excess of those deemed acceptable according to federal guidelines. In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is scheduled to test two more New York City schools in Queens and Staten Island, New York; however, preliminary results point to many city schools, some 1,5000, containing dangerous PCB levels. The legal PCB limit is 50 parts per million (ppm). Amounts higher than this are considered toxic under federal law.

PCBs were an element in school construction and electrical products from as early as the 1950s and until 1978, indicating that countless students over three decades could have been exposed over the long-term to this dangerous chemical. Meanwhile, PCBs have not been removed from schools such as P.S. 178 in the Bronx, which tested with levels 2,000 times the legal limit. And, while the Department of Education said that air sample levels improved after PCB-tainted caulking and lightening fixtures were removed from other locations, levels remain higher than federal guidelines.

Although very costly to decontaminate New York City’s schools, adverse health effects, including cancer and other life-threatening diseases and disorders, have been linked to PCB exposure. Worse, because decontamination efforts have not been considered, students continue to be exposed—some at very high levels—to this banned toxin. The potential health effects over the past five decades are stunning.

What are PCBs?

PCBs—which include upwards of 200 compounds—are a class of very toxic chemicals ubiquitously found in construction materials and electrical products in many buildings from the 1950s until 1978, when they were phased out. Despite the phase-out, PCBs may be found in products and materials produced before the 1979 PCB ban, such as:

  • Transformers and capacitors
  • Other electrical equipment including voltage regulators, switches, reclosers, bushings, and electromagnets
  • Oil used in motors and hydraulic systems
  • Old electrical devices or appliances containing PCB capacitors
  • Fluorescent light ballasts
  • Cable insulation
  • Thermal insulation material including fiberglass, felt, foam, and cork
  • Adhesives and tapes
  • Oil-based paint
  • Caulking
  • Plastics
  • Carbonless copy paper
  • Floor finishes

Because PCBs do not easily degrade, they can remain in the environment for long periods of time, accumulating in the environment and infiltrating plants, crops, fish, and small organisms. PCBs ultimately reach those who eat fish and animal products through this bioaccumulation. Because of this, nearly every human being carries some PCB in his/her body, which can also be passed from mothers to children during pregnancy and in breast milk. PCBs can remain in our bodies for many years, the longer we live, the more these toxins can build in our systems, increasing in strength over time.

Some evidence indicates that PCB manufacturers knew of the chemical’s dangers years before the 1979 ban. For example, as far back as 1937, corporate memos from Monsanto, which made Aroclor, a PCB compound, wrote about the links between PCBs and severe skin damage and acute liver atrophy in some employees. Memos from 1954 indicate that Monsanto knew that exposure to “negligible” amounts of PCB could be dangerous over time. Later, in the 1960s, Monsanto’s research confirmed that outflow from its PCB manufacturing plants contained “extremely toxic materials that killed fish in less than 24 hours.” By 1975, despite a number of scientific studies revealing that PCBs were cancer causing, the firm’s testing lab only admitted to PCBs as being “tumorigenic.” That lab was later discredited.

PCBs and the Environment

PCBs were used in electrical transformers that leaked into waterways and soil, creating pollution in locations nationwide. Because PCBs are oily, they were mixed with caulking to create a more flexible compound that was easily mixed with paints and adhesives. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced that caulk found around windows and doors in hundreds of schools nationwide may contain PCBs, which can cause cancer.

Before being banned, PCBs contaminated the environment during their manufacture and use in the United States. Although banned, the chemicals have never been cleaned out and continue to be released into our environment in a wide variety of ways, such as via shoddily managed hazardous waste sites, illegal and improper waste dumping, release or leakage from PCB-containing electrical transformers, disposal of PCB-containing consumer products into landfills not meant to take in hazardous waste, and by waste burning at municipal and industrial sites.

PCBs and Human Health

PCBs have also long been known to cause harm to the brain, affecting brain cell development, which can lead to developmental and neurodevelopmental impairments, such as hyperactivity. Low PCB levels can be even more dangerous with studies suggesting that such exposure can affect the ability to learn by negatively impacting dentrite plasticity. Dentrites are neuron components critical to learning and memory; when damaged they are linked to seizure disorders, schizophrenia, mental retardation, and autism.

Tests in utero and neonatally have found PCB affects brain cell development and that PCBs impact brain cell circuits in an area of the brain known to be damaged in people with complex neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, sensory deficits, developmental delays, and mental retardation. PCBs also affect ryanodine receptors, which can add to neural circuits becoming over-excited.

Need Legal Help Regarding PCB Exposure?

The personal injury attorneys at Parker Waichman LLP offer free, no-obligation case evaluations. For more information, fill out our online contact form or call 1-800-YOURLAWYER (1-800-968-7529).

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