New York City will replace old light fixtures that emit toxic polychlorinated biphenyl, or PCBs, in nearly 800 city schools.
As reported by The Wall Street Journal, tests in recent months have shown numerous schools in the city with high levels of the organic chemicals. That included a Brooklyn school whose light fixtures were inspected this month and were found with PCB levels at more than 10,000 times the federal threshold for removal.
Long-term exposure to PCBs, commonly used in construction until several decades ago, can cause cancer and damage to the immune system, among other problems. The manufacturing of PCBs was banned in the U.S. in 1979.
The Associated Press said the cleanup plan, announced Wednesday after negotiations between the office of Mayor Michael Bloomberg and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, calls for New York to spend an estimated $708 million over the next 10 years.
The city will replace the leaky lights in almost 800 school buildings. It also will improve energy efficiency by carrying out energy audits and replacing old boilers. In all, the Bloomberg administration says that the changes will cut greenhouse-gas emissions by an estimated 200,000 metric tons per year.
Disagreements over the timetable held up the agreement in the past, with the EPA advocating for quicker removal. And environmental activists have objected to the proposed 10-year schedule for the work, arguing that the city is capable of making the changes in as little as a couple of years.
“The city has absolutely run out of excuses for not changing these antique fixtures now,” Miranda Massie, of the civil rights group New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, told the Journal.
The environmentalists’ position drew support from a state assemblywoman, Linda Rosenthal, who announced legislation Wednesday that would establish a five-year deadline for all of the lighting replacements.
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