Category Archives: PCBs in Schools
Wanted: Massachusetts PCB Bulk Waste Landfill
There have been any number of recent news stories about PCBs being discovered in buildings, particularly public schools. Setting aside the issue of whether PCBs in schools pose an actual hazard, school officials are under intense pressure to eliminate PCBs … Continue reading
USEPA’s Proposed Reinterpretion of PCB Bulk Product Waste
If you are interested in taking a look at my comments (made as an individual) to EPA’s request for comments on their proposed reinterpretation of the definition of PCB Bulk Product waste, please click on this link. For more information … Continue reading
More TSCA PCB Irrationality
As described in my earlier post (see below), there is much to like about USEPA’s proposal to redefine the terms PCB remediation waste and PCB bulk product waste in the context of removing PCB contaminated materials from buildings. This proposal … Continue reading
PCB Regulation Changes Foreshadowed: A New Hope?
Last week USEPA’s Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response issued a Federal Register notice requesting public comment on what looks to be a dry technical issue within the PCB regulations; modifying the legal definitions of PCB Bulk Product Waste … Continue reading
Important PCB News!
Today’s Federal Register (the daily journal of the federal government) contained a notice from the USEPA requesting public comment on a topic of critical interest to anyone involved in the assessment and remediation of PCBs in buildings. The topic EPA … Continue reading
PCBs in Peabody, MA Schools – A Rational Perspective
It was refreshing to read this article in The Salem News last week describing how Superintendent Herb Levine and school committee board member Beverley Anne Griffin Dunne were taking a rational approach to evaluating risks from PCBs in schools. It’s … Continue reading
PCBs: Aroclors, Homologs and Congeners
With PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls) being more in the news, you may hear the terms “Aroclors”, “homologs” and “congeners” used to describe the different ways that PCBs are measured. Measuring the concentration of PCBs gets complicated because there are actually 209 … Continue reading
PCBs in School: EPA’s Safe Level 2.0
In my first post about the EPA Safe Level for PCBs in school air, I described how the health effects these safe levels protect against include: swollen red eyes, excessive discharge from the oil glands in the eyes, irregular growth … Continue reading
PCBs in Schools: EPA’s Safe Level 1.0
The issue of PCBs in schools is moving its way to the front burner of environmental concerns. The reason that PCBs are present in many schools is that they were an ingredient in a number of building materials between about … Continue reading
Does Breathing PCBs have the Same Effects as Ingesting Them?
In schools and other buildings where there is concern about exposures to PCBs, inhalation of contaminated air is usually the exposure pathway of greatest concern. However, few, if any, laboratory studies have specifically considered whether the inhalation of PCBs results … Continue reading
