HARTFORD — U.S. Senator Chris Murphy is calling on the US Environmental Protection Agency to help Connecticut and local communities get rid of the overwhelming amount of toxins in our schools, specifically, PCBs or polychlorinated biphenyls.
Murphy will lay out a plan on how the state can create a safer learning environment at 10:30 a.m. Thursday at the Legislative Office Building. This is in response to an alarming report that says up to two thirds of Connecticut schools may contain PCBs. He is requesting the EPA provide clear guidance on how to get rid of PCBs in schools and how to ease the burden for Connecticut communities, which typically have to pay for the clean up costs.
Last school year, Clark Elementary School in Hartford was shut down for months and months and went through a year long renovation because it had so many areas tainted with hazardous PCBs. The City of Hartford the and The Board of Education even filed a lawsuit against the clean up company to shift the full cost of removal of PCBs to the manufacturer of the man made compounds. Clark is located in a poor school district and has been a struggling school and the PCBs were first used in the school in the 1970s. It is schools like Clark that Murphy wants to protect and help, getting that support from the EPA.
PCBs are know carcinogens and research shows that the toxins can interfere with development in learning and memory.
