State finds potentially harmful chemicals in two Hartford school buildings

This story by Christina Dolan was first published by the Valley News on June 26.

HARTFORD — The school district is working with an environmental consultant to identify the sources of and limit exposures to potentially dangerous chemical contamination that state air quality testing identified this spring in 28 rooms in the Hartford High School and career and technical center buildings.

The potential health risks of the chemicals — polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly known as PCBs — for adults and children include cancer and reproductive problems, suppression of the immune system and changes in thyroid hormone levels, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We’re not going to let students, faculty and staff into the building if we have a hazard,” Jonathan Garthwaite, the district’s building and grounds director, said in a phone interview Wednesday.

The testing was conducted in accordance with Act 74, which the Vermont Legislature passed in 2021, requiring that all school buildings constructed before 1980 be tested for PCB contamination. It was the first state in the nation to require such testing.

To date, approximately 127 schools in the state have been tested out of over 300 that are scheduled. In 2020, Burlington High School was shuttered due to PCB contamination so extensive that the district deemed it beyond remediation. Since then, more than 40 schools have been found to have rooms with PCB levels that exceed the recommended minimum concentration.

“It is really upsetting. None of us should be exposed to PCBs in our schools, or in our food or in the many places in the environment where they are found,” State Toxicologist Sarah Owen said at a June 12 community meeting of state and school officials at the Hartford Area Career and Technical Center.

A class of industrial chemicals widely used in building materials, PCBs were banned by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 1979. The most common culprits for PCBs lurking in schools are caulk and fluorescent light circuitry, according to the Vermont Department of Health’s PCB information site.

As those materials break down, the harmful chemicals are released as vapor or dust, which children and adults inhale over time.

The Hartford School District announced the April test results in a June 7 letter to parents, caregivers and staff that included the PCB levels for each tested room and the next steps in the process.

Vermont’s health department identifies a so-called action level at or beyond which a room poses too much risk to be used. For seventh grade through adult, that action level is 300 nanograms per cubic meter.

The April testing indicated that nine rooms in Hartford High School exceeded the action level and should not be occupied, with Room 141 having a level of 1,000 nanograms per cubic meter. Contamination in 19 other rooms was high enough to require minimizing usage.

Hartford Memorial Middle School was tested last November and found to contain no actionable levels of PCB contamination. The White River School is scheduled to be tested in 2025, and the district’s other school buildings do not require testing, according to the Vermont Department of Environmental Conservation.

Through the end of the school year, some rooms were restricted and in others, airflow increased to reduce risk to students and staff. During the summer, the use of spaces will be rearranged to reduce exposure.

The affected rooms include classrooms, the auditorium, cafeteria, hallways, stairwells and storage areas.

Environmental consultants are in the process of sampling the materials in contaminated rooms to determine the source of the PCBs, Garthwaite said.

Once the contaminated materials are identified, remediation can begin and the district will have a better sense of how the school’s space will be impacted in the fall, Garthwaite said.

“The state is in the further investigation stage right now,” he added.

At the June 12 meeting, state health, education and environmental officials discussed the findings and answered questions from the public.

Jeff Spiegel, a retired teacher who worked in room 141, the room with the highest level of contamination, asked the assembled experts what their recommendations were for him.

People with suspected PCB exposure should talk to their health care providers, Owen said. “We encourage people to make sure it’s part of their medical record,” she said, because “a lot of the health conditions that are associated with PCB exposure are things that your health care provider can screen for.”

The School Board members and Superintendent Tom DeBalsi discussed whether to inform former students and staff members about the testing results, but no decision was made. Neither the superintendent nor School Board Chairman Kevin Christie responded to requests for comment by deadline.

A published schedule of Vermont schools and PCB testing dates as well as results may be found on the Agency of Natural Resources website . The testing is scheduled to be completed by 2027.

Read the story on VTDigger here: State finds potentially harmful chemicals in two Hartford school buildings .