Monday morning update: We've just learned that there will be another public hearing about PCBs in schools this week on the Upper West Side called by Community Board 7. Here's the notice: Youth, Education & Libraries Committee of Community Board 7 will welcome Ross Holden of the School Construction Authority (SCA) and John Gorman of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to discuss testing and remediation of PCB's in public school buildings.  Time will be allotted for public comment and questions. Meeting to take place at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, Nov. 16 at the O'Shea complex, 100 W 77th Street.

Please contact office@cb7.org for further information. Website: nyc.gov/mcb7

Valerie Watnick is a professor at Baruch College, teaching environmental and business law, and is a past Co-PTA President of PS 199 in Manhattan. She has written about the dangers of PCBs. 

The City Council Education Committee will hold a hearing on Friday, November 18 at 1 pm on two proposed bills regarding Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in schools. Introduced by Council Members Stephen Levin and Vincent Ignizio, the bills are meant to speed up the process by which the Department of Education notifies parents and the public about PCB contamination and the measures it is taking to remove them. Public school parents are invited to attend and testify.

Local Law 563-A would require the Department of Education to notify parents within three days when PCB contamination is found and to post such information on the DOE's website within five business days. Local Law 566-A would require the DOE to notify parents by August 12, 2012, and on a quarterly basis thereafter, of PCB removal in schools. The law would require the DOE to report the number of contaminated light fixtures detected and removed, the number of floor tiles  detected and removed, and information about the DOE's overall progress on removal and remediation of PCBs, including caulking.

These bills come on the heels of a finding by the EPA that nine NYC schools it inspected contained PCB-contaminated fluorescent light fixtures. PCBs are known carcinogens and endocrine disrupters and were banned for most uses in the U.S. under the Toxic Substances Control Act in the late 1970's.

The city has announced a 10-year plan to remove these outdated and contaminated light fixtures from classrooms. New York Lawyers for the Public Interest filed suit in July, 2011, challenging the 10-year timeline. The suit seeks an injunction to compel the city to replace the light ballasts in the nearly 800 affected schools immediately, to test schools for PCB contamination after the ballasts are removed, and damages.

The DOE has refused to accelerate the timeline for removal of these fluorescent light ballasts, despite the fact that the City Council approved spending $30 million over the next three years to accelerate the project this past summer and private firms offered to replace the lights on an accelerated basis and fund the replacement upfront.

New York Lawyers for the Public Interest will host a press event on December 12 from 10 am to noon at City Hall to emphasize the effects of PCBs on women's reproductive health. Look for more information about this event at nylpi.org.