PCB risk feared at older N.E. schools

The tainted caulking was also used in some office buildings, college facilities, and other structures constructed around the country in the 1960s and 1970s, though rarely in single-family homes. The US Environmental Protection Agency plans soon to issue rules to guide school officials and owners of other buildings on how to test for the chemicals and what to do if they are found.

Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were banned in the late 1970s because research showed that some of them may cause cancer, and the EPA has ordered massive cleanups at numerous industrial sites where they were used as an insulator in electrical transformers. But before the ban, the oily chemicals were also added to interior and exterior window, door, and brick caulking to make it rubbery, and used in industrial paints and adhesives to glue everything from tile floors to cabinets.

As these materials age and deteriorate, public health researchers have found, they can break down into particles and vapors containing small amounts of PCBs, which can fall to the ground, dust windowsills, and infiltrate a building’s ventilation system. Research is just beginning to determine whether staff and students in contaminated schools ingest or breathe the chemicals at levels high enough to be harmful.

“It’s really an emerging issue,’’ said Kim Tisa, PCB coordinator for the EPA’s New England office. “We don’t want to scare people, but the bottom line is it’s a fact and we have to deal with it.’’

In the spring, Berkshire Community College in Pittsfield voluntarily tested its caulking and discovered high levels of PCBs on exterior window and construction joints of several buildings. New Bedford High School this summer removed adhesives, paint, and foam in two classrooms and a teachers’ room and paint on a closet wall after they tested high for the chemicals. Two other classrooms in the school were temporarily closed three years ago because of high PCB levels in the air. At the request of teachers in Shrewsbury and Worcester, public health officials have recently assessed PCB contamination in buildings there as well.

But so far the vast majority of schools haven’t tested for PCBs in caulking, and there are no federal rules requiring them to do so. The EPA, however, requires caulking or other material to be removed if it contains PCB levels above 50 parts per million. In New York, some school caulking was found to contain more than 200,000 parts per million.

“It’s contradictory . . . because you don’t have to test, but if you do and you find it over 50 parts per million, then this whole cascade of regulatory requirements kicks in,’’ said Robert Herrick, senior lecturer at the Harvard School of Public Health.

In a 2004 study, Herrick tested 24 buildings in Greater Boston that a bricklayer identified as likely candidates for PCB contamination. Eight contained caulking with PCB levels above 50 parts per million, including three schools, university student housing, a classroom building, and a synagogue. Levels exceeded 5,000 parts per million in some buildings. Herrick declined to identify the buildings.

His study and another in Switzerland that looked more randomly at buildings indicate that between one-third to one-half of buildings dating from the ’60s and ’70s may contain PCBs in caulking. Herrick is now launching a study with the Massachusetts Teachers Association to determine whether educators in contaminated schools have higher levels of PCB in their blood than teachers in the general population.

The health danger caused by the release of PCBs from caulking is not clear. This family of chemicals includes more than 200 compounds, and they vary in how they affect people. An emerging body of research in laboratory animals suggests that the PCBs that can be released from caulking - lighter in weight and less studied than the ones shown to cause cancer - might cause developmental and neurological problems, but the findings are not definitive.

“We know enough [about PCBs] to be worried,’’ said Tom Zoeller, a biology professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst who has studied PCBs.

Until recently, PCBs in buildings have been discovered almost by accident. In 2000, a University of Rhode Island science building was shut down after officials - responding to concerns about breast cancer cases among employees in the building - tested for many toxins and discovered elevated PCB levels in caulking. It ultimately cost more than $3.5 million to clean and replace the caulking, according to a university news release. In New Bedford High, PCBs in construction material and air vents were found only after city officials were forced to test for them because the school was built on a former toxic dump.

The issue began garnering more nationwide attention last year after the New York Daily News tested caulking in public schools and found some with extraordinarily high levels. Since then, two New York congressmen have filed a bill to provide low-interest loans and grants to educational agencies to remove or control PCBs during renovations or repairs of old schools. The legislation has passed the House and is pending in the Senate.

The EPA declined to comment on what it intends to do about PCBs in caulking, saying in a statement: “We’re looking closely at the issue. The agency is currently developing guidance for communities.’’

Meanwhile, Massachusetts Department of Public Health officials, who met with Worcester school administrators recently on the issue, recommend that schools evaluate caulking and, if it is deteriorating, remove and replace it. The state Division of Capital Asset Management, which oversees construction of major public buildings, released a statement saying it recently began requiring projects “involving window replacements, exterior masonry repairs, or other activities that may involve PCB-laden materials’’ to test for the chemicals.

Some school officials say privately that they avoid testing because fixing the problem could cost millions - money they don’t have. Caulking is virtually everywhere in some old schools and can permeate brick and concrete around windows, doors, and stairs. When PCBs are found in masonry, the bricks often must be ripped out.

“I hear, ‘I got MCAS, pandemic flu, and now you are giving me PCBs’,’’ said Mike Sireci, the environmental health and safety committee consultant for the Massachusetts Teachers Association who is working with Harvard’s Herrick. “Districts don’t want to deal with another problem.’’

Still, some environmental officials say it is better to know - and deal with the problem - than put anyone at risk or to find halfway through a construction project that there is major contamination. Following such advice, Berkshire Community College tested caulking on its campus and found some of it contained 72,000 parts per million of PCBs. They have since sent letters to staff and students explaining the contamination and how they are working with the state to come up with a plan to remove or contain it. The Berkshire Eagle reported yesterday that the problem will cost the state $5 million to fix.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where high PCB levels were discovered in a family housing complex about four years ago, officials worked with the EPA to remove all the caulking and to encapsulate PCB-contaminated masonry. Officials say, however, that it is only a temporary measure: It will have to be removed.

“It’s the right thing to do to look. We have an opportunity here to avoid public alarm and control the risks,’’ said William VanSchalkwyk, managing director of MIT’s Environment, Health, and Safety Programs. But, he added, “There has to be some cost-effective way to do this and not bankrupt America’s school systems.’’

Beth Daley can be reached at bdaley@globe.com.