Public Employee Press

Union seeks health monitoring of workers from toxic school

The building at 3200 Jerome Ave. used to bustle with the activity of the 300 kindergarten-to-fifth-grade students of P.S. 51, The Bronx New School. Now it stands dark and silent, shuttered because it's contaminated with trichloroethylene. TCE can cause heart, liver and kidney problems and probably causes cancer, say federal safety authorities.

In January 2011, air testing revealed high levels of TCE in the building, but the Dept. of Education took until August to share this information with the staff and parents and to move the school to a new location.

The building formerly housed the Nessen Lamps factory, which from the 1950s until the 1990s used TCE and other toxic solvents at the site. DOE leased the building for 20 years but never tested for toxics until January 2011.

Many employees worked at the school for years, including members of four DC 37 locals: DOE Employees Local 372, DOE Clerical-Administrative Employees Local 1251, Health Services Employees Local 768, and United Federation of Nurses and Epidemiologists Local 436 (the School Nurse).

"We are working with the Mount Sinai Occupational Medicine Clinic and pressing to make sure the school community receives the medical monitoring they need," said Local 372 President Santos Crespo Jr.

Local 768 President Fitz Reid said that, "because the city failed to protect the workers and the children from hazardous exposure, they have a responsibility to monitor them."

A Freedom of Information Act request by Daily News columnist Juan Gonzalez yielded records kept by the School Nurse from 2005 to June 2011, recording excessive numbers of visits to her office and student health complaints. Some of these problems - vomiting, headaches, dizziness, and gait abnormalities - are among the known symptoms of TCE exposure. Health Dept. spokeswoman Susan Craig said the Nurse's reporting was "very diligent."

Principal Program Coordinator Lisa Baum of DC 37's Safety and Health Dept. has been working with the locals and regulatory agencies since the exposure first became known. The union filed a complaint under the state Right to Know law, which requires record keeping and worker notification. Also, the state Environmental Conservation and Health departments are conducting an environmental assessment.

"It is important that people who worked at this location get checked regularly for possible long-term effects of TCE exposure at Mt. Sinai or their own doctor. For information, call our dept.," Baum said.