Public Employee Press

Mercury and PCBs
Toxic bulbs threaten school workers and kids

By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

The Dept. of Education exposes school children and employees to toxic mercury and PCBs with its florescent light replacement program, say DC 37 Laborers, leaders and union safety experts.

A 2011 study by New York Lawyers for the Public Interest found that PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) leaks from T12 light bulbs and contaminates the air breathed by school workers and children. The group said PCB exposure increases risks of life-threatening leukemia, asthma, diabetes, and heart and respiratory diseases. Mercury damages the brain, kidneys and lungs.

"We remove T12 lights, but the DOE has not trained us or given us any protective gear or even safe containers to take them away in," said Local 924 Vice President John Powers, a DOE Laborer. "We reuse old boxes, but when they break, they contaminate the area and expose us to PCBs and mercury."

DOE: no response on safety

DOE has not responded to requests from the DC 37 Health and Safety Dept. for training, protective gear and safe containers and hasn't outlined safe procedures for removing the bulbs or cleaning up when the fragile 2-, 4-, and 8-foot-long tubes break.

DC 37 has now appealed to state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to investigate whether DOE is violating federal environmental laws by improper removal of the T12 bulbs, said DC 37 Associate Director Henry Garrido.

Manufacturing of the T12 lights ended in 2012. They are being replaced in the schools by T8 bulbs, which use less mercury, save energy and cut costs.

"DOE's haphazard process for removing the T12 lights ignores the human cost to children and dedicated employees," said Local 924 President Kyle Simmons. The Laborers are directed to remove the bulbs from classrooms, cafeterias, gyms and auditoriums during school hours, needlessly exposing children. "We should at least remove them after the school day," Powers said.

"Boxes are not sealed. They break and the bulbs fall out and break. Unfortunately I've been exposed to mercury from T12 bulbs in school buildings and on DOE trucks for the last eight or nine years," said 27-year DOE Laborer Troy Sweeney.

Despite the Environmental Protection Agency limit of 300 pounds, the Laborers haul up to 500 pounds of the bulbs on each trip to DOE's warehouse on Vernon Boulevard in Queens, Sweeney said. The Laborers' locker room there has no showers or laundry facilities, so Laborers bring the contaminants home on their clothes.

"Until the DOE meets its responsibility to properly store and transport these materials, train employees and provide personal protective equipment, workers and students will be at risk," said Program Coordinator Lisa Baum of the union's Health and Safety Dept.