MEETING HILL HOUSE SCHOOL AND OUR CHILDREN'S HEALTH/SAFETY

Sent: Sun, October 24, 2010 8:48:08 PM
Subject: Meeting Hill House School and our childrens health / safety

All - I am sending you a letter that I will forward on to the citizen news.  The short story is that our children are in an unhealthy environment in MHHS.  Please take a moment to read this and pass it along to as many folks as you like. 

Regards,
Steve

Steven Roe, CEO
West Highland Support Services, LLC60 E. 42nd St.
Suite 401
New York, NY 10165
(0) 212 867 1848 x111
(C) 917 513 1871

Concerned Parents of Meeting Hill House School


Recently a meeting was held by the NF School district in the MHHS cafeteria to present the status of the construction project. This was prompted by formal complaints by several parents, myself included with regard to the unsafe, unhealthy environment that our children are being taught in. What was surprising to me was that there were only 5 or 6 parents that attended this meeting. This is a very serious issue that I hope to bring to your attention.


This project is a 25 million dollar project that is to run on for 2.5 years or so and is desperately needed. The problem here is that our children, especially the 5th graders (200 wing) are sitting in class rooms that do not have ceilings or finished floors. The school is running HEPA filters to clean as much hazardous particulate out of the air as it can but there are much more serious concerns here. First, the DEP is and has been involved and is monitoring this situation. PCB’s (CANCER CAUSING CONTAMINATES) were found in the caulking and masonry. The school has covered the inside facing caulking in an attempt to
contain the hazardous chemicals. The school, at the direction of the DEP is removing 4-6 feet of soil around the school (which was contaminated with PCB’s) and 4-6 inches of brick will be cut from around the windows when the windows are to be swapped out. 


In addition, asbestos was found and we were told that it was also abated all adhering to state guidelines. On the surface you might think this is OK but it is not. Our children are in class rooms that have a particle board insulating ceiling which is filled with formaldehyde (yet another cancer causing chemical). This particle board will go through a process of out-gassing through its lifetime where the formaldehyde enters the air that the children breathe. In fairness, a lot of the out-gassing occurs when the product is first installed but it continues during the life of the product. What accelerates the out-gassing process is heat. If you have entered the school you could smell the particle board as it was out-gassing due to the heat that we have had. THIS IS NOT HEALTHY AND CAN CAUSE ASTHMA OR CANCER LATER ON IN LIFE.


Are you awake yet ? 


Next, the floor was removed and sand blasted to remove the adhesive. This has made the floor porous and very dusty. More importantly, you should be aware that the dust generated from a porous concrete floor is caustic.


That means IT CAN CAUSE CANCER. The school facilities manager takes air samples with a particle meter seeing if we are within state guidelines and we were told that we are well within state guidelines. The problem with that is how much cancer causing material do you want your children to be breathing ? Do you trust ANY state or government run agency ? You may not think this is much of an issue because the DEP is involved but they were also one of the agencies claiming the air at ground zero was safe.


Countless people have died and have contracted respiratory illnesses and cancer thanks to “government agencies”. Albeit well intentioned, the school deployed HEPA filters to continually circulate the air. This process is necessary but on a porous concrete floor and an open ceiling adds to the problem of spreading dust around. By the schools own samples we were told that the children in the 200 wing are breathing in 3 times the amount of particles then the children that are not in the area of construction.


There are many other serious issues that I will save for another time. There was a solution and the school/planning board did not elect to use it. Temporary classrooms could have (and still can be) deployed to protect our children (and our teachers) from this hazardous construction environment. We were told that the cost was 1 million dollars so it was obviously a consideration. Was the choice money vs. the health and well being of our children? It appears so. I understand that this was not budgeted for but that is why all construction projects have contingencies. 


There are many other options to get funding between grants, fund raising, philanthropic avenues, etc. Our children need to be in a safe environment and in my opinion; they do not have one at this time. I will leave you with one last piece of information; the school has contracted with a company called Hygenix who is testing the air quality.


I specifically asked the gentlemen from Hygenix how many other schools that undertake this type of project leave the children in the school. He paused for a moment and responded “not that many”.


Please get involved and be aware of your children’s health. If they have itchy eyes, skin irritation, coughing, headaches, etc. DO NOT IGNORE IT.