High PCB levels force Lexington school to close doors

Published by The Boston Globe

Students will not attend classes at the Joseph Estabrook elementary school in Lexington next week while officials deal with potentially unsafe levels of polychlorinated biphenyls in the building.

School will be canceled on Tuesday, following the Labor Day holiday, Superintendent Paul Ash said yesterday. Students will attend educational field trips on Wednesday and Friday. The school will be closed Thursday for Rosh Hashana.

Teachers will plan the field trips Tuesday.


Engineers will test for PCBs at the school Monday but the results will not be available until Thursday or Friday, Ash said. Parents have said they do not want to send their children to the school unless results indicate the levels of the chemicals are within federal guidelines.

“It allows people not to go nuts next week before the data is in,’’ said Ash. “Their concern was, ‘How can I put my kid in school without knowing the risk?’ Now, they don’t have to make that decision.’’

Ash said the School Committee would meet Tuesday night and discuss a backup plan of where to send Estabrook students if testing continues to show high levels of PCBs. The meeting is scheduled for 7:30 at Cary Hall at 1605 Massachusetts Ave.

Bernie Fabricant, an Estabrook parent, said that he appreciates communication about the issue from the superintendent, adding that he would attend Tuesday’s meeting.

“The ultimate goal is to have my children and everyone else’s children at Estabrook to be in a situation where they’re learning in a PCB-free environment,’’ Fabricant said. “Whatever it takes to get there is fine with me. It must be done.’’

Angela Gharabegian, a parent who expressed concern at a meeting Wednesday, said she is grateful for the actions being taken by the town and the administration.

“I appreciate the efforts being made,’’ she said.

Estabrook closed Thursday so that workers could pump fresh air into the building in an attempt to bring PCB levels in the air to within Environmental Protection Agency guidelines. Yesterday, engineers took 20 samples from ceiling tiles, unit ventilators, and other parts of the school to try to find sources of PCBs after a project to remove contaminated window caulking failed to lower the levels, Ash said.

After the results are available next week, the superintendent will meet with a committee of parents, experts, and consultants to decide how to respond.

Tests last spring found that the school had potentially unsafe levels of the chemicals in the building’s caulking, and plans to remove them began Aug. 24, said Gerard Cody, the town’s health director.

The removal was to be completed before Tuesday, but as classes resumed for the year, the Lexington Health Division measured even higher levels of PCBs in some of the building’s rooms.

PCBs are believed to harm the immune and reproductive systems. Studies have linked them to cancer, according to the EPA.