LONG ISLAND CITY — A leak of PCBs from a light was reported at a Long Island City school this week — prompting an effort to change the fixtures there that could take nearly a decade.
A custodian at I.S. 204, on 28th Street and 36th Avenue, discovered a leak of the toxic chemical from the fixture in a counselor’s office Monday, the Daily News reported.
No one was in the room and the light was removed the day the leak was found, the paper wrote.
The school sent a letter to parents, saying the rest of the lights will be replaced “at some point during the next nine years,” according to the News.
Another case of leaking PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, was reported by WNBC/Channel 4 last Friday at P.S. 41 in Staten Island after a brown liquid dripped on a fifth-grader. It was later confirmed that the substance contained PCB.
Exposure to PCBs has been linked to severe health problems, including cancer. Mayor Bloomberg committed $700 million to exchange the lights in almost 800 schools over the next 10 years.
