General Membership Meeting
November 13, 2001
PA President, Marilena Christodoulou opened the meeting at 7:08 PM.
Announcements: The PA Parent Directory is currently being compiled and will be available at the December meeting. Please sign up now to be included. The November 27 meeting will be an informational meeting. For Freshman parents, Jay Biegelson, AP for Guidance will speak. Pat Cleary of the College Office on the college application process will give sophomore, Junior and Senior parents a presentation. On Sunday, November 18, from 7:30-9:00pm, Dr. Brazelton will lead a Town Hall Discussion on "How do we begin to heal in the aftermath of September 11, 2001?" All parents and community members are welcome.
Minutes: The minutes of the October 16, 2001 PA meeting were approved with one correction.
Treasurer's Report: Assistant Treasurer Julie Romano requested a motion to increase the funding to $6,000 for the environmental consultant and related tests and expenses. The motion was made, seconded and voted upon. The majority was in favor, a few opposed, and the motion carried.
At 7:20, Marilena began the Program on Environmental Status and Solutions. She began by giving some background information: We need to look at the health implications for children and staff. A group of experts is here tonight to field questions from parents. She asked everyone to feel free to ask questions.
Marilena then introduced the Panel: Howard Bader, Madelyn Wills, Chairperson of Community Board #1, Bonnie Below, Communications Director of the EPA, William Baker, EPA, Dr. Steve Chillrud, Columbia University, Lamont Doherty, Earth Observatory, Dr. Stephen Levin, Mt. Sinai Hospital Irving J. Selikoff, Center for Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Joel Kupferman, NY Law Project, Dr. Paulo Toniolo and Dr. George Thurston, NYU School of Medicine.
Charles Mauro introduced the Health and Safety Committee of the PA: Dr.Upmanu Lall, David Newman, Dorothy Shuster, and Dr. Sheldon Stachel.
David Newman gave a summary of what has happened. He noted that David Klasfeld and Bernard Orlan of the Board of Ed will give us an update. David stated that we were to return to Stuy only when the building and the streets were safe. The students returned October 9th, and he was concerned that it might have been premature. However, our asbestos abatement was conducted and the Board of Ed agreed to a series of steps to safeguard the school environment. A vendor is conducting daily tests for a large number of contaminants and then Howard Bader interprets the data.
There are four factors that concerned the Health and Safety Committee:
- Despite verbal agreements, the Board of Ed. has yet to fulfill promised actions, including upgraded filters, the footbridge, the barge and notification of elevated test levels;
- Some students exhibit symptoms of illness;
- Tests show an elevated level of particulates (dust);
- Information from the EPA indicates that publicly disclosed data does not reveal the actual levels of contaminants around ground zero.
Marilena asked each of the guests to speak.
Madelyn Wills of Community Board #1 began that no oversight agency is monitoring the conditions and there are no rules and regulations. The alkaline level was much greater than the healthy range. That is the cause for sinus infections. The best alternate site for the barge may be between Pier 26 and 31st Street.
Bonnie Below, EPA and a former Stuy parent, said that thousands of samples of dust, air, drinking water, and river water have been taken and evaluating them is not a simple matter. She described how the EPA takes benchmarks developed over a very long time with large groups of people in order to get a statistical perspective. She advised parents to look at the information and decide themselves to do what is best for their child.
Dr. George Thurston, NYC School of Medicine, described the dust sample collection that his organization collected beginning on September 12th. He concluded that exposures to high levels of particulate matter can have severe health effects, particularly among people with health problems. He noted that there are elevated levels at night due to poor dispersion and lower levels during the day.
Howard Bader was concerned that particulate levels were higher than the EPA limits, and that the diesel engine emissions could be more dangerous than the particulate matter.
Dr. Toniolo, NYU School of Medicine, an epidemiologist, said that they are trying to provide guidance and develop studies. However, that money is needed to fund any study and it is not yet available.
Dr. Levin, Mt. Sinai Hospital, described the health effects on recovery workers. Regarding our children, he said that the likelihood that Stuy students will suffer any long-term cancer risk is low but not zero. He is more concerned about irritant exposure. He suggested that if the child has asthma and is in good control, he would just monitor the situation. If the child was an unstable asthmatic, he would consider removing from the situation. He noted that some children are more susceptible than others and that they could develop chronic problems.
Joel Kupferman, NY Law Project urged us to teach our children about critical thinking.
Sheldon Stachel stated that we parents want our children at Stuy, providing that it is safe and healthy. Sheldon spoke about upgrading the air filtration system and getting a Board of Ed to retain an engineer for the school.
David Klasfeld, Board of Ed Deputy Chancellor for operations, described all of the steps taken by the Board of Ed in response to requests from the PA. He said that the Board of Ed is in the process of engaging an engineering firm to upgrade the filtration system to a HEPA system, but there are problems doing this upgrade. They meet regularly with the PA and Mr. Bader. The contingency plan if there is a problem at Stuy is to return to Brooklyn Tech. He said the Board of Ed communicates all of the information they receive on the same day they get it. The Board of Ed. has done whatever they can to make the school safe. He discussed the air filtration system.
Bernie Orlan, Board of Ed Environmental Health and Safety, addressed efforts to try different filters for the system and he said that the higher quality filters are on order.
Questions and Answers began over the entire broad range of topics addressed with an entire range of emotions expressed. Sheldon Stachel summed it up the best with the comment that the bottom line is not to lay blame, but it is to get the HEPA and charcoal filtration possible, to protect the air inside from the outside environment and to eliminate any contaminants from coming in.
Marilena thanked everyone on the panel for participating at the meeting.
Meeting adjourned at 10:50 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Elizabeth Schnee, Recording Secretary
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