Editor’s Note: Carol van Strum, Eric and I are continuing to research the PCB and dioxin scandal in Ireland: pork and beef products have been found to have elevated levels of PCBs; all Irish pork has recalled, but beef has not.The levels of contamination we have found (not in the mainstream press, but in an obscure German science journal) are showing levels of PCBs that are not unusual — making the recall VERY unusual and giving us a clue that something else is going on.
The Irish press and the international wire services are reporting the government’s line that it’s safe if you ate the contaminated pork (as early as three months ago), but that you shouldn’t continue to eat it, and that you should return every slice of bacon produced since September; and not to worry, illegal contamination levels won’t hurt you. The truth is, the background levels are dangerous, and there is no known safe level of PCBs or dioxin. That is, when studied, any level of exposure will show a biological response somewhere in the exposed population.
We’ll update you on the story further, but this seemed like a good time to re-publish this article Eric wrote on the dioxin dorms at SUNY New Paltz last year. These are four dorms contaminated with the same stuff that got into Irish pork and beef — old, degrated electrical transformer oil. This article first appeared in Planet Waves’ subscriber edition and is also republished on the Dioxin Dorms website, one of our side projects, focused on environmental issues. — Rachel Asher, currently in Dublin
Where’s Your Data?
by Eric Francis, Paris, August 2007
“NOBODY wants to hear that there’s no way to say it’s safe.”
So said Edward Horn of the New York State Department of Health in a Planet Waves interview earlier this month. Perhaps the most candid comment I’d ever heard from a state official in 16 years of covering the PCB and dioxin disaster at SUNY New Paltz, Ed Horn at least understands one thing: when you live in one of the four dorms affected by 1991 transformer explosions and fires — Bliss, Capen, Gage and Scudder halls — you are living a place where there is contamination.
After more than $50 million spent on testing, cleaning and renovations so far, the question is whether students will be exposed to that contamination, and if so, how it will affect them. That question has been debated through the spring and summer by campus leaders, community organizers and county and state officials from a variety of different agencies, including the SUNY New Paltz administration and its cleanup contractor, Clean Harbors, Inc.
The result of all these meetings: there will be no additional tests of the dorms before they re-open on Aug. 21. The college may put together a summary of what happened so that it can respond to queries from students and parents, but that is unlikely to include a warning about the safety of the buildings or lack thereof. College officials consistently tell parents that the buildings are safe but do not mention that cleanup plans specifically granted permission not only to leave “acceptable” levels of contamination, but also state that these levels could kill a certain number of students.