TOXIC GAS ALERT AT POLY HIGH; TESTS TO SEE IF LANDFILL'S FUMES POSE SCHOOL THREAT.Byline: Greg Gittrich Staff Writer Methane laced with poisonous and carcinogenic carcinogenic having a capacity for carcinogenesis. chemicals has turned up in tests at an old city landfill, raising concerns about whether toxic fumes fumes odorous gases and other volatile materials; inhalation of irritating fumes causes coughing and, if sufficiently severe, irreversible pulmonary edema. migrated to a nearby high school in Sun Valley, officials said Monday. Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. officials are scrambling to conduct environmental tests at Francis Polytechnic High School to determine if the gas wafting onto the campus contains toxic chemicals. The city Bureau of Sanitation has monitored levels of methane at the high school for six years without incident. But the probes installed by the city do not detect other dangerous gases commonly emitted by decomposing organic waste, officials from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control said. The LAUSD LAUSD Los Angeles Unified School District (Los Angeles, CA) School Safety Team, created last year to review environmental conditions at campuses in the nation's second-largest school district, most notably the controversial Belmont Learning Center This Belmont Learning Center contains information about a building currently under construction. It may contain information of a speculative nature, and the content may change dramatically as construction progresses and new information becomes available. , discovered the oversight during a recent review of Poly High's methane monitoring system. ``They're moving very quickly to see if there are other types of dangerous gases around the school,'' said Ron Baker, a state DTSC DTSC Department of Toxic Substances Control DTSC DARCOM Technical Steering Committee spokesman. Officials said nothing in the historic record of vapor samples from the Sheldon-Arleta landfill warrants evacuating the school before the tests are completed. Methane rising from similar landfills has a tendency to carry dangerous chemicals and volatile organic compounds volatile organic compound Environment Any toxic cabon-based (organic) substance that easily become vapors or gases–eg, solvents–paint thinners, lacquer thinner, degreasers, dry cleaning fluids , including benzene, a carcinogen carcinogen: see cancer. carcinogen Agent that can cause cancer. Exposure to one or more carcinogens, including certain chemicals, radiation, and certain viruses, can initiate cancer under conditions not completely understood. . In a July 23 letter to the school board and superintendent, LAUSD Chief Administrative Officer A chief administrative officer (CAO) is responsible for administrative management of private, public or governmental corporations. The CAO is one of the highest ranking members of an organization, managing daily operations and usually reporting directly to the chief executive David W. Koch wrote: ``Benzene, chlorinated chlorinated /chlo·ri·nat·ed/ (klor´i-nat?ed) treated or charged with chlorine. chlorinated charged with chlorine. chlorinated acids some, e.g. compounds, and several other toxic chemicals have been measured at the landfill.'' Koch also noted vinyl chloride vinyl chloride or chloroethylene Colourless, flammable, toxic gas (H2C=CHCl), belonging to the family of organic compounds of halogens. It is produced in very large quantities and used principally to make PVC, as well as in other syntheses and in , a poisonous chemical common to landfills, could pose a risk to the safety of children and faculty at the school. Drew Sones, assistant city sanitation director, said he was unaware of the LAUSD's concerns and could not immediately provide vapor data from the closed landfill, which contains household refuse. ``We will cooperate with the school district and the state and put in more sensitive probes if we need to,'' Sones said. ``The safety of the schoolchildren schoolchildren school npl → écoliers mpl; (at secondary school) → collégiens mpl; lycéens mpl schoolchildren school is very, very important.'' Gas is burned off The Bureau of Sanitation is responsible for ensuring gases migrating from the dump do not contaminate con·tam·i·nate v. 1. To make impure or unclean by contact or mixture. 2. To expose to or permeate with radioactivity. con·tam·i·nant n. adjacent properties. The city extracts a large portion of the methane from the dump using vents and burns off the gas with flares. According to district records, school and city officials have been aware of potential methane contamination from the landfill since the early 1980s. A vapor monitoring and alarm system was installed on the north end of the campus in 1993, following several evacuations of the high school's gymnasium. Bob Klewitz, a photography teacher at Poly, said teachers frequently express concern about the effects of long-term health risks from exposure to the gases and toxins. ``Absolutely there is a concern,'' Klewitz said. ``The school should be torn down and rebuilt in another location.'' Parents picking their children up from summer school classes at the high school said they were unaware of the problem. But Sylvia Gonzalez, who works at the school as a liaison to parents, said many of those who live in the immediate vicinity are more than concerned by the fumes. ``They're worried,'' she said. ``Some parents have questions about it and complain about it, but we never really paid too much attention.'' The Bureau of Sanitation monitors the landfill to ensure high levels of methane don't leave the site, and its efforts are supervised by the city Environmental Affairs Commission. The 20 probes at the high school sound alarms when the volume of methane in the air rises above 10,000 parts per million parts per million mg/kg or ml/l; see ppm. . Nevertheless, carcinogens Carcinogens Substances in the environment that cause cancer, presumably by inducing mutations, with prolonged exposure. Mentioned in: Colon Cancer, Rectal Cancer and toxics can be dangerous at lower levels. Concerned by the ``potential health and safety risks at the school,'' the LAUSD School Safety Team met last week with the state toxics officials and the South Coast Air Quality Management District The South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), formed in 1976, is the air pollution agency responsible mainly for regulating stationary sources of air pollution for most of Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside County, and all of Orange county. . ``The state agencies feel a response like this, an aggressive response, is prudent,'' said Angelo Bellomo, the top environmental consultant on the safety team. ``It was the consensus that further samples are warranted.'' New tests slated Bellomo said the district has asked the Bureau of Sanitation to conduct new tests this weekend. Last month, the safety team identified 10 schools where environmental mitigation or monitoring equipment is used, mainly for methane or hazardous solvents, including gasoline, that were present when the schools were built. Thus far, the team has studied two schools in depth, Poly High and Gratts Elementary, finding problems at both campuses. At Gratts, about 12,000 pounds of gasoline had been removed from the soil around the downtown school since it opened three years ago. New tests at the downtown school have found no indication of a health risk, officials said. Among the schools still to be reviewed are Arminta Street Elementary in North Hollywood, where methane migrated from a nearby inactive private landfill, and Germain Street Elementary in Chatsworth, where methane seepage occurs from an unknown source. HAZARDS UNDER STUDY L.A. Unified schools with environmental monitoring, detection or mitigation systems. Arminta Street Elementary 11530 Strathern St., North Hollywood Methane migrating from a nearby inactive private landfill Vapor probes Francis Polytechnic High 12431 Roscoe Blvd., Sun Valley Methane seepage from an adjacent active landfill City-operated methane sensors Germain Street Elementary 20730 Germain St., Chatsworth Methane seepage, source unknown Methane sensors on three portable classrooms Gratts Elementary 309 Lucas Ave., Los Angeles Gasoline fumes from underground soil contamination A pump to extract vapors Hancock Park Elementary 408 S. Fairfax Ave., Los Angeles Naturally occurring methane Fans that turn on under buildings if methane concentrations get too high Jefferson New Middle 644 E. 56th St., Los Angeles Solvents and heavy metals heavy metals, n.pl metallic compounds, such as aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, mercury, and nickel. Exposure to these metals has been linked to immune, kidney, and neurotic disorders. from nearby manufacturing A pump to extract toxic vapors L.A. Technology Center 3721 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles Oil seepage in parking lot, former site of an oil well Underground vapor probes for detection Park Avenue Elementary 8020 Park Ave., Cudahy Oil and tar seeping up to the asphalt playground from fill dirt used to bank the Los Angeles River The Los Angeles River is an intermittent river flowing through Los Angeles County, California, from Canoga Park in the west end of the San Fernando Valley, 51 miles (82 km) southeast to its mouth in Long Beach. A protective polyethylene liner covers a series of collection trenches and pipes under playground 3rd Street Elementary 201 S. June St., Los Angeles Oil contamination from a natural vein of oil County-operated methane sensors Towne Avenue Elementary 18924 Towne Ave., Carson Methane seepage from an adjacent, former county landfill County-operated methane sensors SOURCE: L.A. Unified School District A unified school district is a school district which includes both primary school (kindergarten through middle school or junior high) and high school (grades 9-12). In Illinois, these districts are called unit school districts. Staff Writer Robert Monroe contributed to this article. CAPTION(S): photo, map, box Photo: Margarita Castellanos, custodian at Francis Polytechnic High School, says she can smell odors while working at night. Phil McCarten/Staff Photographer Map: Polytechnic High School Box: Hazards under study (see text) |
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