Iowa (Radio Iowa) — Some older Iowa school buildings are housing some cancer-causing chemicals, according to University of Iowa researchers.
The researchers say children may be exposed to airborne P-C-Bs in schools that were built between 1950 and the mid-1970s. P-C-Bs were banned in 1979.
Keri Hornbuckle, a University of Iowa professor of civil and environmental engineering, says they expected to find more airborne P-C-Bs outside of schools.
Hornbuckle says likely sources include old caulking around windows and fluorescent light fixtures. Replacing those materials can reduce the concentration of P-C-Bs in a school. Hornbuckle says it’s long been known P-C-Bs are in some foods and that’s how scientists expect children take in most of those chemicals.
The report says P-C-B levels found so far in Iowa schools are BELOW what’s considered dangerous by the Environmental Protection Agency, but Hornbuckle says they ARE high enough to be concerning.
