NYC-WTC_000152373

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

Traces of asbestos further setback forHS Findings could delay Stuyvesant reopeniTig By AUSON GENOAR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Asbestos was found inside Stuyvesant High School in tests last week, raising concerns that the school near the World Trade Center wreckage is contaminated with the cancer-causing substance, the Board of Education said yesterday. Three dust samples taken in­ Worried parents and experts air quality outside the high side the high school Sept. 21 con­ yesterday questioned whether school — and throughout lower tained asbestos fibers, said Ber­ the schools should be reopened Manhattan — was safe. nard Orlan, the Board of Ed’s di­ as planned in two weeks. Wary “The air quality is safe and ac­ rector of environmental health Stuyvesant parents have enlist­ ceptable. I know there are peo­ and safety. ed their own experts to deter­ ple concerned and worried A dozen air samples taken the mine whether the school is safe. about it, but that’s just the reali­ same day, however, were free of Board of Ed officials said they ty,” Giuliani said. airborne asbestos, the most dan­ were confident a $1 million “Stuyvesant High School can gerous form. cleanup launched this week at be open now,” the mayor said, Asbestos-laden dust samples Stuyvesant would ensure that but added that the reopening also were found inside Public the school would be ready to re­ date was set for Oct. 9 to ensure School 150 on Greenwich St., open Oct. 9. the school is cleaned “in a way though the air tests were clean. At PS 150, which has only 12 that is environmentally and total­ The Daily News reported yes­ classrooms, cleaning was com­ ly safe.” terday that dust samples taken pleted last weekend. The school But critics, such as the New by the federal Environmental is to reopen Thursday. The other York Environmental Law & Jus­ Protection Agency outside six Ground Zero schools will get tice Project, contend Stuyvesant Stuyvesant on Sept. 19 found as­ the same cleaning for asbestos and the seven other schools in bestos at twice the permitted lev­ even if tests are negative, Orlan the area evacuated after the di­ el. The agency said it has not yet said. saster should remain closed tested air quality inside the “The standard we are using to until the Trade Center excava­ school. clean Stuyvesant and the other tion is finished and the fires that schools is; Unless I’m willing to have flared since the towers Parents learn results crumbled are out. put my child in there, I won’t put Yesterday’s announcement anyone else’s in the school,” he was the first official confirma­ said. tion that asbestos had been de­ tected inside the schools, ‘Air quality is safe’ though parents groups have Mayor Giuliani and city health been told some of the results. officials yesterday insisted the

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