University of Iowa researchers say they’re finding cancer-causing chemicals in some older Iowa schools. 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 U-I professor of civil and environmental engineering, says they expected to find more airborne P-C-Bs outside of schools.
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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.
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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’re high enough to be concerning.