Tuesday, November 1, 2011

PCBs in Schools and Municipalities

To help older schools and municipalities meet the challenges and costs that result from the discovery of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), the environmental services firm EH&E has created a free white paper that details the nature of PCBs in buildings, required compliance issues, potential liabilities and current risk management strategies for dealing with these toxins. "The scientific, engineering and regulatory aspects of building-related PCBs are complex and development of safe, cost effective solutions requires a detailed understanding of their often subtle interrelationships,” says John McCarthy EH&E’s president. “Attempting to address this issue with incomplete information can dramatically impact the cost of operations, renovation or demolition of a building. Costs can quickly rise to millions of dollars for a single school building.” The paper helps to identify potential risks, avoid regulatory mishaps, address PCB-containing materials in a systematic manner and maintain a healthy school environment. It also provides guidance on how to assess both the need for and the cost of any remediation efforts so that these costs can be appropriately managed and minimized in the project budget.