Daycare Center Located Near Toxic Waste Site

Attorney General Spitzer today released a report recommending that steps be taken to avoid problems such as those associated with a Tutor Time daycare center in Mineola that was located next door to a federal Superfund toxic waste site.

"It is disturbing that young children spent their days at a childcare center located next door to a toxic waste site and that their parents were not informed of a potential health problem," said Spitzer. "We need to ensure that environmental agencies and agencies that license daycare centers take decisive action to prevent situations like this from happening again."

Long Island Congresswoman Carolyn McCarthy, whose two grandchildren attended the daycare center, said: "I am encouraged by the Attorney General's recommendations for daycare centers. After working with the Environmental Protection Agency and Tutor Time on this issue for almost two years, I never want to have to explain to another parent that the EPA does not know how or why children have been exposed to dangerous chemicals at their daycare center."

Tutor Time operates a chain of 200 daycare centers from its corporate headquarters in Boca Raton, Florida. From 1995 until April 2002, Tutor Time ran a daycare center at 80 Herricks Road in Mineola. The center was immediately adjacent to the Jackson Steel federal Superfund site. About 150 children were enrolled at the daycare center.

The Attorney General's Report - - Daycare Centers and Superfund Sites: A Parent's Right to Know - - makes several recommendations to help avoid another situation like the Tutor Time case, including:

• Notifying parents of the presence of any Superfund site located near the childcare facility where their children are enrolled;
   
• Requesting that the federal Environmental Protection Agency test daycare facilities when they may be affected by pollutants emanating from a nearby Superfund site;
   
• Notifying parents of all children attending a daycare center, including children no longer enrolled in the facility, when tests show possible exposure to potentially harmful amounts of a toxic substance from a Superfund site; and,
   
• Providing updated lists of federal and state Superfund sites to state and county agencies that license, oversee or operate daycare centers.Jackson Steel, Tutor Time's neighbor, manufactured metal forms from 1977 until 1991 and disposed of perchloroethylene ("perc") and other contaminants at the site next to the daycare center. Perc is a solvent used in industrial settings and dry cleaners as a de-greasing agent. Perc, which is classified as a probable human carcinogen, affects the liver and kidneys and the reproductive and central nervous systems. Because of the high level of contamination at Jackson Steel, the site was designated a Class 2 federal Superfund site by the Environmental Protection Agency in 2000, meaning the site was determined to pose a significant threat to the public health or environment.

The Jackson Steel building and its chemical dumping site are less than one hundred feet from the site where the Tutor Time childcare center was located.

The Attorney General's report noted that air sampling at the daycare center first took place only after a concerned parent contacted the Nassau County Health Department to inquire about the Jackson Steel Superfund site next to her child's daycare center.

Air sampling revealed the presence of perc in the indoor air at the daycare center. Tutor Time was directed by Nassau County to increase the fresh air flow into the building, but did not do so until a second round of sampling showed that levels of perc inside the daycare center were above the state-recommended residential guidance level. Tutor Time and the Environmental Protection Agency then installed carbon filters and a sub-slab vapor extraction system (a series of pipes under the building's slab vented to outside air) designed to reduce contamination inside the building. Subsequent testing showed that these measures reduced perc levels to well below state guidance levels, although the indoor air remained slightly above typical perc levels found in residential settings.

Following the disclosure of the sampling results in January 2002, many of the parents removed their children from Tutor Time, which closed on April 26, 2002.

The Attorney General's report makes a series of recommendations ranging from notification of parents to a requirement that the Environmental Protection Agency test daycare centers when there is reason to believe they may be contaminated with toxic chemicals from a nearby toxic site.

The Attorney General's Office noted that the Nassau County Health Department was particularly cooperative in responding to the problem at Tutor Time.

The Attorney General's report on Tutor Time is available on the Attorney General's website at www.ag.ny.gov.

The report was prepared by Deputy Bureau Chief Gordon J. Johnson and Environmental Scientists John Davis and Judith Schreiber, Ph.D., of the Attorney General's Environmental Protection Bureau.

Attachments:

• Attorney General's report on Tutor Time

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