Possible PCBs raise cancer concerns for former Hartford students

May 1, 2023Updated: May 1, 2023 6:34 p.m.

The city of Hartford closed the school in January 2015 after discovering PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, in the building. PCBs are known to cause cancer as well as other health problems when inhaled, ingested or contacted with skin. Unlike lead and asbestos, school districts are not required to test for PCBs, but the materials were used in school buildings in the 1950s through the 1970s.

Alumni of Hartford Public Schools across the city are now wondering if their cancer diagnoses could be linked to the school they attended.

The district notified parents of Clark's closure in 2015 and the potential for PCB exposure. The district also filed a lawsuit that year against Monsanto, the manufacturing company associated with the construction of the school. The lawsuit cited "dangerous" levels of PCBs in the building when the school closed, court documents show.

"In 2015, Hartford Public Schools communicated to all families that students and staff at Clark Elementary School would be relocated while testing was conducted," a spokesperson for Hartford Public Schools said in a statement. "In that communication and others, the district provided resources as well as contact information for personnel at the Connecticut Department of Public Health so families could ask questions about PCBs. Furthermore, the district also hosted a family meeting so concerned members of the community could meet with the former superintendent and her staff."

The lawsuit, filed on behalf of the city, remains pending in court. Monsanto filed a motion for summary judgement against the city more than three years ago that remains pending before the Federal District Court in Connecticut. 

"We believe the claims against the company are without merit as the evidence in this case demonstrates that multiple federal, state and local government agencies found that the levels of PCBs detected at the Clark School did not present a health risk," according to a statement from Bayer, the company that acquired Monsanto in 2018. "As the plaintiffs’ own experts have admitted, there are no scientific studies demonstrating that PCBs volatilize from caulk at levels capable of causing human disease or that PCB levels in the Clark School were unsafe."

In a similar 2017 decision involving the town of Westport, a different court ruled in Monsanto's favor. 

While Clark is at the center of the lawsuit, it is not the only Hartford school where officials say students and staff may have been exposed to toxins.

Hartford renovated several school buildings built between 1950 and 1979 with materials "potentially containing" PCBs, officials said. These buildings are Annie Fisher, Classical Magnet, Global Communications Academy, Hartford Public High School, Environmental Science Magnet at Mary Hooker, Kinsella Magnet (Van Block) and Weaver High School.

While the district notified current students about the PCBs and the renovations, not everyone was informed of the toxins. Among those in the dark were students who attended Clark and other potential exposure sites dating back to when the doors first opened.

"I was diagnosed with breast cancer, triple negative breast cancer, which is like an aggressive form," said Latoya Coombs, a former Annie Fisher student. "All of a sudden, I noticed like a bunch of my classmates were being diagnosed with cancer as well."

Coombs attended Annie Fisher from 1989 to 1996 and worked at Clark School from 2013 until the doors closed in 2015. She said no one contacted her to suggest additional cancer screening after her time in the schools. In fact, she didn't begin to consider a link between her health conditions and the schools until this year when she saw posts on social media about the situation.

The group BLM860 has brought new attention to PCBs and their effects in Hartford.

"We found out about the PCBs because someone's funeral is occurring," said Ivelisse Correa-Ojeda, a Hartford resident and one of the leaders of BLM860, referring to her son's father, who died of cancer.

"We linked it to a whole bunch of people that he went to elementary school with. And we saw that the city of Hartford has been well aware of this for years and didn't do any outreach. So we did it ourselves."

Correa-Ojeda has been combing through obituaries and GoFundMe pages of former Hartford students to learn more about the ailments they face in hopes she can notify them about the potential PCB exposure.

"Everyone who went to those schools, everyone who worked in those schools deserves to know and deserved to know before this," Correa-Ojeda said.

In the Clay Arsenal neighborhood where Clark is located, the life expectancy is 74.8 years, almost five years less than the life expectancy in Hartford overall.

While it is unclear what levels of PCBs existed, if any, at the schools that were renovated, advocates and former students want more transparency. 

The city declined to comment about the status of testing at schools other than Clark, the subject of the 2015 lawsuit. The city alleges Monsanto knew about the dangers of PCBs dating back to the 1930s.

While BLM860 has brought the situation back into the spotlight, Arien Wilkerson, who was born and raised in Hartford's North End, has been fighting for justice at the Clark school for years. Wilkerson founded the Vault Project, which intended to create a plan for the abandoned Clark school.

"Toys, chairs — just imagine, you're like living in a war country and you have to go and you can't take anything," Wilkerson said. "They left the school like that and it has been sitting there for about eight years."

In recent years, Wilkerson has toured the site where he says people have been living since it is a large building with many warm places to sleep.

"The weeds are growing," Wilkerson said. "What they do is they keep fencing and fencing and fencing, and they keep putting these tiny, tiny little yellow signs that say 'PCB contamination: stay away,' but no information. Nothing has been given to any of these communities."

The future of the Clark School, testing and the health of former students and teachers is uncertain. Correa-Ojeda is circulating a survey asking residents to share their cancer experiences after attending Clark and Annie Fisher.

Wilkerson hopes the city will commit funding to test all Hartford schools for PCBs as well as remediation of Clark, a mission of the Vault Project.

"There's been a lack of transparency about whether or not schools have had already tested for PCBs or are planning on doing so," Wilkerson said. "Once the school has tested air quality, there's no efficient manner for conveying the test results to the families they serve."

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect Monsanto was a manufacturing company associated with the construction of Clark Elementary School.

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