Student Leaders, County Legislators and Concerned Community Members Meet with NY State Health Department Officials

On May 16th, 2007, in a student meeting with the SUNY New Paltz administration, President Steven Poskanzer and other administrators claimed no responsibility for developing the testing protocols and administering the campus cleanup following the 1991 PCB & Dioxin explosion. They asserted that the NY State Department of Health maintained complete authority over the situation and offered to set up a meeting with Health Department officials in order to alleviate any concerns students may have regarding PCB & Dioxin contamination and exposure on the SUNY New Paltz campus.

As a result of that meeting, on June 22nd, 2007, student leaders, Ulster County legislators, environmental advocates and concerned community members met with officials from the NY State Department of Health and SUNY New Paltz administrators in a meeting coordinated by John Shupe, the Head of Facilities for the SUNY New Paltz Campus. The intention of this meeting was to clarify who was responsible for the cleanup and maintenance of the campus over the 16 years following the incident and to determine what further steps to take in order to ease the increasing concern among citizens about the seriously adverse health effects of exposure to PCBs and Dioxin.

The New York State Department of Health stated that SUNY was indeed responsible for the cleanup. When asked why we were told in a previous meeting that SUNY wasn't responsible, Shupe replied, "WE NEVER SAID THAT." I'm sorry, Mr.Shupe, but we recorded the meeting and it is on record.

Jessica Coleman, president of the Student Association, and Jenna Dern, president of the student activist group Synthesis, presented the State Health Department and SUNY New Paltz administration with a cohesive list of desired protocols for peer-review testing of the four buildings in question. Dean Palen of the NY State Department of Health, the person responsible for overseeing the re-opening of the buildings 16 years ago, and the man who ordered the "arms-length cleanup" of the ventilation units in Gage Hall in 1994 (after tests taken by Eric Francis showed extremely high levels of contamination) agreed to review the students' requests and come back with an answer at a meeting scheduled for several weeks later. At that meeting, on July 2nd, the answer to the students call for re-testing was denied. Ed Horn of the NY State Dept. of Health reasserted, as he did in the June 22nd meeting, that although they acknowledge there is contamination in the buildings, students do not have direct contact with the toxins (because they are located in ducts, vents and inside the walls) and there is no danger. Therefore, according to their logic, the buildings are safe and there is no risk.

We, as students of SUNY New Paltz, believe that the NY State Department of Health and the SUNY New Paltz administration are taking unnecessary risks with people's lives and future generations in order to avoid potentially significant financial liabilities, when they can simply close down buildings that are known to be contaminated. There is much evidence to support this claim. Please read the attached information and articles to educate yourself more fully about the risks of PCB and dioxin exposure and the negligence of the people in charge of handling this issue with true integrity.