Clive McFarlane: Mariano’s criticism is a disservice to school officials – Worcester Telegram

Clive McFarlane Telegram & Gazette Staff @CliveMcFarlane

There are some kinds of charlatan that you dont have to be, even to be a fading political operative.

Those of you who have read "All the King's Men" by Robert Penn Warren know that I could have been more pointed with my opening remarks.

Nevertheless, the meaning of those words requires no historical elucidation when applied to former mayor and School Committee member Raymond Mariano, who lately has been on a reckless rant over the issue of possible PCB contamination in two of the citys school buildings.

In his pontification on the issue, Mr. Mariano has pulled no punches in impugning the character and integrity of Mayor Joseph Petty, Superintendent Maureen Binienda and School Committee members in what he views as their seeming lack of empathy for students and staff who may be exposed to PCBs in the schools.

He is pretty much accusing them of collusion in poisoning students and staff members.

How can they be proud when they hid the fact that there were potentially serious health risks in their buildings (from) students and staff for years, he wrote in the Worcester Sun.

Even when they were removing poisons in some other buildings, they never told anyone.

Lets be clear. PCB exposure has been a health concern nationwide. Most buildings built in the '50s through the '70s were constructed with PCB materials.

As such, Mr. Marianos current interest suggests he is coming at it from strictly a personal and emotional angle. (His wife works at Burncoat.) Otherwise, he would have done something about it during the almost 25 years he spent in political office in the city, including eight years as mayor and at least eight years as chairman of the School Committee.The science around PCBs is the same now as it was during his tenure in office.

That changed after he left.The city has tackled the issue, and appears to have followed EPA best practices in managing potential exposure in the schools.

The city, for example, has spent some $54 million replacing windows and light ballasts over the last several years in the schools. It has been, on EPAguidelines, encapsulating windows with cracking and peeling paint.

To put the PCB issue in context, here are some questions and answers posted by the Massachusetts Department of Health and Human Services.

Q. Are health concerns associated with PCB exposure opportunities?

A. Although the epidemiological evidence is sometimes conflicting, most health agencies have concluded that PCBs may reasonably be anticipated to be a carcinogen, i.e., to cause cancer.

Q. If PCBs are present in caulking material, does that mean exposure and health impacts are likely?

A. No. MDPH/(Bureau of Environmental)review of available data suggests that if caulking is intact, no appreciable exposures to PCBs are likely and hence health effects would not be expected.

Q. Does MDPH recommend testing of caulking in buildings built during the 1950s -1980?

A. Caulking that is intact should not be disturbed.

Among EPA best practices are the recommendation to remove PCB caulking and other materials during planned renovations and repairs, and to consider encapsulation to reduce PCB exposure.

Jack Foley and Brian OConnell, two of the longest serving members of the School Committee, told me Wednesday that few other communities in New England have done more than they have done or are doing to deal with PCBs in the schools.

To suggest, as Mr. Mariano has done, that they have been derelict in their duties is grossly unfair.

It is an inaccurate assessment of the facts, Mr. OConnell said.

It flies in the face of facts and the actions we have taken over the past several years.

Both committee members spoke about light ballast removal, encapsulation and other remediation efforts at Burncoat and Doherty high schools. Since both schools are priorities for renovation and replacement, substantial window replacement would reduce the likelihood of school building assistance from the state, they noted.

Interestingly, Doherty and Burncoat are the only two schools Mr. Mariano seems concerned about.

He explains this bysaying the School Committee has done a good job dealing with the issue in the other schools. How does he know this? Because the school administration told him so, he said. Yet, he suggests the administration is lying, or, in his words, not being forthright, when it says it is also following best practices at Burncoat and Doherty.

Mr. Mariano claims he has anecdotal evidence to the contrary, that the administration has been lax in cleaning and maintaining the ventilation system at the two schools, and that the administration was able to get away with it because it never told staff what the best practices were for dealing with PCBs.

This seems rather odd, since it was ateachers union member, as part of his dissertation, who first raised concerns about PCBs at these two schools. It is difficult to understand how the union then didnt share best PCB remedial practices with its members.

Here is the bottom line. If Mr. Mariano was saying the city has done its due diligence in dealing with the PCB issues, but that there are ways in which it can improve those efforts, that would be one thing.

But his characterization of the issue as a seemingly dereliction of duty by the city, and his suggestion that this supposed inattention might be linked to staff members at those schools being diagnosed with cancer, is shameful and reckless.

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Clive McFarlane: Mariano's criticism is a disservice to school officials - Worcester Telegram