A study conducted by a team from the University of the West Indies into the Louis Lynch Secondary School was questioned by World Health Organisation investigators in their own report.
Saying the UWI study was “contradictory” in its results on the discovery of perc, which has been linked to cancer, at the school, the report written by Drs Pierre Auger and Marc Rhainds, said: “Unfortunately, the results from tetrachloroethylene (perc) air measurements conducted at the LLSS by the UWI are not conclusive and are quite contradictory.
“As a matter of fact, the tetrachloroethylene concentrations obtained in July 2005 from the first samples collected in many areas of the LLSS and the Tropical Laundries, were definitely abnormal and sometimes over the OSHA (US Occupational Safety and Health Administration) standards (samples from the Tropical Laundries).
“For unexplained reasons,” said the investigators, “tetracloroethylene levels reported by the UWI?scientific team in their subsequent reports (December 2005 and March 2006) were quite low and beneath many of the guidelines proposed.”
They added: “Unfortunately, the authors did not discuss this point or give any explanation for such discrepancy in their results.”
The investigators made it clear that an “evaluation based on the analysis of these data and the occupational standards could result in underestimating the health risk associated with tetracholorethylene in occupants of the LLSS.”
They contended that “even [if] low levels were reported it was important to underline that tetrachloroethylene was not collected in any samples at the Harrison College (control site)?suggesting an abnormal situation at the LLSS.”
And in relation to the detection of perc in the soil near to Tropical Laundries and the eastern boundaries of the school, the report said that the soil was a poor surrogate to estimate chronic exposure to tetrachloroethylene from spilling because that kind of contaminant was not absorbed to the humus or other soil constituent parts and most likely evaporated quickly in the air.
As a result it revealed that this specific environmental condition could be detrimental to health, notably in asthmatic children.
