Panel: No Health Risk at School

A city-appointed committee of area public health experts has found no sign that Cambridge's only high school poses serious health risks to its students and faculty, a school department spokesperson said yesterday.

The committee--which includes health experts at Harvard, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the state--was appointed last month after the principal of the Cambridge Rindge and Latin School (CRLS) collapsed with a brain tumor. Although spokesperson Albert Giroux said the tumor was probably not related to the school's environment, he added that it had caused panic among the faculty.

Professor of Biostatistics James H. Ware and other panel members met with parents last week to inform them that the building is relatively safe, said Giroux. A preliminary analysis found no connection between the air quality problem and cancer, Giroux added.

$500,00 Spent on Problem

Faculty and students have been complaining for seven years of poor air quality leading to dizziness and respiratory difficulties. The city has spent over $500,000 to study and correct the problem.

In April, School Superintendent Mary Lou McGrath and City Manager Robert W. Healy asked Harvard's School of Public Health to gather experts in building contamination and environmental health.

Environmental Health and Engineering Inc. will conduct extensive studies in the next few weeks for the panel to analyze. The school will implement the panel's suggestions over the summer, and Healy has promised the school as much money as necessary to solve the problem, according to Giroux.

In addition, the administration has met with the faculty every afternoon since Principal Edward Sarasin took sick to discuss the problem. The high school's faculty also met with the panel last week.

Sarasin collapsed in his office on April 22, and a tumor was removed from his brain on May 2.

The principal's attack came just months after another administrator, Assistant Principal Warren Ferzocco, died of cancer in December. The two illnesses have sparked great concern at the school.

But members of the city's investigative panel say that there is no need to worry. They deny a link between the illnesses and the school, despite the building's history of problems.

"It's nothing life threatening," said Melvin H. Chalfen '50, the city's commissioner of health and hospitals. "There is no connection to cancer that any of us can determine," he added.

Chaflen described the results of poor heating and ventilation as "respiratory difficulties, allergies, skin irritations, headaches and fatigue."

Shortly after Sarasin's attack, School Superintendent Mary Lou McGrath ordered that the school's ventilation system operate at full force, 24-hours-a-day. Previously, the system had operated on a "heat conservation" basis, said Giroux.

And at the request of the School Committee, the city removed carpets in the CRLS art center last December, where mold and mildew resulting from dampness had caused irritation.

Chalfen said the type of complaints made about the CRLS facility are common to buildings built in the late 1970s. At that time, many structures were built with sealed windows and inadequate ventilation in an effort to conserve energy, resulting in the so-called "sick building" syndrome, he said.

"We have always given high priority to the problem of poor air quality," said School Committee member Larry Weinstein. "Now we must give it our highest priority. We've moved it to number one on the agenda."

Air Tested in 1985

In 1985, Dr. Francis Berlandi of Touchstone Environmental Consultants tested the school's air for silicone, sulphur, chloride, iron, calcium, volatile organic compounds, formaldehyde, pesticides, carbon monoxide and airborne bacteria, but according to Giroux he did not find higher than normal concentrations of any of these. However, ventilation was found to be poor, Giroux added.

The school system has made several attempts to improve the ventilation system, Giroux said. Officials cleared clogged ventilation shafts, replaced broken fans and added new fans in parts of the school with poor circulation, Giroux said.

In addition, several experts who have visited the school have concluded that the extent of the problem was limited to ventilation. Giroux said that in 1983, a committee from the state found a high, but non-toxic level of carbon dioxide at the school. Later that year, David A. Link, chief of pediatrics at the Harvard-affiliated Mt. Auburn Hospital, confirmed those results.

Over the last five years, officials from such groups as the federal Center for Disease Control, Applied Researches Group and a maintainance engineer with Johnson Controls inspected the building and determined that ventilation was the main problem.