NC State could develop new PCB testing protocols

It’s been nearly five months since NC State University closed Poe Hall after tests showed the presence of toxic chemicals. Further tests in the campus building, as well as a federal health evaluation, remain ongoing — but as those processes unfold, the university could adopt new protocols for how, and when, it tests other buildings for similar chemicals in the future.

Chancellor Randy Woodson told The News & Observer in a sit-down interview that he has instructed university officials to review new federal guidelines regarding PCBS — or polychlorinated biphenyls, the man-made chemicals detected in Poe Hall — and consider how the university might add PCB testing to the other tests the university performs when beginning a construction or renovation project.

The university already tests for a variety of contaminants, such as asbestos and lead, before beginning work in a building, Woodson said. Now, the chancellor is asking the university’s Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) department to “develop protocols for going forward, how we will assess the built environment ... when we’re going into a building to do work.”

“We’re working right now on developing protocols for PCB testing going forward,” Woodson said.

New guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency, which became effective Feb. 26, “are expected to result in quicker, more efficient, and less costly cleanups, due to greater flexibility in the cleanup and disposal of PCB waste, while still being equally protective of human health and the environment,” according to a description in the Federal Register.