Hi my name is Joshua Malina,

You may have heard about a dangerous chemical—called Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs)—polluting places like the Hudson River, San Francisco Bay and Anniston, Alabama. From 1950 to 1979, a dangerous building material made by Monsanto was used in many buildings, including schools. I had no idea that nearly 40 years after this material was banned by the EPA it would still be a threat to my children’s health.

Almost exactly two years ago, a group of parents from Malibu Middle and Malibu High School, myself included, learned that three teachers at our children’s school had been diagnosed with thyroid cancer within months of one another. Now 14 of 30 teachers, almost 50% are struggling with thyroid disease. 

After tests were conducted at the school, parents and teachers alike were shocked to learn that classrooms were contaminated with extremely high levels of PCBs , a cancer-causing toxic chemical that was banned by Congress in 1976 under the Toxic Substance Control Act (TSCA), stating they are “an unacceptable risk to human health,” and tasking the EPA to remove all PCBs from use.

PCBs are known to cause a host of very serious health issues, including those affecting the thyroid. I along with several other parents, withdrew our children from the school for fear of further health risks.

Even though Congress banned the use of PCBs almost 40 years ago, the EPA has refused to order testing in the thousands of American schools built between 1950 and 1979. Furthermore, even when schools have found PCBs at higher than acceptable levels, the EPA has not taken action to enforce the law that requires schools to remove these PCBs and, in some cases, has even promoted a “Don’t Test, Don’t Know” policy to evade the law.

We need your help to protect America’s children from the dangers of PCBs. Call on EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy  to follow the EPA’s own rules and make schools built between 1950-1979 test for and remove all PCBs from their campuses. Meanwhile, our children continue to be exposed to these dangerous cancer-causing chemicals.

Even with an unambiguous law requiring their removal, the EPA is doing next to nothing to identify and remove PCBs from schools and therefore is putting America’s children and teachers at unnecessary risk.

Countries like Finland and Sweden took immediate action to remove PCB-laden material from the country’s schools once the dangers of PCBs became known to them. They made it a priority to protect their most precious resource -- their children. If other countries can do what’s right, so can we.

Please join me in asking the EPA to do the right thing by ordering mandatory testing and subsequent removal of PCBs from our schools.

Thanks for your consideration,

Joshua Malina and America Unites for Kids

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