On Monday night, parents of current and former PS 51 students met with state officials to ask questions and discuss their concerns about potential health effects caused by contamination at the school’s former site on Jerome Avenue. The building, which was home to the Bronx New School for nearly two decades, tested positive last year for high levels  of trichloroethylene (TCE), a toxin linked to cancer.

Representatives from the State Departments of Health and Environmental Conservation met with Community Board 7 members and PS 51 parents, who have been organizing with the Northwest Bronx Community and Clergy Coalition under the name PS 51 Parents United.

“It’s very scary when its your child, and it’s not something we really know much about,” said Helene Hartman-Kutnowsky, who sits on CB 7’s sanitation and environmental committee, and whose daughter, now 18, attended PS 51 for six years.

Lenny Siegel, of the California-based Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO), was on hand to discuss some of the possible health effects linked to TCE exposure. After explaining how and why they believe the contamination was present ever since the school moved into the former lighting manufacturing plant 20 years ago, Siegel sought to allay parents’ fears that their children are at a high risk for illness.

While acknowledging that the level of exposure (for students, staff and parents) was “unacceptable,” he said the risk for exposure-related illness “isn’t that enormous.” Studies have found, he told the audience, that for every 10,000 people with exposure levels similar to those found at the former PS 51 building, one person will get sick over a 30-year period.

“It’s not a slam dunk that because you were [exposed at the PS 51 building], you will get sick,” he said. He added that the more engaged community is, the better prepared they will be to deal with any exposure-related health issues that might come up.

Hartman-Kutnowsky said she thought the meeting went well, adding that the state officials have been cooperative in working with the board and answering the community’s questions. Parents were not necessarily re-assured, she said, but were glad to have officials providing more information and answering their questions directly.

The city’s Department of Education, however, has been less responsive, she said. Parents and community leaders say the DOE has been reluctant to provide answers from the start, and that not all PS 51 parents have been notified by the city about the contamination.

“I would say maybe between a third and half of the people I know who actually got letters,” Hartman-Kutnowsky said.

PS 51 Parents United is hoping to set up their own Community Advisory Group, which would oversee how the city and state are handling the issue. The group wants to ensure that all parents of students who attended school at 3200 Jerome Ave and their physicians know about the TCE levels, and are urging the city to establish a medical registry and medical monitoring program for all students who attended school there.

“We know we have a finite set of people that were exposed to a chemical, and if we don’t have a central area to try and keep track of all of this, it just doesn’t make sense,” Hartman-Kutnowsky said. “If something emerges that does become a pattern, we can learn from it and prevent other things from happening, or at least know what we should looking for.”