Dioxin Dorms Blog :: SUNY New Paltz

WHEN the college talks to reporters about the dioxin dorms, they have to avoid the issues. If they face the issues consciously, they get into trouble. They have always taken this tack. It is easy, and it works pretty good.

Here is a for-instance.

For years, I have been saying they have a problem with their ventilation ducts in the four dormitories. They know about this problem, from their own internal memoranda, cleanup recrods, and from my articles. Indeed, I have spent much of my journalism career writing about the vents in Capen and Gage halls. I have personally taken samples from those vents, and published the results many times (scan the contents page of Dioxin Dorms and you will find most of them; here are my latest results).

Here is what a college administrator, John Schupe, recently told a reporter in this article:

“The dorms at SUNY New Paltz are not (and never have been) heated with a ducted air ventilation system. They have always been heated by radiant hot water heat. Hence, there are NO heating vents to be concerned with re. the spreading of any contaminants. The articles on the site keep referring to contamination in the ventilation system - and noting that state and college officials have never tested the vents. The problem with that argument, Shupe explained, is that there are no heating vents to test.”

I have never said there was a ducted hot air ventilation system — rather, I have been clear that there are exhaust vents in the bathrooms, showers, lounges and utility rooms; and hot water radiators in the student rooms. Dioxins don’t care what kinds of vents you have, or what kind of heat; they follow any openings in the building on the way to someplace else.

The reservoirs of contamination are contained in those systems, according to their data — and mine.

The “there are no vents” ruse is famous. Indeed, it is so famous, we put it on the cover of Dioxin Dorms — click to see the graphic.

As for the heat, it’s the most crucial issue in the cleanup or lack thereof. In 1992, the state’s cleanup contractor discovered that smoke moved from the transformer vault out through the radiators in Bliss Hall. This was during a simulation test. Here is the article. If you or your son or daughter lives in one of the four dorms, this article is worth 10 minutes of your time.

Finally, the article claims that administrators say there were no explosions. That is interesting; I personally listened to and transcribed the police and fire communications tape from Dec. 29, 1991 — there was an explosion in Gage Hall reported by University Police (I would be happy to provide the transcript to any interested party), and there was a very powerful explosion in Bliss Hall. If you would like to see a picture of the aftermath see the image above, or click here.

The force of this explosion shook an ambulance parked 75 feet away, and blew toxins through the building such that student property in half the rooms was put into a toxic waste dump (the other half was returned to them). It is astonishing that the college allows anyone to live in Bliss Hall.

Sorry if this is too much information, but after I took this picture, I went home and threw up for three hours, as did my friend Ian McGowan, who was with me. I was then in bed for several days. But from what I hear, I am lucky: at least my immune system revolted against a single, probably pretty high, dose of dioxin.

Students now living in the dorms face the opposite: longterm, lower-level exposure that will slowly grate on their endocrine and immune systems. And, needless to say, this is not why students came to the campus.

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