Harlem Should Lead Push to End Dirty Heating Oil, Board Says

Harlem Should Lead Push to End Dirty Heating Oil, Board Says

May 6, 2011

With the country's highest child asthma rates, Harlem schools should be the first to stop using dirty oil, CB 10 said.

Black smoke billowing from Harriet Tubman elementary school on West 127th streets between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard. (Courtesy Community Board 10)

By Jeff Mays

DNAinfo Reporter/Producer

HARLEM — With some of the highest asthma rates among children in the country and eight public schools that burn the dirtiest type of heating oil, a city plan to phase out the pollutant should begin in Central Harlem, Community Board 10 said.

"Because of the adverse affects of asthma in Central Harlem we should be first," said CB 10 chair W. Franc Perry.

Perry cited the black smoke billowing from Harriet Tubman elementary school on West 127th streets between Adam Clayton Powell Jr. Boulevard and Frederick Douglass Boulevard.

"The black smoke comes out first thing in the morning," said Perry.

Under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's PlaNYC, boilers that burn heating oils No.4 and No.6, which emit black soot that increases asthma, heart attacks and premature deaths, would be phased out by 2030.

Boilers using the dirtiest form of oil, No. 6, must switch to a lower sulfur form of No. 4. By 2030, even No. 4 would be phased out in favor of cleaner alternatives.

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