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You know that rubbery caulking material around windows and brick walls?inside this lab at the harvard school of public health researchers found caulking material used in buildings built between the 50's and 70's contain a hazardous chemical that could affect people's health.

The chemical is called polychlorinated biphenyl or p-c-b.

"Would you consider high levels of p-c-b's to be dangerous? i think they are extremely dangerous."

Harvard researcher Robert Herrick says pcb's can have a negative effect on people's reproductive, and endocrine systems.

"They're known to cause cancer in animals, suspected to cause cancer in humans, and also associated with a wide variety of toxic effects"

Robert and his team randomly tested 24 buildings in the Boston area�including schools, churches, and police stations�.in at least one third of the buildings they found pcb contamination in the caulk�some pcb levels reached nearly a **thousand times higher than the federal standard.

"I'd like to see people more aware!"

George Weymouth is a retired mason with more than 30 years experience�he used to build local schools.

"Have you delt with this particular type of caulking? yes. In the state of Rhode Island? yes. I've worked all over new england"

George says he's experienced toxic symptoms he feels were caused by high levels of pcb's.

"We had no idea it was a hazardous material. And now my sons are replacing it and they had no idea it was a hazardous material"

Experts say caulk containing pcb's were widely used between the 50's and 70's�.

"The more we look the more we find. It's amazing" back in 2000 you may recall when URI administrators shut down the Chafee Social Science center after crews found pcb levels 600 times higher than the federal standard �

Kevin Coughlan was the environmental consultant on the job.

"Do you feel there are more buildings in rhode island that have this problem? i would bet there are"

Currently there are no federal regulations forcing building owners to test caulk.

"So if they do nothing at all and don't look for it they'll be below the radar screen, but if they do look for it, they're gonna find themselves in a very expensive situation in cleaning up the building."

URI officials spent more than 3 million dollars cleaning up the contamination.

"What's the biggest problem here?" "I think the greatest concern is the disposition of the material��.and it's going into landfills"

Robert says to properly dispose the caulk it should be seperated and cooked at a very high temperature. "

Are you finding people removing this properly? no."

Harvard researchers feel the epa needs to take action and further study the issue.