North Carolina State University plans to demolish Poe Hall after receiving approval to do so from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
The Raleigh News & Observer reports that Poe Hall, the building on the Raleigh campus that once housed the university’s education department, contains harmful chemicals known as PCBs, and former occupants of the building say that concentration is the cause of their cancer.
The university says to expect to see fencing go up around the building as early as this week as it prepares for “Poe Hall’s abatement and eventual demolition.”
The building was shut down in 2023. Earlier this year, a federal investigation confirmed elevated levels of certain types of cancer among former employees and students, but researchers couldn’t say for certain whether the PCBs they found in the building were the cause.
Multiple lawsuits surrounding Poe Hall are active. A group of 12 sickened people who once worked or studied in the building have sued the university and the chemical company Monsanto, which originally developed PCBs. That group includes three deceased people whose estates are involved in the lawsuit.
The university has also sued Monsanto.
Former student and employee Sandra Alford — who is a member of the group of sick plaintiffs — filed a petition suggesting that the university’s initial plan to remediate and renovate the building may have amounted to destruction of evidence.
North Carolina State says that following the demolition, the university plans to construct a new building for the College of Education.
