Clark County public defenders have evacuated from their Downtown office over building contamination fears. The office’s 100-plus attorneys are now in a temporary working space in another county building.
They cite PCBs, or polychlorinated biphenyls, as the culprit. PCBs are commonly used in electrical equipment. They are known carcinogens, with the potential to harm thyroid, liver, and heart function. The US government banned their manufacture in 1979.
Legal experts like Eve Hanan, a professor at UNLV’s Boyd School of Law and former public defender, say the immediate concern is how the loss of the uniquely suited Clark County public defender building and law library are going to impact the trial system…