State Rep. Yvonne Hayes Hinson stated in a March 31 press release that state and local environmental agencies found no current health risk to students or staff from chemical toxins previously detected at Joseph Williams Elementary School in southeast Gainesville.
A recent Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) report revealed that some air samples collected on campus late last year detected several chemicals slightly above levels the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable for long-term residential exposure. But most of those samples fell below the University of Florida’s school specific thresholds for air pollutants, which are based on the exposure levels of students who are not on campus for extended periods.
The samples, collected in Nov. 2025 from the school’s Building 2, detected four chemical toxins at varying levels: benzene, carbon tetrachloride, chloroform and naphthalene…