Princeton residents are concerned about a smell caused by a coating at a construction site last week. The coating was "toxic," according to a town report.
PRINCETON - Jennifer Cohan couldn't sleep in her house Thursday night.
Red eyes and coughing fits forced Cohan and her husband out of their home on Henry Avenue into the house of a family member last week, two young children in tow.
"For the first time in my life - and I don't scare easily - I was scared," Cohan said Saturday.
The culprit, she believes, was a strong, paint-like smell coming from the site of a 280-unit AvalonBay housing project on her street.
Town officials investigated the smell last week after multiple complaints from residents and released a report and accompanying safety data sheets, which identified the odor as "toxic," "hazardous" and "dangerous" if inhaled. It was coming from an epoxy that AvalonBay workers were putting down on a garage at the site, according to town health officer Jeff Grosser.
Town Administrator Marc Dashield clarified Monday that the data sheets were meant to go over the dangers applicable to AvalonBay workers who were "intimate" with the site, rather than residents in the area.
Though the epoxy project ended Friday and the smell has since dissipated in the surrounding area, many residents want to know why they were subjected to something they say caused them to experience everything from migraines to coughing fits.
Six residents in total addressed Princeton town council Monday, detailing their experiences over the last week inhaling the smell that one resident called similar to "(walking) in a lacquer company."
"In order for this smell to be that strong in the neighborhood ... there has to be such a huge volume of this chemical in the air for you to be able to detect it," resident Heidi Fichtenbaum said Monday.
Town officials responded to the complaints Monday, detailing their investigation over the past week. Grosser said that he and town engineer Robert Kiser shut down the site Wednesday after complaints. It remained shut down until Thursday morning when town officials and Mercer County Public Health officials met with AvalonBay representatives, Grosser said.
The representatives told officials that they were laying down a urethane coating on the garage and that the coating was producing the strong odor. They said the topcoat would produce a more subtle smell and that the whole project would be finished by the weekend, Grosser said Monday.
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The town continued to monitor the smell after the meeting and released the report last week detailing the different side effects of the coating. Councilmembers and some residents referenced the report Monday.
The first coating causes skin and irritation and breathing problems, according to one of the data sheets that went with the report. It is also both "toxic" and "harmful," if inhaled.
"Suspected of causing cancer. May cause damage to organs through prolonged or repeated exposure," the data sheet stated.
The topcoat, which AvalonBay representatives said would not smell as strong, was described in the second data sheet as being "harmful," "fatal if inhaled," and causing skin irritation.
Dashield reiterated at the meeting that the dangers outlined in the report and data sheets were directed at workers or people handling the coating.
One data sheet suggests that the coating be used, "only outdoors or in a well-ventilated area."
The area around the AvalonBay construction site is well ventilated but Kiser said that a breeze coming through the site last week had intensified the smell.
Though the report and data sheets referred to dangers posed to people working directly with the coating, the list of side effects including irritation and possible cancer, still came as a shock to some council members and residents
"It seems as if this should have been treated almost as a hazmat spill," councilman Patrick Simon said about warning residents or evacuating the area.
Grosser defended the steps town officials took to deal with the smell, saying that once they detected an odor Wednesday, the project was temporarily shut down. In the remaining days until the project was completed, Grosser said the smell was strong but not enough to shut down the project entirely.
"It wasn't to the point where it was debilitating," he said, adding that the standard for shutting down a site is if it causes, "physiological debilitation."
The pain that some residents said they suffered as a result of the fumes caused some council members and mayor Liz Lempert to question whether the town can do more to prevent the same thing from happening at another site in the future.
Lempert asked council and town officials Monday whether the town could look at implementing stricter laws regarding what kind of chemicals are allowed to be used at construction sites in Princeton - something town officials said they could look into.
The discussion allowed residents to voice both their concerns and annoyance to council members but for some residents, the damage may already be done.
"There's all these complaints and you could have stopped it and you didn't stop it," resident and Cohan's husband, Steven Petrecca said Monday. "How are we supposed to put our trust in you guys that something is going to be done?"
Anna Merriman may be reached at amerriman@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @anna_merriman Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.