OAKLAND, Calif. -- The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency began testing the air inside several Oakland homes, a business and a day care center Friday that were located near the former home of Lane Metal Finishers, an abandoned industrial site where high levels of volatile organic compounds have been found in the soil.

Bret Moxley, the EPA’s on-scene coordinator, said tests were needed to make sure harmful fumes were not building up inside the structures.

“Because of the unknowns below the surface of the rest of the site, the EPA will sample the indoor air as a precautionary measure,” Moxley said. “The EPA and DTSC are working together to make sure that VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are not accumulating indoors, and if needed, will take the necessary steps until the situation is remedied.”

Lane Metal Finishers was a metal plating company that moved from the area in the 1980s. The underground samples taken from the site contained very high levels of VOCs, particularly trichloroethylene (TCE), cis-dichloroethene, trans dichloroethene and vinyl chloride in the soil vapor.

Soil vapor is found in the spaces between the grains of sand or soil underground. It can move through soil, but does not move as easily through clay and silt as it does in sandy soil.

EPA officials said the Lane Metal Finishers site does have several clay layers in the soil which may have reduced the migration of the soil vapors.

Carol Northrup from the state Department of Toxic Substances Control, told KTVU inhaling the VOCs fumes can be damaging to your health.

“You can get levels of these chemicals where if you breathe it for just minutes, you are dead,” she said. “The vinyl chloride in particular is very, very toxic.”

Northrup said tests at the Lane Metal site raised alarm bells, triggering further testing.

“Some of these concentrations are thousands of times higher than are screening level,” she said. “So that was enough to go into action and ask the EPA to come in and do emergency indoor air sampling.”

Of particular concern, Northrup said, was the day care center located nearby.

“Children -- because of their small body weight -- typically take on the chemicals and that acts faster on them,” she said. “They are also growing so we can also see developmental problems.”