Toxic pollutants in fracking county air

New study finds fracking releases cancer-causing chemicals into the air many times higher than the EPA considers safe

The fracking process releases toxic chemicals into the air.

Emissions generated by fracking operations may be exposing people to some toxic pollutants at levels higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe for long-term exposure, according to scientists from Oregon State University and the University of Cincinnati.

The researchers took air samples in Carroll County, the home of 480 permitted wells––the most in any of Ohio's 88 counties.

The team found chemicals released during oil and gas extraction that can raise people's risk of cancer and respiratory ailments.

Researchers caution they don't want to create undue alarm with their findings, but they say they hope the results will highlight the urgent need to conduct more in-depth studies of fracking emissions and the potential effects on human health.

"What we see here suggests that more needs to be known about the risks people face when exposed," said study co-leader Erin Haynes, a University of Cincinnati scientist.

Based on the data collected, researchers calculated the cancer risk posed by airborne contaminants in the Carroll County study areas.

For the worst-case scenario––exposure 24 hours a day over 25 years––they found that a person anywhere in the study area would be exposed at a risk level exceeding the threshold the EPA deems acceptable.

The lifetime cancer risk in the study area estimated for maximum residential exposure was 2.9 in 10,000, which is nearly three times the EPA's acceptable risk level of 1 in 10,000, according to the study.

Anderson cautioned that the study numbers are worst-case estimates and can't predict the risk to any individual.

The EPA did not respond to questions about the findings.

The study focused on pollutants known as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAH). These are organic compounds containing carbon and hydrogen, found in fossil fuels.

The study mirrored other research conducted in heavily fracked areas of the country, including Texas and Pennsylvania, that have focused on volatile organic compounds. These chemicals, including benzene and toluene, also are carbon-based chemicals in the same chain as those studied in Ohio––and they present similar dangers to human health.

With fracking on the rise across the country, the study authors and other scientists say there are simply too many unknowns about the potential health effects associated with the toxic chemicals released from oil and gas operations.

'Growing Concerns and a Lot of Questions'

The study got its start when a group of citizens approached Haynes, a public health expert at the University of Cincinnati, seeking information about health risks from natural gas extraction near their homes.

None of those people said they were sickened by breathing the air, but they wanted to know more about the potential consequences, Anderson said.

"There was some concern with all of the wells that were starting to go in around their homes," Anderson said. "People want to know; wanted to get answers about how all the [fracking] activity might be affecting them."

Anderson and her associates teamed with Haynes to design a study that relied on volunteers to collect air samples in Carroll County, which is home to about 30,000 people.

After volunteers were recruited through a community meeting and word-of-mouth, air samplers were placed on the properties of 23 volunteers; they lived or worked at sites ranging from immediate proximity to a gas well to a little more than three miles away.

The aluminum box monitors contained specially treated material that absorbed contaminants. The volunteers were trained in proper handling of the samplers and documenting data.

At the conclusion of the study, the samplers were sealed in airtight bags and returned to Anderson's lab at OSU for analysis.

The samplers picked up high levels of pollution associated with fracking in the areas studied, according to the report. Levels taken within one-tenth of a mile of a well were highest; they decreased by about 30 percent in samples taken a little more than three miles from a well.

Source: Inside Climate News 
This article has been edited for length.

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Toxic solvents underneath IBM building defy cleanup

Buildings on contaminated soil may
expose workers to harmful chemicals
through soil vapor intrusion: Experts.

ENDICOTT – After 35 years, IBM Corp. contractors have stanched the flow of industrial solvents into a commercial and residential district in the heart of the village, but they have yet to find a solution for the source of the problem at the company's former flagship manufacturing plant.

Officials recently reported that efforts to intercept and remove the subterranean flow of hazardous chemicals coming from the industrial complex — now owned by Huron Real Estate Associates — have been successful.

Consequently, health risks to a nearby neighborhood have been eliminated.

Yet they have no remedy for a concentrated pool of solvents directly under the manufacturing site, where at least 1,500 people still work.

It may take years before a proven remedy is found, according to Alex Czuhanich, an engineering geologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, although the agency has no timetable for the project.

The pollution, discovered in 1979, includes trichloroethylene (TCE) and other solvents used as industrial degreasers that have been linked to maladies ranging from cancer to birth defects.

IBM used vast quantities of the solvents to manufacture printed circuit boards during the company's heyday from the 1950s through the 1970s.

The contaminated hot spot — known as "the source area" on DEC records — lies under an area the size of eight village blocks, and it was once bustling with the delivery, handling, storage, transport and liberal use of solvents.

The source area encompasses a railroad corridor where chemicals arrived in bulk, loading docks where they were handled, and a network of tanks and pipelines that stored and transported virgin chemicals and chemical waste to and from various manufacturing lines throughout the campus, according to DEC records.

Situated over and near the source area, and blocking access to cleanup, are dozens of buildings, most of them massive, bunker-like, cement structures built during the Cold War era and some well before.

The contaminated ground is dense with tunnels, boiler rooms, tank rooms, crawl spaces, cables, pipes and conduits.

"There is just so much infrastructure there," Czuhanich said. "Trying to get anything in there (to remedy the problem) is difficult, at best."

To date, nearly 70,000 gallons of solvent — more than 40 tons — have been pumped from the ground. Officials don't know how much is left, according to DEC spokesman Peter Constantakes.

Court records filed by attorneys representing residents suing IBM for damages from the pollution put the solvent pool up to 1 million gallons "that had apparently collected over many years from leaking pipes and tanks."

Reluctance by IBM and the DEC to publicly discuss the source area has added to uncertainty about its status. IBM spokesman Todd Martin did not reply to phone calls or written inquires on the subject.

Safety debated

IBM sold the plant in 2002 to Huron Real Estate Associates, which now rents space to BAE Systems Electronics, i3 Electronics (formerly Endicott Interconnect), Binghamton University and other smaller firms that collectively employ between 1,500 and 2,000 workers.

TCE, the main contaminant under the campus, is not commonly used in bulk by industry in the U.S. anymore, though it is a pervasive contaminant at many Cold War-era industrial and military sites throughout the country.

In addition to the former IBM site, notorious TCE legacy sites in the Southern Tier include the CAE Electronics site in Hillcrest, and the Morse Industrial site in Tompkins County, both linked to contamination of nearby residential neighborhoods.

The TCE problem is as stubborn as it is complex. TCE is one of a class of chemicals that tend to be heavier than water, so they sink through the water table and adhere stubbornly to soil particles.

They also give off toxic fumes that rise from the ground, ending up in basements, crawl spaces and — ultimately — circulating into living spaces through a process known as vapor intrusion.

There is no national standard to limit TCE exposure in air, although there has been a political push to develop one since the federal Environmental Protection Agency determined in 2011 that the chemical was a carcinogen and a "non-cancer health hazard."

Just how much exposure presents a risk remains a controversial topic. Levels that might not affect one person could make another seriously ill. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable.

According to the latest EPA assessment — challenged by the chemical industry — risks for non-cancer illnesses, such as birth defects, from short-term TCE exposure in residential settings are found to increase statistically at levels at or above 2 micrograms per cubic meter.

The agency has set the threshold for risks from short-term exposure in an industrial setting at 7, based on the assumption that people spend less time at work than in their homes.

Cancer risks become discernible for chronic exposure — the type people might experience in homes — at levels beginning at 0.43 micrograms, according to an EPA assessment.

New York state has set a broad guideline of 5 for residential and commercial exposure. But the agency often requires action at levels below the threshold when feasible.

Feasibility remains the issue at the Huron campus. Indoor air samples at 42 buildings collected in 2005 — the last time the state oversaw testing — ranged from zero to 17 micrograms per cubic meter in some areas that tended to be occupied. Levels were much higher in other areas — often registering between 50 and 300 micrograms in tunnels and tank rooms below Building 18, for example.

Concentrations in the soil directly below the buildings often exceeded 10,000 and sometimes were over 100,000 micrograms.

In 2005, the state health department determined that the TCE levels at the Huron campus present a "low" health risk to people working there, according to a report at the time. That means state health officials "do not expect to be able to associate health effects" from exposure.

Health department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said the guideline remains "under review" as more information comes to light "to ensure that previous decisions and recommendations continue to protect public health."

In 2005, a health department study found elevated rates of testicular and kidney cancers, and birth defects that were "statistically significant" in an area affected by solvent pollution in the area south of the former IBM plant, and several blocks to the southwest of the plant polluted by an undetermined source. (The area has since been cleaned by the IBM remediation efforts.)

The results of a study by NIOSH and the health department evaluating birth outcomes of women who worked at the plant is expected to be released later this year.

By the numbers
• 35: Number of years IBM has been cleaning the pollution.
• 70,000: Number of gallons of concentrated chemicals removed so far.
• 1,500: Approximate number of employees who work at the site.
• 470: Number of structures off-site that have been fitted with vent systems to divert toxic fumes.
• 5: Safety threshold, in micrograms per cubic meter, for TCE exposure in air in New York state.
• 2: Level, in micrograms per cubic meter, at which risks associated with short-term TCE exposure increase statistically.

Source: PressConnects; This article has been edited for length.

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US salons need to nail occupational safety: Advocates

Nail salons will employ more than 100,000 workers by 2022

Many nail salon employees are women
of reproductive age, experts say.

When New York City Public Advocate Letitia James, JD, announced that her office was releasing a report on nail salons last year, it was anything but a frivolous task.

The policy report, “How Safe is Your Nail Salon?,” released in September, took a look at health and safety practices for both consumers and workers in New York City’s nail salons.

And with more than 2,000 businesses licensed to do manicures and pedicures in the city alone, the health of a large swath of the public is affected.

In New York, the salons are regulated by the state — which has just 27 inspectors to help maintain their safety, James told The Nation’s Health.

The health and wellness of nail salon employees is no small matter, as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated there were 86,900 manicurists and pedicurists in the U.S. in 2012. That number is expected to rise to 100,400 by 2022.

But that estimate is probably far too low, according to the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative, which estimates there are 97,100 manicurists in California alone right now.

Up to 80 percent of those workers are Vietnamese immigrants, and more than 50 percent are women of reproductive age.

Duyen Tran, MPH, an APHA member and the interim outreach coordinator for the collaborative, says there are several reasons that nail salon work appeals to young women in the Vietnamese community.

Some of it is the flexibility working in a nail salon can afford: Employees can tailor their schedules around their families’ needs. Another reason is the ease with which a worker can enter into the industry and start making money. Training courses, which are 12 to 18 months long, and exams are offered in Vietnamese.

“To do nail salon work you don’t need high English proficiency,” Tran told The Nation’s Health. “It doesn’t require intensive English training, so it’s really an opportunity for this recent immigrant population to enter the workforce and use it to support their families and communities in a very short time.”

But joining the workforce means exposure to known dangerous products — and potentially unknown dangers, as well.

Three chemicals pose most risks to workers

The biggest risks to nail salon workers are “the toxic trio:” Toluene, formaldehyde and dibutyl phthalate are the most common and dangerous ingredients in nail products, including polish and polish remover, that have been linked to serious health risks.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, toluene exposure has been linked to tiredness, confusion, weakness, drunken-type actions, memory loss, nausea, loss of appetite and hearing and color vision loss. High levels of exposure have been linked to kidney damage.

Formaldehyde exposure can lead to irritation of the eyes, nose and throat, causing tearing, and skin irritation, according to CDC, and is a known carcinogen. CDC’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry notes that dibutyl phthalate is linked to organ development issues in fetuses when exposed during gestation.

The toxic trio can be transmitted as airborne particles, through product contact with skin or eyes and via unintentional transfer of the materials to uncovered food, drink or cigarettes, according to research from the California Healthy Nail Salon Collaborative.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has reported that chemical levels can exceed 826 parts per million during the application of acrylics in nail salons, but proper ventilation can drop that to 12.4 parts per million.

Despite these risks, in Nails Magazine’s 2014-15 report, “Nails Big Book: Everything You Need to Know About the Nail Industry,” 34 percent of nail salon workers reported that they never wear protective gloves while working.

Sixty-one percent said they never wear a mask while working. And more than half reported having work-related health concerns. Twenty-three percent said they were uninsured.

Salons can promote safety for workers

Though self-reported low numbers of nail salon workers take safety precautions, state and federal government regulations require certain steps to be taken to ensure worker safety.

OSHA distributes “Stay Healthy and Safe While Giving Manicures and Pedicures: A Guide for Nail Salon Workers,” which outlines workers’ rights to health and safety for both employees and salon owners.

The guide has been translated to Vietnamese, Spanish and Korean. And OSHA has been working to reach out to communities to make sure workers’ rights are well-known, said Mandy Edens, MSPH, director of OSHA’s directorate for technical support and emergency management.

Source: The Nation’s Health; This article has been edited for length.

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IBM to settle toxic spill suit

Company and plaintiffs announce a settlement over TCE releases from the former plant

The settlement ends a six-year saga.

IBM Corp. will settle a lawsuit brought by 1,000 plaintiffs who alleged that toxic spills from the company's former Endicott manufacturing plant caused illnesses and deaths, damaged property values and hurt businesses.

Both sides announced the settlement without revealing details of the agreement.

"IBM and the plaintiffs' counsel have reached this agreement in an effort to resolve these cases without further burdensome and expensive litigation," said the joint statement from the litigants.

The settlement brings to a close a more-than six-year saga in which IBM and those who claim they were harmed by the toxic releases waged a fierce legal battle on monetary rewards.

Affected residents, in a multi-million-dollar liability lawsuit against IBM, claimed the company should pay for the damage caused to residents around what once was the company's main domestic manufacturing facility.

From 1935 to the mid-1980s, IBM used TCE (trichloroethylene) to clean metal parts in degreasers at its industrial campus in the Village of Endicott. In 1979, the company discovered some of the TCE had pooled in groundwater beneath the facility and appeared to be migrating.

Soil vapor intrusion

Contamination from soil vapor intrusion was detected by the late 1990s, and by 2002, IBM began testing the air at the request of state health and environmental agencies. Basement ventilation systems were eventually installed in more than 400 homes.

Settlement negotiations between the parties began last July, when state Supreme Court Justice Ferrous D. Lebous requested that representatives of both sides start meeting about an out-of-court settlement. Negotiations were apparently successful, culminating with Tuesday night's release that the parties agreed to a settlement that satisfied both sides.

Lawyers of those who brought the suit against IBM said they will conduct meetings with clients over the coming weeks to present terms of the settlement.

IBM representatives said the company will continue the environmental cleanup that has been ongoing since the widening toxic plume was discovered.

Pumps spread throughout Endicott pull pollution from the ground through structures called recovery wells.

Over time, these wells have grown in number from four to more than 22, and to date, they have recovered more than 815,000 pounds of trichloroethylene and other toxic chemicals, with an unknown amount remaining beneath the village.

Company officials have never publicly explained IBM's role in the disaster, and their legal position was that the company always handled chemicals responsibly and in accordance with standards of the day.

They have not denied their former operations were a primary contributor to the pollution. They have not admitted it, either, nor have they offered a detailed explanation of the source of the problem.

Cleaning up industrial solvents

Representatives of the company said it was cleaning up the solvents from multiple industries that have operated in the region's industrial corridor for generations. Endicott was also home to the vast shoe manufacturing empire of Endicott Johnson Corp., once the region's largest employer.

However, the toxic-liability suit named only IBM as the source of the chemicals that tainted parts of Endicott's commercial district and nearby residences.

IBM sold the 140-acre campus to Huron Real Estate Associates in 2002. Current tenants include i3 Electronics (formerly Endicott Interconnect), BAE Systems and Binghamton University, among others.

Lawyers for IBM have long contended it was following the responsible path, picking up the sizable costs for cleaning the spill and providing venting systems for properties designated at-risk for vapor intrusion.

Both sides scored initial victories as the case wound its way through the courts. Lower courts ruled against IBM's motion to have the case dismissed, and ruled in favor of a plaintiff's motion to have charges of negligence — the underpinnings of the case — tried before a jury.

But lower court rulings also eliminated or limited some aspects of the litigation, including the charge that the pollution constitutes a trespass in all cases, and the claim that IBM should be held accountable for monitoring the medical condition of all plaintiffs, including non-property owners.

IBM was also able to limit claims for medical monitoring to only people claiming other damages, such as illness or property loss. That eliminated claims for a potentially large group of plaintiffs — renters and children, for example — who may have been exposed but did not develop illnesses or suffer property damage.

Source: PressConnects

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Firefighters have higher risk of cancer: Study

Study confirms cancer cluster among firefighters in Victoria

Firefighters are exposed to flammable
chemicals, combustion, foams and more.

Firefighters who worked at a Country Fire Authority facility in Victoria’s Ballarat region have a higher incidence of skin, testicular and brain cancers, a comprehensive study has found.

The study, conducted by Monash University, examined cancer and death rates linked to the Fiskville site between 1971 and 1999. It found 69 cancers were among the 606 people who worked and trained there, resulting in 16 deaths.

After releasing the findings, the Victorian premier, Daniel Andrews, told reporters the research confirmed “beyond any reasonable doubt” that there was a statistically significant increase in cancers associated with firefighters who worked at the site.

“This is a very tragic report,” he said. “The evidence is becoming clearer and clearer each day that people have become sick because of this place. People have died because of this place.”

Researchers found a cancer cluster in the high-risk group, considered to be those who worked full-time on the site training firefighters, and who were exposed to flammable chemicals, combustion, foams and recycled firewater.

Of 95 high-risk workers traced, 25 had cancer and six had passed away from their cancer, the study found.

In December, Andrews announced a landmark parliamentary inquiry to examine pollution, contamination and unsafe activities at Fiskville training centre from 1970 to 1990. It is expected to conclude in June this year.

The commission would provide victims and their families with answers and support, and would consider “how, not whether” those affected and their families would be compensated. “This is sad, tragic, and we’re going to put this right,” Andrews said.

But the risk was a historical one, he said. Many of the chemicals staff came into contact with were no longer used during training.

“For those who work here now, there are very low risks associated with this site today because remediation work has been done,” Andrews said. “There’s ongoing oversight and monitoring of those risks and that vigilance is critically important.”

A spokeswoman for the Country Fire Authority (CFA) said the organisation’s chief executive, Mick Bourke, would not be speaking to the media. “He will be communicating with CFA members at some point today through a blog post,” she said.

An official with the United Firefighters Union Victorian branch, Mick Tisbury, said it was “abhorrent” Bourke had refused to comment. The union was calling for his immediate resignation, he said.

“He and the CFA have been denying there was anything wrong with the place for years, they have put our health and safety at risk.

“We’re not expendable. We have families. We are people.”

Tisbury worked at the Fiskville site for 11 years.

“Every day, we have to live with this at the back of our minds,” he said.

In June last year, there was anger among some firefighters and their families when Cancer Council Victoria released a preliminary report that stated firefighters who worked at Fiskville did not have an increased incidence of cancer.

Cancer Council CEO Todd Harper said the report was commissioned only to look at data readily available by cross-referencing the records of 599 Victorian firefighters with data from the Victorian cancer registry.

“At the time we explained the limitations of this study, including imprecision of the relative risk estimates. So, while the earlier report did not find evidence of a cluster, nor did it rule out the existence of one. The Monash University study takes into account those firefighters who had moved interstate - information which was not available earlier.”

He said the council would like to see coordinated action at a national and state level in order to reduce the burden of harm from occupational cancers.

The co-investigator of the latest study, Professor Malcolm Sim, said the research was now more comprehensive, which is why the findings differed.

“The Cancer Council report only looked at firefighters in Victoria and was only supposed to be a preliminary examination, but what we did is trace firefighters who had moved interstate and we did pick up some cancer in those people,” said Sims, who is director of the Monash centre for occupational and environmental health.

“We also placed people into different categories of exposure based on existing guidelines for doing so. This is quite a major piece of work that used Australian Institute of Health data and took over one year to complete.”

The cancer results “stood right out”, Sims said. “Their death rates from other causes of disease, like heart and respiratory disease, were quite low, because these are healthy, fit people.

“That’s why their cancer results stood right out. There was a big gap between cancer and other diseases you don’t usually see in people like this, with healthy lifestyles.”

Researchers would look in more detail at the specific compounds associated with the cancers among the group, he said.

“The problem is the firefighters studied came into contact with a cocktail of exposures and chemicals, and we don’t know which ones may be contributing to their cancers,” Sims said.

Source: The Guardian

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Toxic chemicals skyrocketing near fracking sites

A study found dangerous chemicals such as
benzene and formaldehyde near wells.

Oil and gas wells across the country are spewing “dangerous" cancer-causing chemicals into the air, according to a new study that further corroborates reports of health problems around hydraulic fracturing sites.

“This is a significant public health risk,” says Dr. David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany-State University of New York and lead author of the study, which was published Thursday in the journal Environmental Health.

“Cancer has a long latency, so you’re not seeing an elevation in cancer in these communities. But five, 10, 15 years from now, elevation in cancer is almost certain to happen.”

Eight poisonous chemicals were found near wells and fracking sites in Arkansas, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Wyoming at levels that far exceeded recommended federal limits.

Benzene, a carcinogen, was the most common, as was formaldehyde, which also has been linked to cancer. Hydrogen sulfide, which smells like rotten eggs and can affect the brain and upper-respiratory system, also was found.

The health effects of living near a fracking site have been felt elsewhere, according to separate research.

A study published last month by researchers from the University of Washington and Yale University found residents within a kilometer of a well had up to twice the number of health problems as those living at least 2 kilometers away.

For Carpenter's study, trained volunteers living near the wells conducted air measurements, taking 35 “grab air” samples during heavy industrial activity or when they felt symptoms such as dizziness, nausea or headaches.

Another 41 “passive” tests – meaning samples were taken during a designated period, not merely when levels spiked – were conducted to monitor for formaldehyde. The tests were then sent to accredited labs.

Not every sample exceeded the recommended limits. But in those that did – slightly less than half the samples taken – benzene levels were 35 to 770,000 times greater than normal concentrations, or up to 33 times the exposure a driver might get while fueling his or her car.

Similarly, hydrogen sulfide levels above federal standards were 90 to 60,000 times higher than normal – enough to cause eye and respiratory irritation, fatigue, irritability, poor memory and dizziness after just one hour of exposure.

Excessive formaldehyde levels were 30 to 240 times higher than normal, which a statement on the study described as “more than twice the formaldehyde concentration that occurs in rooms where medical students are dissecting human cadavers, and where most students report respiratory irritation.”

A law passed in 2005 by Congress included what's commonly known as the "Halliburton loophole," which exempts oil and gas companies from federal regulations involving the monitoring and disclosure of fracking chemicals.

“It’s the gift that keeps on giving, the longer you’re exposed to these things,” says Wyoming resident Deb Thomas, who saw a well open across the road from her in 1999 and helped collect air samples for Carpenter’s study.

“I had an asthmatic episode – I’ve never had any asthma, I don’t have a history of asthma. I ended up at the hospital where they gave me breathing treatments. I’ve had really bad rashes.”

Thomas has come across similar symptoms at other unconventional oil and gas sites across the country, where as executive director of the nonprofit group ShaleTest, she’s helped take air samples for low-income families and communities affected by fracking.

“We see a lot of cognitive difficulties,” she says. “People get asthma or breathing difficulty or nose polyps or something with their eyes or their ears ring – the sorts of things that come on very subtly, but you start to notice them.”

However, it’s difficult to determine which health issues are a result of oil and gas operations and which stem from other factors, because symptoms often start only gradually and government air quality studies have proved limited in scope.

“It’s really hard to say what’s from the actual exposure,” Thomas says. “It’s very scary. It’s very hard to get information about what the development is. One minute you’re living your normal life, the next, people start to get really sick and they can’t get any answers.”

Occupational risks for workers

The chemicals may pose major risks to oil and gas workers, too.

“The occupational exposures we’re not even talking about,” Carpenter says. “If anybody is exposed at the levels our results show, these workers are exposed at tremendous levels.”

The American Petroleum Institute, the oil and gas industry’s largest trade and lobbying group, and America’s Natural Gas Alliance, which represents independent gas exploration and production companies, both declined to comment ahead of the study’s release.

Spokesmen at each group referred questions to another industry organization, Energy In Depth, which dismissed the study's methods and conclusions as "dubious."

"Their commitment to banning oil and gas development, and their ideological position that fracking can never be adequately regulated, is clearly why this report comes to such harsh conclusions," says Energy In Depth spokeswoman Katie Brown, referring to the group that trained the volunteers, Global Community Monitor. "They were probably determined before the project ever began."

The study's findings came as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo weighed whether to end a state moratorium on fracking. Cuomo, a Democrat, had delayed the release of a state health department study on the industry until after elections.

As a professor and researcher in the New York state capital, Carpenter says he hopes his study “does influence the debate.”

“There’s certainly economic reasons to explore fracking,” he says. “I’m not religiously opposed to fracking. While I prefer renewable fuels, we’re a long way from that. I just want it done safely. There’s been debate about how safe or unsafe it is, and our results say there is a problem.”

Source: US News

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Study to assess breast cancer risk for female firefighters

Firefighters are exposed to flame retardants,
diesel exhaust and other toxic chemicals,
which may affect their health.

When firefighters rush out the firehouse doors, sirens screeching on the way to fight fires, they put their lives on the line in more ways than one.

In responding to roughly 28,000 fire calls a year, members of the San Francisco Fire Department are routinely exposed to flame retardants, diesel exhaust and other toxic chemicals that seep out of raging infernos and work their way into the air.

A growing body of evidence strongly suggests that exposure increases firefighters’ risk of developing cancer. But until now, studies have focused on men.

That’s about to change. Members of the San Francisco Fire Department are working with researchers at UC Berkeley, UCSF and the Silent Spring Institute to find out whether exposure to toxic chemicals increases the risks of breast cancer in female firefighters.

The project, known as the Women Firefighters Biomonitoring Collaborative Study, has been under way for about a year.

“Since breast cancer is a cancer that more commonly affects women, and because of anecdotal evidence that the firefighters have been experiencing (many cases of breast cancer), we wanted to see if there was a link,” said Jessica Trowbridge, a UC Berkeley researcher who is coordinating the study.

Trowbridge and her colleagues are gathering blood and urine samples from about 160 women — 80 San Francisco firefighters and 80 city office workers who will serve as the control group — to use in measuring chemical, hormone and melatonin levels.

They will also measure the lengths of the women’s telomeres, caps on the ends of chromosomes that are associated with aging and cancer, also thought to be related to chemical exposure and working demanding night shifts.

Firefighters in general have higher rates of cancer, especially respiratory, digestive and urinary system varieties, a recent National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health study found.

That study included women, but there weren't enough of them to draw robust conclusions about their cancer risks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With about 225 female firefighters, San Francisco is better equipped than most cities for a study like this: Women make up about 13 percent of its firefighting population, said Heather Buren, a lieutenant and paramedic with the fire department who is working on the study.

In 2011, less than 5 percent of firefighters nationwide were women, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Researchers will also test for other chemicals that could contribute to higher rates of cancer in both groups of women, who are probably exposed to personal care and household products as well.

There has been a cultural shift with respect to chemical exposure. For one, firefighters now have better breathing masks, which they’re encouraged to wear for longer periods of time in toxic environments.

There are also rules prohibiting members of the department from storing their turnouts — the suits they wear to fight fires — in firehouse rooms where they eat and sleep.

The San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation, which organizes screenings and promotes cancer prevention in the department, is partially responsible for those changes. It was formed in 2006 by Tony Stefani, a retired firefighter who himself fought cancer.

Researchers have nearly finished enrolling participants for the breast cancer study. They hope to have results published in two years. The women who participate in the study will be able to see their individual results when they are complete.

Source: San Francisco Gate. This article has been edited for length.

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Pilot poisoned by toxic fumes on planes: Scientists

Pilots, crew and passengers may be exposed to toxic fumes
on aircraft, studies show.

Severe headaches. Insomnia. Vision problems. Confusion. Constant pain.

British Airways pilot Richard Westgate had been suffering from a long list of health problems in the years leading up to his death in December 2012, aged 43.

He had been convinced he was being poisoned by toxic fumes that leaked on board the planes that he flew.

In fact, he was so sure about it that he had asked his lawyers to begin legal action against the airline for “breaching health and safety guidelines”.

Now scientists claim they have compelling evidence that shows he was right all along.

Published in the Swiss Journal of Biological Physics and Chemistry, it’s believed to be the first case study of a pilot with chronic ill health following exposure to contaminated cabin air.

The researchers conducted a postmortem examination, analyzed the health problems Mr Westgate had detailed before his death, and retested blood that was drawn while he was still alive.

They concluded that the most likely cause of his death was “organophosphate induced neurotoxicity”. Organophosphates are hazardous chemicals present in jet engine oil and hydraulic fluid.

Frank Cannon, of Glasgow-based law firm Cannons Law, who has been fighting for answers following his client’s death, told the UK’s Mirror : “We believe that constant exposure to fuel leaks in planes contributed to Richard’s death.

“This scientific research proves that Richard suffered from chemicals called organophosphates which cause chronic brain and other problems. This happens because of constant exposure working aboard aircraft.”

The law firm is acting for 25 people who claim they’ve been affected by fumes on planes.

So how do toxic fumes get inside planes?
The cabin air is drawn in from the aircraft’s engines or auxiliary power unit — with the exception of the newer Boeing 787 model — using the engine’s compressors. This “bleed air” heats the air inside, and pressurises the cabin altitude. However, engine seals leak over time or fail, allowing heated oil mist to escape into the bleed air.

Mr Westgate, who had flown for 15 years, had noted that the on start-up, the engines would create puffs of smoke inside the plane followed by an oily smell.

After three years of flying his symptoms started, and progressively worsened to the point where he had severe chest pain, problems walking, and would fall off his bicycle for no reason. He underwent numerous tests and took a range of medications, and was even admitted to a psychiatric hospital.

Overall, he saw 15 specialists. But it was only shortly before he was found dead in his hotel room that he was diagnosed with having symptoms related to exposure to plane fumes.

How big is the problem?

It’s believed many more illnesses and even deaths have been caused by toxic fumes on planes.

However, it’s difficult to establish a causal link as there is no standard on-board system to monitor aircraft cabin-air contamination. That’s despite a series of ad hoc tests reporting contamination events.

Earlier this year an Australian Transport Safety Bureau report ­revealed passengers and crew on Australian aircraft were ­exposed to toxic fumes more than 1000 times over the past five years. There were several occasions when crew had to divert flights or make emergency landings because of the fumes, but passengers were never warned of the dangers.

Former pilot Dr Susan Michaelis, now head of research at the Global Cabin Air Quality Executive, says she collapsed from fumes.

“Sitting in an unhealthy environment and being exposed to chemicals every day made me sick,” she told the Daily Telegraph .

She said there is compelling evidence of the impact these events have on health.

“There is a pattern of chronic ill-health … and it needs to be looked at further. My research has found clusters of pilots with brain cancer in the UK. They were mostly flying short-haul journeys.”

“The way the engines are designed means crew and passengers are exposed to hazardous fumes. These have both short- and long-term health impacts including cancer.”

A British Airways spokesperson told news.com.au: “It would be inappropriate to comment or speculate on the cause of death of an individual. The safety and security of our customers and crew are of paramount importance to British Airways and will never be compromised.”

Source: News.com.au

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Chemical plants susceptible to terror risks

Many chemical facilities could become targets
of terrorist attacks, releasing toxic fumes: Experts

The government has failed to inspect virtually all of the chemical facilities that it considers to be at a higher risk for a terror attack and has underestimated the threat to densely populated cities, congressional investigators say.

The year-long investigation by Republican staff on the Senate Homeland Security Committee paints a picture of inspection delay, government errors in risk assessment and industry loopholes in a $595 million terror prevention program passed by Congress in 2006. A copy of the investigators' report was obtained by The Associated Press.

Coming a year after a massive explosion at a West, Texas, fertilizer plant, the report points to threats from the release of toxic and flammable chemicals.

Roughly half of the 4,011 high-risk facilities on the Department of Homeland Security watch list are in 10 states: California, Texas, Ohio, Illinois, Pennsylvania, New York, North Carolina, Florida, Michigan and New Jersey.

The U.S. effort is "a broken program that is not making us measurably safer against the threat of a terrorist attack," states the report commissioned by Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla.

It said widespread problems have left many of the nation's riskiest chemical facilities "effectively unregulated."

The report relies in part on internal DHS documents, including an assessment of the terror program completed late last year that hasn't been released, and a federal database of higher-risk facilities.

DHS spokesman S.Y. Lee noted that the department has stepped up monitoring efforts, having approved security plans for 750 facilities in the last two years. DHS officials have called on Congress to authorize the program over multiple years — not just year to year — so the government and chemical companies can better plan for longer-range security.

"The Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program is an important part of our nation's counterterrorism efforts," Lee said, adding that DHS is committed "to build on the progress it has made."

The report said that as of June 30, DHS had failed to conduct security compliance inspections on 3,972 chemical facilities, or 99 percent of the 4,011 facilities initially considered at a higher risk for terrorism. Many facilities are chemical manufacturers; they also include farm supply retailers or fertilizer distribution warehouses.

DHS considers a chemical facility "higher risk" based on the amount of toxic or flammable chemicals on site, such as chlorine, a corrosive, or ammonium nitrate, which can be used to make explosives.

Final rankings, on a tier of one to four, are determined based on additional information provided to the government.

The committee found that roughly 3,111 of the facilities had yet to have security plans approved despite statements to DHS officials that it would be done. Investigators said it could take years for DHS to reduce the backlog.

The report also cites a DHS-commissioned study completed late last year that raised concerns the list of 4,011 higher risk facilities was not accurate, in some cases relying on outdated data or treating densely populated areas as lower threats due to coding errors.

Committee investigators have indicated that larger metropolitan regions such as Los Angeles, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia might be more vulnerable to a chemical attack. The report notes that rural accidents like the West, Texas, plant explosion "pale in comparison with the consequences of releasing large quantities of toxic gas into a densely-populated city."

Among other findings, the report points to industry loopholes. DHS grants exemptions to a number of industries including water and wastewater treatment, which use high amounts of chlorine, a toxic chemical. While the program regulates ammonium nitrate, it does not regulate 12 other chemicals that can also be used to make explosives.

The report urges substantial changes before Congress re-authorizes the terror prevention program for the year, such as allowing lower-risk facilities to self-certify their security plans meet DHS standards; fixing the risk assessment methodology; creating a permanent task force of industry experts to advise DHS; and giving DHS power to penalize companies that deliberately seek to ignore its regulations.

Source: San Jose Mercury News

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A hospital disinfectant used for oil and gas production

A new product is currently being tested to
reduce the environmental impact of fracking.

Fracking seems to have more going against it than for it, but a South Carolina-based company is hoping the oil and gas industry will mitigate environmental damages and health concerns with its latest product, Excelyte.

Excelyte is an EPA-approved solution that addresses major controversies associated with fracking: pollution of groundwater with toxic chemicals, release of hydrogen sulfide that endangers oil field workers’ lives, and excess wastewater.

Integrated Environmental Technologies (IET) originally developed the solution as a final surface cleaner to eliminate hospital-acquired infections like tuberculosis, and then to prevent foodborne illnesses in food production.

Excelyte has been proven to be 99.9999% effective against HIV, H1N1, Salmonella, E. coli, Listeria, among other bacteria and viruses. The solution’s main active ingredient is hypochlorous acid—a naturally occurring molecule in the human body that fights infection.

Healthcare to food production was a natural extension, but in searching for other applications where bacteria and viruses posed as a deadly threat, IET found an industry that’s desperate to improve its environmental impact: oil and gas.

Excelyte is currently being tested in Utah and New Mexico in its first foray into the oil and gas scene. David LaVance, CEO of IET, said several well-known companies are using the product, but would not reveal which ones.

A single frack job takes millions of gallons of water, with only 25-30% of that water recovered for reuse. IET claims that by mixing water with Excelyte’s bacteria and sulfur-fighting properties instead of toxic chemicals, twice as much wastewater can be recovered for reuse in fracking instead of using fresh water.

Hydrogen sulfide, a naturally occurring gas that can be released during oil and gas production, is the most frequent killer of oil field workers.

Excelyte is a hydrogen sulfide scavenger that combines chemically to hydrogen sulfide. The solution, which took over five years to develop into a substance fit for production in industrial quantities, is also designed to leave no trace on the environment.

“Our product persists for only 90 days and then it disintegrates,” said LaVance. “It’s not underground for very long and things go back to normal after that. So it’s a quick-acting biocide.”

Fracking fraught with controversy

Wherever fracking is involved, controversy has traditionally followed. Concerns range from polluting drinking water with toxic chemicals to setting earthquake records.

A community in the North Texan city of Denton, which is believed to hold one of the biggest natural gas reserves in the U.S., recently captured the attention of the energy industry with an attempt to ban hydraulic fracturing due to noise and toxic fumes from fracked wells in their backyard. But the city faces an uphill battle—the U.S. fracking market was valued at $26 billion in 2013 according to BCC Research.

In Utah, where Excelyte is in somewhat of a pilot testing mode, oil field companies are not required to obtain specific government approval to use the product, but are required to report chemical usage in the national database FracFocus.

Despite Excelyte’s impressive properties and promising applications, environmentalists aren’t likely to be overly excited about the product.

“Even if all of the chemicals used for fracking were perfectly benign (and they are not), the wastes still would be highly toxic, because the fluids bring numerous hazardous substances, including radioactive materials, to the surface,” said Deborah Goldberg, an attorney at environmentalist group Earthjustice.

“No one yet has found a way to dispose of all of the wastes without creating additional environmental risks.”

Though fracking is by no means a sustainable practice, it is projected to experience further growth well into 2018. If widely adopted, the use of Excelyte could save lives and save water in various processes.

Excelyte has been approved by the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for use in food production; healthcare; veterinary practices; and the oil and gas industry.

The EPA declined to comment on the solution’s current or projected use in fracking activities.

The solution’s applications in reusing and recycling water would be of particular interest to West Coast states like Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, and California, which have been facing a longstanding drought.

Source: Forbes

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WTC cleanup workers can renew health claims, court rules

Cleaners that were exposed to toxic substances
in buildings may renew their claims in court.

A federal appeals court in New York has revived claims by 211 cleanup workers who sought compensation for their alleged exposure to toxic contaminants in buildings near the World Trade Center site after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a lower court judge erred in dismissing the claims, after the workers had answered "none" when asked if they had been "diagnosed" with ailments, injuries or diseases.

These workers were employed by cleaning companies hired by Verizon Communications Inc, Brookfield Properties and dozens of other owners of downtown Manhattan buildings damaged or destroyed in the attacks, the court said.

"The fact that plaintiffs answered 'none' to the interrogatory was an insufficient basis, by itself, for a blanket conclusion that all 211 plaintiffs could not establish their claims against defendants as a matter of law," Circuit Judge Denny Chin wrote for a three-judge 2nd Circuit panel.

The decision overturned an August 2012 dismissal of the claims by U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein in Manhattan, who oversees much of the Sept. 11 litigation.

Verizon spokesman Bob Varettoni had no immediate comment. Lawyers for the phone company and the other defendants did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

"I applaud the 2nd Circuit for having the ability and desire to do the right thing," Marc Bern, a lawyer for the workers, said in a phone interview. "It is clear that the exposures that these individuals had led to their injuries."

The 2nd Circuit said Hellerstein should have examined whether each plaintiff suffered a compensable injury, even if it had been undiagnosed or surfaced late.

It also gave examples of workers who reported no diagnosed symptoms but deserved a chance to press their claims.

One complained of dizziness, fatigue and shortness of breath but received no diagnosis when he saw a doctor, while a second reported bronchitis, chronic coughing and difficulty breathing.

"While we appreciate that the sheer number of cases before the district court made its task of managing this mass tort litigation extraordinarily difficult, the district court was obligated to individually consider each plaintiff's answer of 'none' in the context of any other evidence of injury," Chin wrote.

The 2nd Circuit also upheld Hellerstein's dismissal of claims by 31 workers who did not timely pursue their cases.

The case is Markut et al v. Verizon New York Inc et al, 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, Nos. 12-3403 and 12-3729.

Source: Reuters

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Smartphone factory workers exposed to dangerous chemicals

The number of victims of toxic chemical exposures keeps
rising, advocacy groups say.

Dangerous chemicals are killing workers in factories that assemble processor chips for Apple and Samsung smartphones, advocacy groups claim.

Worker representatives, advocacy groups and academics are demanding manufacturers lift their standards to eradicate the dangerous conditions causing occupational leukaemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

With more than 100 victims and counting, they claim companies have so far turned a blind eye, and said that Samsung is actively subverting the victims' pursuit of compensation and justice.

The problem originates in 'clean rooms', dust-free environments where semi-conductors, used in electronics such as smartphones and LCD TVs, are produced.


Only armed with 'white bunny-suits' designed to minimise contamination, workers frequently handle and inhale chemical cocktails whose purpose is to sterilise materials, including wafers.

These chemicals include benzene, a carcinogen, and trichloroethylene, which are known to cause occupational leukemia and non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

As the air is rapidly re-circulated, these enclosures incubate the cancer.

Toiling for prolonged periods every day, workers have contracted the disease just a few years after they started working at Samsung. Some died soon after.

In 2012, university researchers investigated 17 Koreans workers at Samsung's Giheung semiconductor plant who had contracted the cancers. They recommended all workers should immediately be protected from the potential exposures to chemicals.

However, they said more research was required to prove a formal link with cancer and semiconductor production, because Samsung hadn't granted access to the working conditions.

Samsung victims seek compensation

Korean-based worker rights group Supporters for the Health and Rights of People in the Semiconductor Industry (SHARPS) is assisting more than 50 Samsung workers trying to claim workers' compensation from the government.

The first case was filed in 2007 and their ongoing efforts have achieved mixed results.

The government's workers' compensation fund initially refused to pay the victims, or their families, said SHARPS spokeswoman Dr Jeong-ok Yoo Kong. These decisions were subsequently overturned by the courts.

Now the government – with Samsung's help – is appealing to the country's High Court.

"Samsung has been joining the lawsuit to support the government as a 'name of reference' for the defendant," Dr Kong told Fairfax Media.

The victims want the government to pay compensation in order to set a precedent for all Samsung workers.

"They just want to open the door," she said.

The case will next be heard on May 15.

According to Korean reports, Justice Party representative Sim Sang-jung plans to introduce a bill into the South Korean parliament forcing Samsung to apologise and compensate the victims.

Kim Jun-shik, an executive vice-president of Samsung Electronics, last week told reporters in South Korea that the company is reviewing the proposals "in a sincere manner", and will make an official response soon. The company maintains a web page with information on benzene. It says it does not use benzene in its fabrication processes, but that researchers have found traces of it in its factories.

The United Nations International Labour Organisation has found serious chemical-related incidents happen in workplaces, and said there needs to be a global response by governments, employers, and workers to address the issue.

Global problem

The problems aren't limited to Korea's Samsung.

In China, 52 workers diagnosed with occupational leukaemia signed a declaration to ban benzene. Many of these worked at factories in Hubei where semiconductors are fabricated for the iPhone.

Apple has previously said it leads the industry in removing toxins from its products, and requires suppliers to meet, or exceed, American safety standards.

Ms White said occupational cancer is seriously under-diagnosed and subsequently under-reported by the government. It gives global brands a false sense of security and prevents workers from accessing the medical compensation they are owed.

Source: Sydney Morning Herald. This article has been edited for length.

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New refrigerant in cars may be toxic

Refrigerant in cars: Refreshingly cool, potentially toxic

Combustion of the cooling agent releases
toxic fumes, researchers have shown.

The refrigerant R1234yf is being considered for use in air conditioning systems in cars. Chemists at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universitaet (LMU) in Munich now show that, in the event of a fire, it releases the highly poisonous carbonyl fluoride, and urge that its safety be reassessed.

According to EU guidelines, the new compound R1234yf should in future be used as the refrigerant in air-conditioning systems for automobiles.

But the compound is inflammable, and LMU chemists have now shown that combustion of the cooling agent leads to the formation of the highly toxic carbonyl fluoride.

"It has been known for some time now that combustion of R1234yf results in production of the toxic hydrogen fluoride. Our analysis has now shown that 20% of the gases produced by combustion of the compound consist of the even more poisonous chemical carbonyl fluoride," says Andreas Kornath, Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at LMU Munich.

He and his co-workers have just published the results of their investigation in the journal Zeitschrift für Naturforschung.

Carbonyl fluoride is structurally related to phosgene (which contains chlorine in place of fluorine), which was used as a chemical weapon during the First World War.

The simplest fluoride, hydrogen fluoride (or hydrofluoric acid, HF) is also highly corrosive and so toxic that burns about as big as the palm of one's hand can be lethal. The agent binds avidly to calcium in body fluids, and this can result in heart failure unless an antidote is rapidly administered.

Carbonyl fluoride is even more dangerous, because it penetrates the skin more easily, and causes severe irritation of the eyes, the skin and the airways. If inhaled, it can damage the alveoli in the lungs, allowing it to reach the circulation and shut down vital functions.

According to guidelines issued by the European Union, automobile manufacturers are legally obligated to use an environmentally friendly refrigerant in the air-conditioning systems installed in their cars.

Use of the previously approved refrigerant R134a in new models has been forbidden in the EU since 2011, as the agent had been shown to contribute to the global warming in the atmosphere.

However, its recommended replacement R1234yf has already been the subject of much heated debate in Germany.

Studies carried out by various institutions and by German auto manufacturers had pointed to the compound's flammability, and shown that, in the event of accidents in which vehicles catch fire, combustion of R1234yf leads to the release of hydrogen fluoride.

"The risk analyses carried out by the manufacturers of the refrigerant so far have not taken carbonyl fluoride into account. In light of our results, we advise that the risks associated with R1234yf should be urgently reassessed," Kornath adds.

Source: EurekAlert! by AAAS 

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States take action on toxic chemicals regulations

Toxic chemicals can hide in many
commonly used products.

In Vermont, the Senate has just passed a bill potentially empowering the Green Mountain State to ban chemicals it deems harmful to consumers.

Some 3,000 miles away, in Washington State, environmental reformers weren’t as successful: A bill to ban six toxic flame retardants died in the Senate, beaten back by industry opposition and politicians’ cries of state overreaching.

In state capitols from Maine to Oregon, environmental advocates are filing bills to identify and ban noxious chemicals and industry groups are fighting back with pointed rebukes and high-pitched lobbying. Toxic reform legislation is either breathing with new life or being extinguished altogether.

The toxics tug-of-war in state houses is direct fallout from the muddled environmental politicking of Washington, D.C.

In 1976, Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act, a federal framework intended to safeguard the public from dangerous chemicals. Yet in the nearly four decades since, TSCA, as it is known, has done little more than gather dust.

Among tens of thousands of chemicals in commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency has “only been able to require testing on a little more than 200 existing chemicals,” and banned five, the EPA told The Center for Public Integrity.

Everyone wants to revamp TSCA — from the industry’s $100 million lobbying arm, the American Chemistry Council, to the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group, to the EPA itself.

Yet three years to the month since the late New Jersey Sen. Frank Lautenberg proposed sweeping change through the Safe Chemicals Act of 2011, the TSCA overhaul remains in the works, with proposals, counter-proposals and criticisms about the working draft’s fine print.

Fed up with logjams in D.C., state legislators are filing hundreds of measures in their own states to do what the federal government hasn’t — take action against destructive chemicals, by singling out the most dangerous toxins and seeking to remove them from shelves.

As the Center for Public Integrity reported last year, the American Chemistry Council and other industry groups fight nearly every state measure, contending that a patchwork of state laws would do more harm than good, and that true change should come through TSCA.

Source: Center for Public Integrity. This article has been edited for length.

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Toxic chemicals a concern for firefighters

Toxic substances released by fires can linger on uniforms
and equipment, leading to high exposure levels.

More than 200 empty pairs of firefighter boots recently lined the steps of the Rotunda in San Francisco's City Hall.

Each pair represented a local firefighter who lost his or her life "with their boots off" due to cancer in the last 14 years, said Tony Stefani, president of the San Francisco Firefighters Cancer Prevention Foundation.

"In just the last three months, we've had two active and four retired firefighters die of cancer," said Stefani, a retired San Francisco Fire Dept. captain and cancer survivor, in an interview before the event.

The display is one of at least 15 "Give Toxics the Boot" events around the country this week. From Spokane, Wash., to Augusta, Maine, firefighters are calling for stricter regulations on flame retardants and other toxic chemicals they say are causing cancer and other diseases among their ranks.

"We take every precaution we can to minimize our exposure and risk, yet we're still being exposed to these chemicals on a daily basis," said Emmett McNamee, a 20-year veteran Spokane firefighter. "And these are bio-accumulative. They build up in our systems."

Public health advocates are standing alongside firefighters in the heated battle.

"Our first responders and firefighters are disproportionately exposed and affected by the chemicals that are in our homes," said Lindsay Dahl, deputy director for the non-profit Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, one of the organizations participating in the campaign.

"They serve, just like pregnant women and children, as canaries in the coal mine for the health effects we're seeing from chemicals we're exposed to every day."

To fight a fire means confronting a toxic soup of burning chemicals and their byproducts, including dioxins, furans and formaldehyde.

Many of the most toxic fumes released by today's fires actually come from chemicals added to everything from clothes to couches to computers in an effort to retard flames.

But, as an investigation by the Chicago Tribune uncovered, those additives may offer no meaningful fire protection.

A firefighter's exposure to chemicals can continue long after the blaze is out. Chemicals may linger on the skin, uniform, respirator, helmet and other gear. And if a firefighter wears any of that stuff home, their family may be exposed as well.

Scientists recently tested the blood of 12 California firefighters immediately after they responded to an alarm.

The results, published in June, showed significantly greater concentrations of flame retardants and other modern household chemicals in the firefighters compared with average Americans. Levels of polybrominated diphenyl ethers, or PBDEs, one common flame retardant, were three times higher in the firefighters' blood.

A separate study, published in October by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, evaluated the health of nearly 30,000 career firefighters in San Francisco, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Researchers found higher rates of prostate cancer, kidney cancer, multiple myeloma, and other cancers compared with the general population.

Stefani, the former San Francisco captain, said he has a message for the chemical lobbying industry: "We are sick and damn tired of being your canaries sent into the cave every time we fight a fire. We're sick and tired of seeing the men and women of our profession contracting and dying of this insidious disease.

"We're not only concerned about firefighters," added Stefani. "We're concerned about the population in general with ongoing, daily chemical exposures."

Source: Huffington Post. The article has been edited for length.


Toxic chemicals an occupational risk for firefighters

Fighting fires is risky enough - but back in the station or at home, firefighters should not have to be concerned with toxic chemical exposure. Unfortunately, toxins can linger on uniforms, equipment and hair as well as skin, so exposure risks remain high.

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Schools receive grants to limit pesticide exposure

Integrated pest management practices are shown to reduce pesticide use

Children are vulnerable to chemical exposures, experts say.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in March announced three grants to facilitate integrated pest management practices in schools.

This funding will help reduce student’s exposure to pests and pesticides in the nation’s schools, while saving money, energy and pesticide treatment costs.

“Children are among the most vulnerable members of our society, and it’s EPA’s job to protect them from harmful chemicals,” said James Jones, Assistant Administrator for the Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention.

“We aim to help schools implement sustainable pest management practices to create a healthier environment for our children and teachers.”

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) reduces pesticide use, helps to eliminate pests and saves schools money.

For example, 18 schools in Monroe County, Indiana have reduced both pesticide use and pest control costs by 90 percent using IPM practices.

This approach has the potential to reach all 15,000 school districts and improve the health and well-being of the 49 million children attending public and tribal schools in the United States.

IPM measures help prevent pests from becoming a threat by taking action to address the underlying causes that enable pests to thrive in schools.

These actions, such as repairing water leaks, adding weather stripping to windows, and installing door sweeps, reduce pesticide use and treatment costs while reducing water and energy costs.

The IPM common-sense approach is a stark contrast to conventional pest management in which an exterminator uses pesticides school-wide on a regular schedule, potentially exposing school children, teachers and staff to pesticides, with little emphasis on removing the underlying conditions that make it inviting to pests.

The three grants will be awarded to:

• TheTexas A&M Agrilife Extension to develop a central, internet-based hub for materials and phone apps that will give school districts the information and tools they need to adopt an IPM program. While the project aims to reach 1 percent of schools (552,350 students) within three years, it has the potential to reach all of the 15,000 school districts nation-wide and the 49 million children attending US public schools.
• The University of Arizona to develop and carry out a pilot training and certification program for school staff (custodians, kitchen staff, and school administrators) in eight states and four tribes, working with five other universities and stakeholders. Once finalized, the materials will be made available to schools nation-wide through partners.
• The Michigan State University to help 5 percent of Michigan and Indiana schools adopt IPM through hands-on education, training and coalition-building, including web-based trainings and a website. About 135,000 children may be protected.

Source: EPA

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