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Louisville
Courier-Journal Chemicals
exceed levels seen as safe Louisville-area residents are being exposed to toxic chemicals in concentrations up to hundreds of times higher than the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency considers safe, according to a Courier-Journal analysis of neighborhood air sampling data. Air monitors placed in western Louisville and Otter Creek Park in Meade County and at the University of Louisville's Shelby Campus in eastern Jefferson County have detected at least 18 chemicals at levels that could increase residents' cancer risks or cause other health problems over decades of exposure, a computer-assisted analysis by the newspaper shows. The newspaper's findings are the latest to suggest that Jefferson County continues to have serious air-quality problems despite millions of dollars spent to reduce smog and other air pollutants over five decades. Concentrations of one chemical, 1,3-butadiene, found in motor vehicle exhaust and used in manufacturing synthetic rubber — including at three of Louisville's Rubbertown industrial plants — pose a significant threat:
Arnita Gadson hopes the study can be used to improve the quality of life. Last October, EPA scientists in Atlanta ranked Louisville-Jefferson County first among 736 counties in eight southeastern states for health risks from hazardous air pollutants. The Courier-Journal obtained the air pollution monitoring data from the Louisville Metro Air Pollution Control District through a Kentucky open records law request. It comes from an ongoing $1.5 million hazardous air pollutants study expected to be released soon by the West Jefferson County Community Task Force, a nonprofit group with supporters from West End neighborhoods, industry, the air pollution district, and the University of Louisville's Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Development. "Residents felt they were being ignored," said Arnita Gadson, executive director of the task force. Gadson said that while most of the public concern centers around the West End, the task force hopes to use the upcoming report to improve the quality of life for all Jefferson County residents. Kenneth Mitchell, who directs the EPA's regional Risk and Exposure Assessment Group in Atlanta, said that the task force's report on Louisville air quality may yield different results from what the newspaper found. "It appears the risk (from butadiene) is high," acknowledged Mitchell, one of the advisers to the study. "But we need to re-evaluate the data with more robust statistics to see whether (the risks) are still high," he said, adding: "We don't want to scare people." But Art Williams, director of the air pollution district, said he does not expect the draft data given to The Courier-Journal from the 13 monitors to change much because it had been approved by a committee of advisers with representatives from government, industry and citizen groups.
Worries over air pollution have existed for decades Concern over air quality in Louisville, especially from the industrial West End, goes back decades. Standard Oil of Kentucky built a refinery in the area in 1918, and subsequently drew related industries. In the early 1940s, the federal government built several facilities in the same neighborhood to make synthetic rubber for World War II, and later sold them to private businesses. The Rubbertown complex now includes 11 plants. The plants aren't the only source of air pollution in western Jefferson County; there are three coal-fired power plants, including one in Southern Indiana, heavy vehicle traffic, railroad yards and other industrial facilities. With some residents worried that pollution might be making them or their loved ones sick, the city and county first conducted an air-quality study in the mid-1950s. It noted that the air in Louisville was no worse than in any other city, but recommended ordinances to control problems with soot, ash, dust and chemical vapors. In fact, air monitoring in western Louisville in the 1950s found concentrations of butadiene that were at least 70 times as high as the highest levels detected during the 2000 and 2001 monitoring. The federal Clean Air Act of 1970 was credited with improving air quality locally and nationally, but it wasn't until after the Clean Air Act amendments in 1990 that some Louisville residents focused greater attention on hazardous air pollutants and pressed hard for answers to their health concerns. In the late 1990s, two investigations of West End health problems, one by the Louisville-Jefferson County Board of Health and the other by a federal agency, were completed. Investigators were unable to conclude that environmental factors were contributing to more cancer deaths or other health problems in the West End. The 1997 report by the Board of Health called for further efforts to "determine and monitor the association of environmental pollutants and cancer in Jefferson County." The following year, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, concluded that the Rubbertown industrial area "poses an indeterminate public health hazard." It called for air monitoring of toxic chemicals. Anna Donahue, who has lived in the three-bedroom home at 4211 Camp Ground Road for 47 years, where the butadiene readings are highest, has wondered over the years what role, if any, the chemical exposure might have played in the death of her husband, Joseph Edward Donahue, who died of leukemia six years ago at age 69. "We (always) knew there was stuff that we shouldn't be breathing here," Donahue, 70, said when told of the newspaper's findings. Thomas Blincoe, 64, who is disabled with lung ailments and supplements his breathing with oxygen from a tank, said it wasn't surprising to hear that Louisville's air has excessive levels of toxic pollutants. "Everybody around here has lung problems it seems," said Blincoe, of 2114 Belquin Road.
Several chemicals found to exceed heath thresholds The West Jefferson County Community Task Force study, funded largely in recent years by the state legislature, was begun with preliminary air monitoring in 1999. The monitoring quickly revealed excess levels of some pollutants, including vinyl chloride and benzene, which are suspected to cause cancer and other illnesses. Those results represented only a snapshot of air quality on several days, but helped launch the formal monitoring in the spring of 2000. Thirteen air-quality monitors were installed at 12 locations. Most of the monitors were placed in western Louisville; half were clustered near the Rubbertown facilities. Two others were placed at U of L's Shelby Campus and at Otter Creek Park as points of comparison away from industry. Between May 2000 and May 2001, data was collected up to 31 times by the EPA and by U of L's Institute for the Environment and Sustainable Development. Monitors sampled for more than 160 chemicals and detected about 100 of them. The Courier-Journal obtained the sampled data from the air pollution district and applied two sets of EPA thresholds. One was a Region 3 set of thresholds used in Kentucky for years; the other was a Region 9 set of thresholds used in California and now in Kentucky. For butadiene, the newspaper added a third threshold to its data analysis, one that EPA's Mitchell said was being used in the task force study. The Courier-Journal attempted to obtain the set of thresholds used in the task force study but was denied by the project consultant, Sciences International, based in Alexandria, Va. All three of the thresholds used by the newspaper estimated concentrations at which different scientists within the EPA say long-term exposure to butadiene would produce one additional cancer case in 1 million people. The thresholds for all the chemicals were developed as screening tools to help the government determine health risks at Superfund sites. Herrell Hurst, professor of pharmacology and toxicology at the University of Louisville School of Medicine, who is on a committee advising the Louisville study, said the thresholds are not official standards that communities must achieve, but they help experts focus on chemicals that might pose the greatest risk. He warned that the thresholds might overestimate health risks because the EPA tends to make conservative assumptions that are especially protective of public health. Among the chemicals or compounds that exceeded the health thresholds in Louisville are trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent; chromium, which can be found in coal-fired burner emissions and other industrial fumes; acrylonitrile, used to make rubber products; perchloroethylene, used in dry cleaning; the industrial solvent carbon tetrachloride; and several components of gasoline or automotive exhaust, such as benzene. Butadiene may pose the greatest health risks among the compounds. And from her fenced front yard, Anna Donahue can see the flare at the top of a tall smokestack at American Synthetic Rubber Co., the single largest industrial source of butadiene. Average concentrations of butadiene at that monitoring station were between 72 and 850 times the three health-based thresholds, according to the analysis. Maximum exposure at the same location was projected to be between 158 and 2,405 times the EPA thresholds. Dr. Paul Brandt-Rauf, professor and chairman of the department of environmental health sciences in Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health in New York City, was shown the sampling data and the newspaper's analysis and said some concentrations of some of the chemicals detected in Louisville's air are troubling. "You are getting up into numbers &elipse; where people's risk is considerable," Brandt-Rauf said. "If I lived there and this was a chronic condition, I would be concerned." It's likely that concentrations at that level are having some health effects, added Al Westerman, who heads the risk assessment branch of the state Department for Environmental Protection. He suggested that a closer look at the sources of pollution and the health of residents might be needed. Butadiene was rarely detected at Otter Creek Park, generally upwind from Rubbertown, and at U of L's Shelby Campus. Those sites showed elevated levels of other chemicals. Readings at two schools were sharply elevated — at Farnsley Middle School, 3400 Lees Lane, about two miles south of Rubbertown, and at Cane Run Elementary School, 3951 Cane Run Road. At Cane Run Elementary, a science teacher who is a member of a Rubbertown industry advisory board said she is worried about the health of her students. Toxic chemicals are known to have a greater effect on children because their bodies are still developing. "I'm trying to be open-minded," said Laura Ecken, science teacher at Cane Run Elementary, and a member of the Rubbertown Community Advisory Council, an organization created and supported by Rubbertown chemical plants. "I know that Rubbertown is important in the products they make and in the economy of Louisville," Ecken said. "What I'm concerned about are these children. We need to be doing everything we can not to expose these children in the school." That's a view shared by Jefferson County Public Schools administrators, said Chuck Fleischer, the school district's director of safety and environmental services. "We are waiting for the results of the study so we can figure out how we might respond," he said. But if it turns out that some chemicals present too great a risk in the community, school officials would want the sources of that pollution reduced, he said. Russ Barnett, director of research at U of L's environmental institute, has been overseeing the continuing collection of the air - monitoring data at six sites. He said it doesn't appear that the levels of butadiene have dropped since the study's monitoring period ended in May of 2001. "If anything," Barnett said, "it has increased." Barnett conducted his own review of the monitoring data — an analysis that produced results similar to those found by The Courier-Journal. He said that the findings — especially those involving butadiene — should send a message to Louisville business, environmental and political leaders. "It tells the regulators, it tells the regulated industries, and it tells the community &elipse; that we should be saying, `Bring these numbers down.' " COMPANIES' EMISSIONS Businesses say they work to reduce discharges By far the largest industrial emitter of butadiene, according to the EPA's Toxics Release Inventory, is American Synthetic Rubber Co. 's plant at 4500 Camp Ground Road. The company pumped 160,000 pounds of butadiene into the air in 2000 — the latest year for which government-reviewed emission reports are available. The amount is within what the company has been permitted to release by the metro air pollution district. "We are working to reduce our butadiene emissions," said Nan Banks, spokeswoman for Michelin North America, which owns the American Synthetic Rubber plant. She and other company officials declined to comment further on the newspaper's findings. "We don't want to speculate &elipse; on why one monitor at one location might be higher, and its proximity to our plant," Banks said. Plant officials said they are aware of the health effects of butadiene and take every precaution, such as operating a leak-detection system and keeping levels in the plant within federal safety limits to protect their workers. They also said they are in compliance with environmental and safety laws, and will address the task force's risk report after they see it. The other facilities that emit butadiene are the Rohm and Haas Co. plant, directly across the street from the Camp Ground Road monitoring site, and Zeon Chemicals, about a mile northwest on Bells Lane. Rohm and Haas, which makes plastic additives and acrylic coatings, emitted 4,460 pounds in 2000, while Zeon, which makes nitrile rubber, emitted 27,213 pounds, according to EPA records — again, within their permitted limits. Rubbertown industry officials were told recently that butadiene might be identified as a chemical of concern in the task force's study, said Tom Herman, environmental manager for Zeon. The newspaper's findings, he said, indicate that industry will likely have to take steps to further reduce various kinds of emissions, including those of butadiene and acrylonitrile. "If those numbers are valid, no doubt the industry is highly implicated," Herman said. "It's an alarm bell that we will have to respond to." If the final report identifies butadiene as a major concern, that may prompt Rohm and Haas officials to speed up their plans for a new butadiene leak-detection system that would help control emissions, said Dan Hicks, company spokesman. "Getting to zero (emissions) of course is our objective," said Don Neman, environmental manager at the plant. LOCAL RESPONSE Officials, residents wait for results of assessment The EPA is studying whether to require additional butadiene controls nationally. Synthetic rubber plants across the country already are using what the EPA calls the "maximum available control technology," said Jim McGraw, managing director of the International Institute of Synthetic Rubber Producers Inc. "They may have to come back and put in new control technologies, yet to be defined," he said, adding that his organization disagreed with the EPA's cancer-risk threshold and may appeal. For his part, Williams at the air pollution district declined to detail how Louisville-Jefferson County Metro Government might respond to new knowledge of an environmental threat, but he called the air study "one of the most comprehensive in the nation." Like Gadson, he said he wanted to wait to see the final report from Sciences International. However, Williams said Louisville leaders are doing what they should by conducting the risk assessment and preparing a plan to address toxic emissions. Neither Gadson nor Williams would say when the two draft reports would be completed. But Gadson has scheduled a community forum for 6 p.m. May 22 at Jay's Cafeteria, 1812 W. Muhammad Ali Blvd., to discuss the risk assessment. Donahue said she's waiting to see the assessment. If it's confirmed that breathing the air in her neighborhood poses a significant risk, Donahue said the plants should further reduce emissions to safe levels or relocate the neighbors. She's not alone in that desire. Yard signs from the Rev. Louis Coleman's Justice Resource Center have cropped up on some West End streets near Rubbertown that spell out some residents' demands: "Vulnerable Zone: Buy Out or Clean Up." Joyce and Thomas Blincoe have such a sign in their front yard. Air pollution, Joyce Blincoe said, "makes your chest hurt and makes it difficult to breath." Sometimes it causes her eyes to water. Thomas Blincoe blames his own medical condition on a combination of factors: his past smoking, occupational exposure to dust, and breathing Louisville's air. But he really doesn't want to move. "I'd rather have them clean up," he said. "I'm too old to move." |
