To the Ends of the Earth: The Spread of Industrial Poisons

As energy concerns became paramount among national issues in the mid-70's, the public outcry against pollution declined. But problems do not disappear simply by ignoring them; pollution is still with us. Many powerful pollutants, or, more accurately, a number of industrial poisons, recently have found their way into the environment and ultimately penetrated the human body with disturbing regularity. Consider the following cases:

Over 25 asbestos workers have died from asbestos-related diseases in a plant in Tyler, Texas over the past five years. The body count may go as high as 200 (out of 900 asbestos workers in the plant) before the asbestos poisoning runs its course.

Over 75 workers in a pesticide plant at Hopewell, Virginia have been contaminated with the pesticide Kepone. Many are dying; fortunately, many others may recover. Experts contend the poison has leaked out of the plant, into the surrounding James River basin. Residents of towns along the river have consumed fish from the James over the years.

Another pesticide, Phosvel, has caused paralysis, hallucinations, blurred vision, and dizziness among employees in the Bayport, Texas plant that manufactured the pesticide. Banned from use in the United States, Phosvel was exported to Egypt where it caused death in humans and farm animals that came in contact with it.

As many as 150,000 people in the upper basin of the Hudson River have been exposed to a broad range of carcinogens in their drinking water. Although the amount of each chemical in the river is below the federal maximum, no one knows what effect this combination of chemicals will have on the human body.

Michigan residents has been exposed to low levels of polybrominated biphenyol (PBB) for the past four years. A more toxic relative of the federally-banned chemical PCB, PBB entered the Michigan food chain through state-distributed feed grain. Thousands of cattle and 1.5 million chickens have been killed or maimed by the disease. Others have been quarantined, dying slowly of PBB-related diseases. But many animals were sold before the state realized the danger. Over 10,000 people in the state, mostly farmers, now have traces of PBB in their bodies that exceed the danger level for cattle set by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). No one knows what the long range effects of PBB are, but many of the farm families are experiencing the same symptons that afflicted their ailing cattle.

No Place to Hide

These are only the most obvious of the myriad industrial dangers to which workers are exposed. One in four workers in the United States is exposed to some serious occupational hazards. The portion of the American public that comes into contact with hazardous substances leaked into the environment is not known. The level of most chemicals in the environment does not exceed the tolerance levels established by the FDA. However, many of these legally safe levels can become dangerous when they remain in the environment for long periods of time, penetrate the food chain and accumulate in the human body.

The PBB crisis may be the nation's worst. The Michigan Chemical Company of St. Louis, Mich., manufactured a feed grain additive called Nutrimaster. The company also produced a fire retardant, Firemaster, the only commercial product in the United States that contains PBB. In September 1973, several bags of Firemaster were mistakenly shipped with the Nutrimaster to the Michigan Farm Bureau for distribution to Michigan's farmers. Within weeks, cattle throughout the state began to sicken and die.

The state refused to recognize the problem, attributing the deaths to parasites, iodine poisoning and poor farm management. The Michigan Department of Agriculture told farmers withstricken herds that their problems were unique and that other herds did not display the disease. So the farmers sold their sick cows for meat or to be ground into more feed grain, and the PBB continued through the food cycle, eventually reaching humans. Chickens and milk products were also contaminated--chicken through the feed, and milk as a product of sick cows.

Finally, nine months after the initial shipment error, Frederic Halbert, one of the first farmers to receive the tainted grain, had a Master's Degree in chemical engineering, and used his training to pinpoint PBB as the source of his herd's ailments. Halbert, suspecting that his feed grain was impure, sent grain samples to state laboratories. The labs failed to find anything unusual, so he sent samples to labs outside the state, where researchers finally determined that the sample was laced with PBB. The FDA stepped in, setting the maximum level of PBB in cattle at 1 part per million (it was later dropped to 0.3 ppm). Last year, the state lowered the limit to .05 ppm for dairy cows being sold for meat.

During the nine months before government action, humans ingested high concentrations of PBB. Even now, however, PBB remains in the food chain. Floyd Jones, a dairy farmer, said last week, "I've got cattle that slowly die. They're extremely thin right now and they've got pus oozing out of abcesses. They're stiff and lame and not giving any milk, of course. They've been tested and they're perfectly legal to put on the market for consumption." His family does not consume anything the farm produces now, Jones added.

The feed poisoned more than cattle. Cats, rats, earthworms and even flies died on the farm soon after the first PBB grain shipment, Jones said. And it affected his family.

Jones said "Everyone in the family complains of fatigue and aching joints. Some of them have haddiarrhea, some had a skin rash."

He sought medical help, with few results. He said, "There are no doctors that know anything about PBB. Any farmer that has had it for years can do a better job of diagnosing than any doctor."

Cattle That 'Look Like Hell'

Ron Thomas is another farmer hit hard by PBB. He has destroyed or sold all but three of his cattle, "but even those look like hell," he said. Thomas said he didn't know how much PBB was in his remaining cows because the state only requires them to be tested in they are going to be sold for meat. If he were selling their milk, the state would test the milk in bulk--combining all the milk in the herd and measuring the level of PBB.

Thomas said he wouldn't sell milk from such sick cows, however. "We milked the cows probably three years longer than we would've if we knew what we know now," he said. Yet for three years state veterinarians told him his cattle were suffering from low protein, or parasites--not PBB poisoning, he said. He added, "Everybody was telling us it was our problem alone."

Although his family no longer eats anything his farm produces, the PBB has affected them, Thomas said. He said his family is chronically anemic and fatigued, frequently suffering from abnormally stiff and sore joints. "We saw the same symptons in our cows," he said. His son, who has been exposed to PBB since he was an infant and has abnormally high levels of the chemical in his body, has an enlarged liver and spleen. The doctor who examined him thought the condition may have been due to the PBB, but knowledge of PBB's effects is so sketchy that no one can directly tie any one ailment to consumption of the chemical.

Thomas and Jones are only two examples of families with high levels of PBB in their bodies. As many as 10,000 Michigan residents may have PBB in their bodies, and the number grows daily. Dr. Norman J. Selikhoff, a pioneer in the science of epidemiology, is conducting a study of these people. Preliminary findings suggested that PBB consumption caused brain disorders in the form of loss of memory and mental lethargy, immunological disruption, general physical fatigue, and changes in bone and muscle fiber: The new study will be finished later this week, but it is not expected to be definitive.

PBB's trail runs throughout the state. Traces of PBB were found in samples of human breast milk in every major Michigan city. Doctors say every person in Michigan has traces of PBB in his or her tissues. No one knows what the ultimate effect of PBB on humans will be.

State agencies in Michigan have exhibited remarkable bureaucratic inertia with the PBB crisis. Michigan officials tried to convince the public that the PBB problem was unimportant. Fred Fry, an assistant to the Michigan Speaker of the House, said "State officials issued press releases consistently underestimating the scope of the problem." Fry added that the FDA encouraged the state to conceal the problem.

The Michigan Farm Bureau, distributor of the grain, has compensated everyone whose herds exceeded the official tolerance level for PBB. The Farm Bureau is contesting in court all other claims, including those of people who believe PBB has caused them physical harm. The first litigation began over a year ago and has not yet been completed.

Don't Drink the Water

Another environmental disaster with widespread potential for tragedy is the pollution of the Hudson River. "The Hudson has been an industrial sewer for decades," Walter Hang, co-author of the New York Public Interest Research Group (NYPIRG) study on pollution in the Hudson, said last week.

The NYPIRG study indicates that hundreds of chemicals, many of them carcinogens, have been dumped into the Hudson for years. Normal water purification processes do little to filter these toxic chemicals, leaving them in drinking water. The study found traces of the harmful chemicals in household tap water. "Any amount of a carcinogen should be considered unsafe. We don't know what the threshold levels are," Hang said.

He said it would be difficult to establish any definite connection between the pollutants and disease in the Hudson River area. because most of the damage may have taken place over the last several decades. But there are some indications that the toxins in the Hudson have affected the people living along the river, he added. The city of Poughkeepsie has twice the average mortality rate for gastro-intestinal cancer, he said.

Poughkeepsie was the first city to act on the NYPIRG report, setting aside $250,000 for a new water purification system that would filter out carcinogens, Hang said. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has given cities along the Hudson little assistance in coping with the problem.

Pesticides provide other toxic horror stories. The pesticide Phosvel (also known as leptaphose) has been banned from use in the United States, but it was produced here for export from 1971 until 1975, by the Velsicol Corporation. In 1969, Velsicol commissioned a testing group to study Phosvel's danger to humans. The group advised Velsicol not to manufacture Phosvel because of its high toxidity and its adverse effects on test animals. Velsicol ignored the report and began producing the pesticide in 1971, providing no industrial safeguards for its workers. Employees shovelled the pesticide into bags, while clouds of dust containing Phosvel floated through the plant. Velsicol ignored warnings from environmental groups and its own medical experts about illnesses related to Phosvel among plant employees. Velsicol closed down in 1975, after federal agencies told managers they planned to inspect the plant the next month.

Workers in the plant have suffered partial paralysis, nerve and brain disorders, dizziness and blurred vision. In Egypt, where Phosvel was imported, the pesticide has caused the death of some farmers, as well as the decimation of farm animals that came in contact with it.

The Velsicol Corporation began production in 1976 of another pesticide, EPN, which scientists suspect is twice as toxic as Phosvel. EPN and Phosvel have the same chemical base. The EPA has recommended the EPN be banned from the United States. At present, several major companies manufacture EPN, the largest being DuPont Chemical Company.

Velsicol is a subsidiary of Northwest Industries. The Michigan Chemical Company, the manufacturer of Firemast that began the PBB fiasco, is also a subsidiary of Northwest Industries. Both chemical companies are facing civil suits and criminal charges.

Another pesticide that kills humans as well as insects is Kepone, produced by the Life Science Products plant in Hopewell, Virginia. The plant began production of the highly toxic chemical in March, 1974. Within weeks, employees began to experience symptoms of tremors and ataxia (loss of control of some motor functions). Federal health inspectors found Kepone dust thick in the air of the plant, blanketing the floor, and covering tables where the workers ate their meals.

Plant employees carried the Kepone home with them and contaminated their families. The plant was closed in 1976, but the EPA has discovered that another firm, Allied Chemical (of which Life Sciences is a subsidiary) has been dumping Kepone in the James River in Virginia for over a decade. Fish samples taken during the '60s showed traces of Kepone, leading scientists to believe that many people have low levels of Kepone in their blood. The long-term effects of Kepone are unknown, but recent discoveries have enabled humans to rid their bodies of the substance quickly.

Other victims of industrial toxic poisoning have not been so fortunate. A Pittsburgh-Corning Corporation that uses asbestos to manufacture fire-resistant industrial sleeves was closed in 1972 for numerous health violations. Asbestos dust was so thick in the air that it was often impossible to see across the 200-foot wide plant interior. Asbestos covered the floor and the meal tables. Plant ventilators were clogged with the dust.

The asbestos has taken its toll among plant employees. Over 25 have died of lung cancer or asbesiosis. The death toll may reach 200 out of 900 plant workers.

Federal health inspectors examined the plant in 1967 and 1970, finding numerous violations of health standards. In 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined the company. Inspectors did not wear protective equipment such as respirators for fear of alarming the plant's employees.

Over 400 of the plant's workers brought a $100 million suit against the company and the government in 1974. That suit has been settled out of court for $20 million, including a government payment of over $5 million. The government payments may mark the first time the government has been held liable in such a case.

Industrial toxic poisoning is on the rise in the United States. These cases are not isolated incidents; they represent merely a handful of known tragedies. More serious tragedies are inevitable unless the public recognizes the national scope of the problem, and acts now to confront the dangers toxic substances pose to human health.

For Stephen Soble, law school has not meant endless hours with the casebooks. For the past year, Soble, a third year law student at Harvard, has been pushing a model statute he authored that provides for compensation of victims of industrial poisoning.

Last October, Rep. William M. Brodhead (D-Mich.) introduced the bill in the House. Yesterday Soble testified about the bill before the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance. "Industrial toxic pollution is approaching catastrophic proportions," Soble said last week. "It has reached those proportions in Michigan with PBB. Nine million people in Michigan have PBB in their bodies, and we really don't know what it's going to do," he added.

Soble pointed out that PBB is only an isolated example of industrial poisoning. "Almost daily there's an instance reported in the newspapers," he said.

Soble's bill proposes to set up an Administrative Board for Compensation (ABC), which could order manufacturers to compensate victims more quickly and equitably than the courts do now. The ABC would decide cases on the basis of an epidemiological study to determine the origin of a victim's disorder.

Industry, as well as the victims, would benefit from the bill, Soble explained. The ABC would charge a slight pollution tax to cover its administrative expenses. Because the pollution tax would be graduated by the level of risk the manufacturer posed to human health, each manufacturer would know precisely how dangerous its product was. The proposed legislation would also set up an Office of Ombudsman, which would provide industry with the latest data and research on safer and less costly anti-pollution technologies.

"Industry would know that they would be held strictly liable for whatever injury did occur," Soble said. "Practically, manufacturers, in consultation with the insurance companies, would figure out ways of assessing the potential level of risk and reducing that risk to an affordable level. The manufacturer himself would be the hardest regulator around. There would be self-regulation."