Latency periods vary for PFAS compounds and type of cancer

From the Article by Allen Siegler, Mountain State Spotlight, May 2, 2023

State lawmakers passed the PFAS Protection Act to start controlling pollution in drinking water. While a step in the right direction, many are concerned that it prolongs health hazards for West Virginians.

In the 1990s, when Chuck Crookshanks worked as a teacher at Parkersburg South High, a student told him about her family’s farm and how dozens of their animals had grown physical deformities. “Not only the livestock, but also other animals near it,” Crookshanks recalled. “Deer, frogs and anything else that was around it. It was pretty remarkable.”

He said she was one of the first people he remembers raising concerns with the Washington Works plant in Parkersburg; a few years later, these concerns led to a mid-2000s high-profile lawsuit against chemical company DuPont, a lawsuit which linked the factory’s hazardous chemical pollution to diseases like kidney and testicular cancer.

Those chemicals are now often grouped with a broader group of cancerous, man-made concoctions called per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS. And PFAS, from both past and present polluters, continue to concern Crookshanks.

His house, between Ravenswood and the unincorporated town of Murraysville, is about 25 miles down the Ohio River from Washington Works. Crookshanks said his wife, Tammy, worries often about what invisible chemicals are present in the water from their well. “She brought it up probably in the last couple of weeks, wanting to get the water tested,” Crookshanks said.

Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it had reached a deal under the Clean Water Act for the plant, now owned by the Chemours Company, to address PFAS pollution. But the so-called “forever chemicals” have already been found in drinking water systems around the state.

While state lawmakers passed a bill in March to take steps toward identifying and contemplating action for affected public water systems, the bill does not require the state’s Department of Environmental Protection or any other group to remove the chemicals from drinking water yet. As a consequence, experts believe it could be years before many West Virginians can drink tap water and be assured that it won’t increase their risk of diseases like cancer.

“Why do you need another year or two years to figure that out when that’s been known for 22 years?” said Robert Bilott, an attorney with Taft Stettinius & Hollister who has led many lawsuits related to the chemicals.

Some monitoring, and some prolonged unknowns ~ Although there is scientific consensus that they increase health risks, PFAS are still used ubiquitously by manufacturing companies. The chemicals are effective at keeping liquids from seeping through material, and they are commonly used in products like candy bar wrappers and waterproof clothes.

When manufacturing plants use PFAS in their products, they can release them into the soil, water and air. All three methods risk contaminating people’s drinking sources, as chemicals released into the air can be absorbed by rain clouds and solid waste can seep into groundwater.

While the amount of PFAS in water is often highest at sites near polluting factories, it’s not uncommon for the chemicals to contaminate places far from the original source, meaning even West Virginians who live away from factories could still have the chemicals in their water.

“The thing about these forever chemicals is that they don’t break down,” said Angie Rosser, the executive director of the West Virginia Rivers Coalition. “They accumulate in our bodies and accumulate in the food chain.”

The state’s new PFAS Protection Act intends to focus on contamination identified by a 2022 U.S. Geological Survey study of the state’s water treatment facilities. That study found nearly half of the facilities, many along the Ohio River or in the Eastern Panhandle, had at least one hazardous chemical above the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s recently-proposed regulations in their untreated water.

For the sites with documented contamination, the bill tasks the DEP with coming up with action plans that identify the source of the pollution and propose ways to limit West Virginians’ exposure. It also lays out plans for the government agency to test the sites’ water after treatment.

To combat future pollution, the bill requires West Virginia factories that discharge any PFAS into surface water to report that action to the DEP. It will limit the factories’ amount of pollution to the standards set by the federal government, and no more stringent, once they’re proposed and finalized.

While the Legislature did not designate money for the effort, DEP Deputy Director for External Affairs Scott Mandirola said the department is applying for federal grants, like funds from the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to develop the action plans. “Our focus is on doing what the Legislature is telling us to do,” Mandirola said.

In the present, the bill doesn’t mandate any cleanup of PFAS in public drinking water. Some of that will likely come in the next two years, after the federal government finalizes its first-ever standards for the chemical under the Safe Drinking Water Act.

Rosser worries about whether the action plans will prepare the WV-DEP to enforce the EPA’s future PFAS limits, but she thinks the bill will generate crucial data. “I would characterize it as a measured step,” she said.

Others are concerned the step is too measured, missing key information about the ways in which PFAS can endanger West Virginians’ drinking water. While the bill will provide more information about public water sources, it won’t monitor private wells that many, like Crookshanks, depend on. In an email, bill lead sponsor Clay Riley, R-Harrison, said if the state was to test private water, it would have required an additional bill that involved the Department of Health and Human Resources.

For Dr. Alan Ducatman, a WVU professor emeritus who has spent decades studying PFAS, that’s a big omission, as it’s how hundreds of thousands of West Virginians access water in their homes. “It’s hard to be confident that you know what’s going on if you’re worried about your personal water supply and can’t find that information,” Ducatman said.

Aileen Curfman lives in Berkeley County and also uses well water in her home. As the co-chair of the Sierra Club’s Eastern Panhandle group, she’s aware of the impacts PFAS can have and of the high levels recorded near her. As such, Curfman recently paid hundreds of dollars to test her water for the poisons. “There would be a lot of folks who could not afford it,” Curfman said.

It came back free from the hazardous chemicals. But if it hadn’t, she thinks she would have had to pay around $5,000 for a filter — something she thinks would have been necessary to ensure her water was safe to drink.

‘Getting the stuff out of the water’ ~ From Rosser’s understanding, the earliest that maximum PFAS drinking water contaminant levels would be enforced is 2025, meaning many West Virginians’ water will likely continue to be hazardous for the time being.

Bilott, the attorney who has litigated many PFAS-related cases, believes West Virginia’s continued-prolonging of any chemical cleanup to be unnecessary and inhumane. “DEP was notified that these chemicals were getting into drinking water supplies 22 years ago,” he said. “They should already have been doing this.”

Harry Deitzler, another attorney who has represented West Virginians harmed by PFAS, was dismayed that the state’s new oversight is limited to PFAS discharged directly into rivers and streams. From his experience in lawsuits he’s litigated, a major way the chemicals enter people’s drinking water is when they’re released into the air and enter the water cycle.

Riley didn’t answer why the PFAS Protection Act didn’t address airborne pollution, instead responding that most air regulation comes from the federal government.

When asked what state residents should do until enforcement takes effect, he said the “EPA is still trying to understand the science and impact related to PFAS. I recommend people educate themselves about the topic.”

Bilott rejected the premise that the EPA is still trying to figure out the health impact of the chemicals, and he pointed to their health guidelines released last summer as evidence. He thinks rather than calling for West Virginians to educate themselves, the onus should be on the companies that caused the health hazards. “It shouldn’t be the burden of the impacted community to address that contamination,” Bilott said.

To Ducatman, the professor emeritus with the WVU School of Public Health, there are many more steps both the WV-DEP and the state Legislature could take to protect residents’ health. Those include creating a robust effort to test private wells, prohibiting factories in the state from using PFAS unless the chemicals are essential and monitoring industrial pollution beyond self-reporting.

Ducatman realizes that this type of effort could be costly, time-consuming and resource-intensive. But, from a public health standpoint, he sees it as crucial for West Virginians. “People’s health will improve,” Ducatman said. “Have no doubt about that. Getting the stuff out of the water is good for people.”

Support Mountain State Spotlight ~ We are a nonprofit investigative newsroom that exists to give West Virginians the information they need to make our state a better place. As a nonprofit, we rely on your help to power our journalism. We are committed to lifting up voices that aren’t always heard and spotlighting solutions that are making a difference.

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See Also: US EPA Takes Unprecedented Action to Tackle PFAS Water Pollution, Tom Perkins, The Guardian, May 6, 2023

EPA has ordered chemical company Chemours to stop discharging high levels of toxic PFAS into the Ohio River at Parkersburg

Coal miners ‘black lung’ and frackers ‘white lung’ are examples of such ailments

From an Article by Eglė Krištopaitytė, Health News, January 20, 2023

Climate change impacts all aspects of our lives, including our health. From inflammation caused by wildfire smoke to diseases-carrying vectors migrating to new areas, the threats associated with changing climate are here to stay. [It can get worse! See Paul Brown’s challenge.]

This past year 2022 was the world’s 6th-warmest year on record since 1880, according to the latest report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Millions of Americans have experienced the consequences of climate change firsthand, as the country endured 18 separate disasters, including hurricanes and droughts, damages of which exceeded $1 billion. Moreover, these disasters resulted in the deaths of 474 people.

In 2021, an international group of medical professionals suggested that rising temperatures due to climate change was the greatest threat to global public health. Scientists expect temperatures to continue increasing this year. In 2024, they could set a new global record.

In an interview with Healthnews, Juan Aguilera, MD, PhD, MPH, a director of Translational Environmental and Climate Health at Stanford University, explains how climate change damages our mental and physical health.

Wildfire smoke causes inflammation; wildfires also cause public displacement and property damages.

Aguilera says that climate change impacts different aspects of our lives. For example, rising temperatures prolong drought periods, leading to the drying of the forests’ soils. When weeds and bushes are not hydrated enough, the fires tend to expand and cover wider areas.

“Smoke contains many different particles that are harmful to human health, with some being small enough to go into the respiratory system and even to penetrate deeply into the circulation,” he told Healthnews.

Once in blood circulation, particles cause inflammation which, in the long term, could lead to heart diseases, stroke, hardening of the arteries, and even cancer. According to Aguilera, scientists are now learning that wildfire smoke may also affect the immune system, making people weaker against any other types of diseases.

The effects of climate change are also linked to mental health problems. For example, living in an area where wildfires may occur can be a source of anxiety. “You never know when a wildfire will occur, how big and wide it is going to be. You may be in danger and need to evacuate your home. Following the news also might be a source making anybody feel anxious,” Aguilera, MD, added.

Moreover, harmful particles from wildfire smoke may affect neurons and, therefore, mental health.

“As we learn more about how these smaller particles affect our entire bodies, we can also explain issues related to mental health,” he says.

Extreme climate events are more frequent now. Climate change also exacerbates extreme weather events, such as hurricanes and thunderstorms, eventually leading to flooding. This causes more humidity within the homes, which can result in mold, Aguilera explains. For some, mold may cause mild symptoms, such as sore throat, coughing, or wheezing. However, those with asthma or people allergic to mold may have severe reactions, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

In 2022, flooding caused by Hurricane Ian led to a spike in potentially deadly infections caused by Vibrio vulnificus, also known as “flesh-eating” bacteria. Over 60 cases of infections and 11 deaths were reported in Florida.

“Mosquitos and other vectors are getting adjusted to conditions where the climate is changing. They reach areas where there usually aren’t mosquitos, ticks, or any other vectors,” Aguilera added. Researcher says that as climate changes, the pollen season is expanding to up to ten months; therefore, pollen allergies will become more frequent.

How to protect yourself from pollution? Air pollution is one of the drivers of climate change. In 2021, about 67 million tons of pollution were emitted into the atmosphere in the U.S. Unsurprisingly, research reveals more or more harm of pollution to human health. For example, a study from last year found that unborn babies have black carbon particles in vital organs, such as the liver, lungs, and brain, as early as the first trimester.

Another study demonstrated that women in their late 40s and early 50s who were exposed long-term to air pollution with nitrogen dioxide and ozone saw increases in their body size and composition measures.

So how to protect ourselves from toxic pollutants? Aguilera says that while not everybody will be able to move out of regions that are exposed to air pollution, we can take some lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic. One of the steps is to follow the air quality index, which allows tracking of real-time air pollution conditions on a certain day.

“Vulnerable groups, such as pregnant, elderly people, children, and people with asthma, may want to consider some personal barriers, such as wearing a mask. Depending on your situation, it might be an N95 mask,” he says. In addition, air purifiers may help to trap these particles and reduce the amount of pollution inside the houses.

Aguilera explains that in the United States, some low-income communities live closer to freeways and roads, meaning that there are higher levels of air pollution coming from the traffic.

“Some homes don’t have proper insulation, and because of impending climate change, people who live there may suffer from heat stress or heat stroke. Measures to protect themselves, such as better cooling devices or air purifiers, cost money and are not necessarily accessible to everybody,” he adds.

Researcher says that the first step in achieving health equity is an awareness that our actions do affect not only ourselves but also people in other countries. “In Africa, they deal with severe droughts and shortages of food because of how climate changes make soils less fertile in some areas,” he says.

References & Sources ~

1. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. 2022 was world’s 6th-warmest year on record.

2. The New England Journal of Medicine. Call for Emergency Action to Limit Global Temperature Increases, Restore Biodiversity, and Protect Health.

3. The University of Aberdeen. Babies have air pollution in their lungs and brains before they take their first breath.

4. The University of Michigan. Air pollution tips the scale for obesity in women.

5. Kaiser Family Foundation. Climate Change and Health Equity: Key Questions and Answers.

Fracking operations which take many acres are increasing in numbers

>>> From an Article by Reid Frazier, StateImpact Pennsylvania, October 1, 2022

The University of Pittsburgh and the Penna. Department of Health are no longer participating in a public forum next week to discuss a series of state-funded studies about fracking and public health. The forum will still take place on Wednesday, October 5th in Canonsburg.

The Center for Coalfield Justice, one of the environmental groups involved in the forum, said in a statement this week that Pitt and the department of health had pulled out of the public event. Both the university and the department of health were slated to take part in the event, “to explain the study process to the public and take questions from community members,” according to the center.

In a statement, Maureen Lichtveld, Dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health and Professor of Environmental and Occupational Health, said that the studies are still “ongoing” and that “no data are available to share publicly.” Licthveld said the school was “willing to answer questions from the community as the studies progress. When we are prepared to release the results of these studies, we will do so publicly in a timely manner.”

Pitt has set up a web site with more information on the studies’ methodologies.

Barry Ciccocioppo, a spokesperson for the department of health, said the agency pulled out of the event only after Pitt did. “(A)fter Pitt withdrew its participation in the meeting it became clear that the department would be unable to provide anything more than background information and an overview of what led to contracting for these two studies,” Ciccocioppo said, in an email. “We will be providing that information to the organizers before the meeting.”

Ciccocioppo said the department will try to answer questions and solicit feedback through an online questionnaire it has set up. This survey will be open for two weeks after the Oct. 5 meeting.

“Parents deserve to hear from these institutions,” said Heaven Sensky, organizing director at the Center for Coalfield Justice, in a written statement. “Participating in this public forum was the bare minimum these agencies and research institutions could do to provide information to grieving parents and concerned community members. But now, they won’t even do that.”

Sensky and three other community members have resigned from the studies’ external advisory board, over what they say are Pitt’s and the agency’s “resistance to accountability and transparency to community members.”

“It is reasonable for community residents and pediatricians like me to be concerned that fracking may be to blame for the spike in rare childhood cancers and other health impacts in Southwestern Pennsylvania,” said Ned Ketyer, one of the former advisory board members, and president of Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania. “Community members are demanding answers. Unfortunately, the decision by the PA DOH and University of Pittsburgh to withdraw their commitment and not attend the public meeting on October 5 effectively silences those important voices and keeps the community in the dark.”

The forum will include perspectives from the former external review board members. The studies in question are examining the relationship between fracking and diseases like cancer, asthma, and poor birth outcomes. The state funded the studies after pressure from families of patients of a rare cancer in Washington County.

Dozens of children and young adults have been diagnosed with Ewing sarcoma and other forms of cancer in a four-county area outside Pittsburgh, where energy companies have drilled more than 4,000 wells since 2008, according to state records. The cases were first reported by the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Several of the cases included teenagers who died of Ewing sarcoma, who had all attended one school, Canon-McMillan High School in North Strabane Township, Washington County.

Ewing sarcoma has no known environmental cause. But the families nevertheless suspect that drilling and hydraulic fracturing, the method that energy companies use to extract natural gas from shale rock, played a role. A state study found there was no cancer cluster in Washington County, but that study did not include several newer cases of Ewing sarcoma.

In August, researchers at Yale School of Public Health found children living close to fracking sites in Pennsylvania have a higher risk for a common form of childhood cancer.

The health department says on its website that oil and gas “infrastructure may present potential exposure hazards to residents living nearby as well as to oil and gas workers.” The studies are expected to be completed by the end of the year, according to the Department of Health.

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October 5 Community Meeting Scheduled to Update Residents on PA Health & Environment Studies and to Discuss Health Impacts of Shale Gas Development

September 29, 2022 — On October 5, a public meeting in Canonsburg, PA, will offer residents an opportunity to learn more about a pair of studies being conducted by the University of Pittsburgh titled the “PA Health and Environment Studies.” The studies are exploring potential health impacts of the shale gas industry on residents of Southwestern Pennsylvania, including potential connections between this heavy industry and a spike in childhood cancers in the region.

Members of the media are invited to attend. There will also be a virtual option.

Date: Wednesday, October 5, 2022 Time: 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Place: Town Park (Yoney Pavilion), VFW 191 Drive Canonsburg, PA 15317

Attendees will hear from persons who formerly participated as members of the studies’ External Advisory Board and who will discuss the studies and help to prepare the community to understand the scope and limitations of the results. Additionally, the Environmental Health Project will present information families can use to identify impacts and protect their health. The PA Health and Environment studies are ongoing, and results will not be shared at this meeting.

Representatives of the Pennsylvania Department of Health and the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health had originally committed to being on hand to explain the study process and to take questions from community members. However, the agency and the school have now decided to pull out of the meeting. Meeting organizers released a separate statement on this development, which can be viewed here.

In 2019, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf’s administration allocated $3 million to the studies, taking action after months of impassioned pleas by the families of childhood cancer patients who live in the most heavily drilled region of the state. The studies have been underway for two years.

The studies cover the entirety of the Southwestern Pennsylvania Region, including Allegheny County, Armstrong County, Beaver County, Butler County, Fayette County, Greene County, Washington County, and Westmoreland County.

To register for either the in-person or virtual option, please follow this link:

https://secure.everyaction.com/qLXO2p_7C0uyKwJJ_e3Iag2?ms=coalition

The public health is also under threat by these and many others

>>> Article by Randi Pokladnik, PhD Environmental Scientist, Tappan Lake, OH, May 7, 2022

Twenty years ago, I lost my mother to cancer. She died two months before her 70th birthday. Her cancer had already progressed to stage 3 by the time of her diagnosis so the outlook for a long-term survival was not good.

At first it was hard to believe that she was sick. She looked perfectly healthy but her oncologist informed us that cancer cells had been slowly growing inside her body for many years. Unlike other cells in our body which have specific functions, cancer cells are undifferentiated, meaning they have no function other than to grow.

Our family wanted to know what caused my mom’s cancer. Her lifestyle wasn’t one that might have led to the development of cancer. Her oncologist told us that “unfortunately these tumors do not come with labels,” however, he pointed out that my mom, like many of his other patients, was born and raised in the heavily industrialized Ohio River Valley.There were few regulations in place in the 1930s and 1940s to protect human health and the environment.

The National Institute of Health Sciences reports that more than two-thirds of cancer is from environmental exposures to substances including pesticides, solvents, heavy metals, benzene, dioxins, and vinyl chlorides.

My folks moved from Steubenville, Ohio (a city once noted as having the dirtiest air in the nation) to Toronto, Ohio in 1962. In 1970, Weirton Steel began construction of their coke ovens on Brown’s Island just outside Toronto’s city limits. Coke ovens heat coal to high temperatures to remove sticky coal tars. These tarry substances are collected and used to make various aromatic solvents like benzene, which are carcinogenic. The remaining light weight coke is used during the steel-making process.

The coke plant drew national attention in late 1972 when 21 workers were killed in an explosion at the construction site. Our home, which was located less than a mile away, was rocked by the explosion. For nearly a decade we lived in the shadow of the dangerous aromatic hydrocarbon emissions spewed from the ovens. By 1982, locally produced coke became too expensive and the plant was shut down. However, the pollution in the form of coal tars and benzene containing compounds remained in the local soils and ground water.

Like many people who are diagnosed with terminal cancer, my mom was willing to try anything to gain a few more months of life. But once the cancer spread to her major organs, she had to admit she wasn’t going to beat the cancer. She would not see her grandkids grow up or see another birthday, she wouldn’t grow old, she wouldn’t celebrate another Mother’s Day with us. Cancer had essentially canceled my mom’s life. She lost her hair, her life savings, her dignity and eventually her life.

We will never know for sure if living in the Ohio Valley had contributed to my mom’s cancer but our next-door neighbor died at the age of 14 from leukemia and another friend died at the age of 11 from stomach cancer.

For years the petrochemical industry has discounted the connection of environmental toxins to cancer and they continue to deny the major role they play in the climate crisis. Many consumers are unaware of the risks associated with these toxic products, which include many personal care products, cleaning products, and lawn and garden chemicals. Industry and government agencies do minimal testing for health effects and provide little information to the public.

Countess studies now show that forever chemicals known as polyfluoroalkyl substances, “PFAS”, are now basically found everywhere on the planet: in food packaging and fast-food wrappers, in water, in fish, and in municipal waste biosolids. These compounds have been linked to cancer, birth defects, and numerous other diseases.

Environmental Lawyer, Rob Bilott (of “Dark Waters” fame), said in a recent interview, “one of the things we found in the internal files of the main manufacturer of the chemical PFOS was that this company was well aware by the 1970s that PFOS was being found in the general US population’s blood and was being found at fairly significant levels.” Yet the manufacturers failed to share this information with citizens.

“In July 2021, a report by Physicians for Social Responsibility presented evidence that oil and gas companies have been using PFAS, or substances that can degrade into PFAS, in hydraulic fracturing, a technique used to extract natural gas or oil.” Ignoring the toxicityassociated with fracking fluids and claiming a need for “energy independence”, local, state and federal politicians are calling for more fracking.

Corporate CEOs and cancer cells have this characteristic in common; their main goal is growth. The collateral damage of that growth is of no concern to them so long as their stock values climb. Scientists frantically warn us we are devastating fragile ecosystems and warming the planet to dangerous temperatures. Still CEOs, media, and politicians ignore the warnings.

Many people, including scientists, have become as desperate as cancer patients; searching for an answer, a cure, some way to stop the death of our planet. It was devastating to watch my mother slip away bit by bit until she was barely recognizable. It’s also devastating to watch the only habitable planet in our solar system, the one that harbors so many marvelous creatures and ecosystems, being killed by corporate greed and a dysfunctional economic system that requires the consumption of Mother Earth to make a buck.

Final Webinar in the Shale Gas Development and Cancer Series, Part 3

From the Environmental Health Project, October 14, 2020

JOIN IN — THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 AT 7:00 PM EDT

David O. Carpenter is a public health physician whose current position is Director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, as well as Professor of Environmental Health Sciences within the School of Public Health at the University at Albany.

After receiving his MD degree from Harvard Medical School he chose a career of research and public health. After research positions at the National Institute of Mental Health and the Armed Forces Radiobiology Research Institute, he came to Albany in 1980 as the Director of the Wadsworth Center for Laboratories and Research of the New York State Department of Health, the third largest public health laboratory in the US after NIH and CDC.

In an effort to build ties to an academic program, he initiated efforts to create a partnership between the New York State Department of Health and the University at Albany, resulting in the creation of the School of Public Health in 1985. He was then appointed as the founding Dean of the School of Public Health.

This is a position he held until 1998 when he became the Director of the Institute of Health and the Environment. The Institute has been named as a Collaborating Centre of the World Health Organization.

Dr. Carpenter has contributed to the study of health effects of both ionizing and non-ionizing radiation, and also has a number of international projects looking at health effects of air and water pollution. He has more than 450 peer-reviewed scientific publications, many on health effects of PCBs, and has edited six books.

JOIN IN — THURSDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2020 AT 7:00 PM EDT

REGISTER AT FOLLOWING WEBSITE:

https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_6yQY8AWzRaWmNqvRsOhEQA

Cancer causing chemicals are a major problem

From an Article by Joce Sterman, Alex Brauer and Andrea Nejman, WTOV, September 17, 2020

WILLOWBROOK, Ill. (SBG) —A Spotlight on America investigation discovered an invisible gas may pose a cancer risk to dozens of towns across America. But now, ethylene oxide, a known carcinogen, is taking center stage in a national conversation, with lawsuits filed across the country and Congress calling for accountability.

Willowbrook Mayor Frank Trilla said it was like a nightmare when he found out the people he represents may be at risk of cancer from a toxin in the air. He found out in a letter that landed on his desk in 2018. It was an evaluation of the air by the American Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, that looked at ethylene oxide, or EtO, which was emitted by a medical sterilization facility called Sterigenics. According to the letter, “If measured and modeled data represent typical EtO ambient concentrations in ambient air, an elevated cancer risk exists for residents and off-site workers in the Willowbrook community surrounding the Sterigenics facility. These elevated risks present a public health hazard to these populations.” For the leader of a town of 8,500 people, the information was a shock, but it had to be shared.

“My alternative was throw it in the garbage and pretend it didn’t happen or go public. I had to go public. You can’t not tell the people,” said Willowbrook Mayor Frank Trilla.”

Trilla’s decision set off a heated hometown battle over EtO, that would ultimately end in Sterigenics leaving town. Willowbrook may have been the first to launch the fight, but they’re far from the only place impacted. Ethylene oxide is commonly used at chemical plants and sterilization facilities throughout the U.S., with some estimates claiming emissions could impact up to 288,000 people in 36 states.

An arm of the World Health Organization and Environmental Protection Agency have labeled EtO a carcinogen. According to the EPA, long-term exposure to ethylene oxide increases the risk of cancers of the white blood cells, including Non-Hodgkin lymphoma, myeloma, and lymphocytic leukemia. The EPA says studies also show that long-term exposure to ethylene oxide increases the risk of breast cancer in females. In 2016, the EPA found that ethylene oxide was 30 times more toxic than originally believed and that people who spend their lifetimes near ethylene oxide facilities are at the greatest risk.

In 2016, EPA said ethylene oxide was 30 times more carcinogenic than previously believed.

According to the EPA’s own Inspector General, 25 communities across the U.S. have been labeled “high priority” by the agency because of elevated cancer risks. But as a Spotlight on America investigation discovered, 16 of those communities still haven’t been warned about the risk by the EPA.

Federal and state lawmakers have been calling for action to address concerns surrounding EtO. Last year, 16 attorneys general wrote the EPA, urging “stricter standards for ethylene oxide emissions.” The attorneys general also called for the EPA to work with the Food and Drug Administration to find alternate methods of sterilization to reduce the use of ethylene oxide.

We are concerned that the current EPA standard for EtO fails to adequately protect workers and communities,” wrote 16 attorneys general in a letter to the agency.

Spotlight on America repeatedly offered on-camera interview opportunities to the EPA. It declined. We also sent the agency a detailed list of specific questions which it failed to answer. Instead, the EPA sent a statement saying:

“As EPA pursues its mission to protect human health and the environment, addressing emissions of ethylene oxide remains a major priority for the Agency. EPA is making steady progress under its two-pronged strategy for addressing ethylene oxide emissions. Under the first prong, EPA is reviewing its air toxics regulations for facilities that emit ethylene oxide. On May 29, 2020, the Agency finalized the review of one of these rules: the National Emissions Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP) for Miscellaneous Organic Chemical Manufacturing. This rule, often referred to as the “MON,” will significantly reduce risk from exposure to ethylene oxide and other air toxics at affected facilities. Separately, the Agency is reviewing its NESHAP for ethylene oxide commercial sterilizers and expects to issue a proposal later this year for public review and comment. Under the strategy’s second prong, EPA is providing support to our state and territorial air agency partners as they look more closely at emissions in areas that the National Air Toxics Assessment (NATA) identified as potentially at increased risk of cancer from continuous, 70-year exposure to ethylene oxide in the outdoor air. Already, this work has led to steps that will reduce emissions at facilities in a number of areas in states such as Colorado, Georgia, Illinois and Missouri – faster than EPA’s rulemaking process can provide. EPA will continue to provide our partner agencies support in both follow-up technical work and in their efforts to share information with the public.”

Lawmakers, including those at the local and federal level, have been critical of the EPA’s response to ethylene oxide emissions. In an interview with Spotlight on America, Congressman Bill Foster, D-Ill., who serves on a bipartisan congressional task force on ethylene oxide, criticized the agency for sending an inexperienced representative to answer questions and handle response during a town hall meeting in Willowbrook, back in 2018. Foster and Willowbrook Mayor Frank Trilla sat front and center at that meeting, which was attended by hundreds of residents.

On Capitol Hill this summer, Senator Tammy Duckworth, D-Ill., and Congresswoman Lisa Blunt Rochester, D-Del., introduced legislation requiring the EPA to improve monitoring for toxic pollutants like EtO, through deploying new air quality sensors and expanding the air monitoring network currently in place. But some have raised concerns that air quality monitors at EtO facilities may not even work. In May, a coalition of nearly 60 Congressional lawmakers wrote to the EPA to request information about how air pollution data is collected. The letter asked whether the EPA planned to implement fenceline monitoring near sources of ethylene oxide, and asked whether the agency was taking action to protect communities where an air monitor detected air pollution. Spotlight on America discovered, that request for information was never answered.

Part of the problem, according to experts like Genna Reed, lead science and policy analyst at the Union of Concerned Scientists, is that in the absence of stronger action from the EPA, the industry often polices itself when it comes to reporting potential hazards determined through air monitoring. “Where these monitors are, how often they’re running, all of the burden of making sure that data is accurate and gets to the agency is put on industry,” Reed told us. “So, you have to hold industry accountable.”

That’s where attorney Shawn Collins comes in. He represents 85 people in Willowbrook, mostly cancer patients, who blame their sickness on EtO emissions from the Sterigenics facility in town. Similar lawsuits have also been filed in several other states related to other ethylene oxide facilities. “The focus needs to be where it belongs,” Collins told us. “If you’re making the profit, it’s your job to make sure you’re not hurting your neighbors.” Collins told us the science surrounding ethylene oxide’s link to cancer is indisputable, and he’s prepared to prove it in court. With regard to companies emitting EtO in residential communities, he said, “They’re playing Russian roulette with their health and their lives.”

Carol Tufo has endured extensive chemotherapy & radiation treatment

“It just seems common sense that you can’t spew poison in the air,” said Carol Tufo. “Especially in a residential community.”

Today, the Sterigenics facilities in Willowbrook are shut down, after public outcry, but the lawsuits are the start of another chapter. Since Sterigenics shut down, Illinois passed a unique state law barring sterilizing facilities from operating unless they can contain 100% of EtO emissions.

Spotlight on America contacted Sterigenics over the course of the last three months, offering the opportunity to do an on-camera interview on numerous occasions. The company declined, but has created a website detailing its response to developments related to Willowbrook. The company provided this statement to Spotlight on America:

“Sterigenics plays a vital role in providing critical medical care to millions of people. Hospitals and patients in the United States and around the world depend on Sterigenics’ ethylene oxide sterilization process as the safe, effective, and FDA-compliant way to sterilize surgical kits, devices used in cardiac procedures, syringes and IV tubing, protective barriers to prevent infection, and many other vital medical products and devices. We remain committed to safely meeting their needs.”

“Sterigenics empathizes with anyone battling cancer, but we are confident that our Willowbrook operations are not responsible for causing the illnesses the lawsuits allege. The science does not support the plaintiffs’ claims in these cases. As we have stated previously, we intend to vigorously defend against the plaintiffs’ unfounded and meritless claims.”

Mayor Frank Trilla can still see the former Sterigenics building from his window at Village Hall. His souvenir from the battle to have the facilities shut down is a box full of documents about EtO and Sterigenics. Still, he told us, he looks forward to someone taking over the space for a new purpose. “I’m not going to rest until there’s new tenants in the buildings,” he said. “It’s not over until it’s over.”

Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Childhood Cancers

From an Announcement of SW PA Environmental Health Project, September 14, 2020

Join Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, Tuesday, September 15 at 7PM for part two of their three-part webinar series about shale gas development and cancer.

For part two of the series, Dr. Shaina Stacy will discuss “Unconventional Natural Gas Development and Childhood Cancers.”

Dr. Shaina Stacy is a postdoctoral associate at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health, where she investigates early life and environmental risk factors for childhood cancers. She received her Ph.D. and M.P.H. from Pitt Public Health’s Department of Environmental & Occupational Health.

Register here.

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The Toxic Story of Plastics with Dr. Randi Pokladnik

DATE & TIME: Wednesday, September 16th @ 6:30 p.m

Via Zoom, the Dover (Ohio) Public Library will host a program about the toxicity of plastics featuring Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition volunteer Dr. Randi Pokladnik, an expert in environmental studies.

With her “The Toxic Story of Plastics” presentation, Randi will explain the life cycle of plastic production and follow plastics from cradle to grave, examining all the externalities involved and how plastics affect human health and the environment.

To register for the program, send an email to:

srieger@doverlibrary.org

You will receive a link to join the group for the presentation.

The “life cycle” of plastic is a complicated one. In the beginning oil and gas must be extracted from the earth and refined. This material is then used to manufacture products for human consumption such as furniture, bottles, tires, to name a few. After the plastic has been used, it ends up in the waste-management system (recycling) or in the environment (landfills or oceans). No matter what stage of life the plastic is in, human beings are exposed to toxic chemicals.

Plastics and related chemicals enter people’s bodies through inhalation, ingestion and skin contact. These chemicals and particles of plastic affect every major system in the body: cardiovascular, reproductive, neurological, respiratory, gastrointestinal and endocrine.

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Air Monitoring and Emergency Systems Program

DATE & TIME: Wednesday, September 16th, 7:00 pm

The next event series listed here kicks off this Wednesday and it is titled Health and Safety in Beaver County, hosted by Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, or BCMAC. These are folks who live near the Shell ethane cracker being constructed in Beaver County, PA. This Wednesday’s event features expert presentations on air monitoring and emergency systems and will surely become a resource.

Click here to register for Wednesday’s Zoom event,
and please help spread the word by sharing the link:

bit.ly/beavercounty2020

This kick-off event for the Health & Safety in Beaver County series will discuss air monitoring systems in the region, citizen experiences and emergency management systems designed to keep the public safe.

Don’t miss the panel of experts and important discussion!

Welcome and Overview: Bob Schmetzer
Moderator: Sr. Kari

SPEAKERS
>> Citizen Experiences: Karen Gdula and Barbara Goblick, Marcia Lehman/Chlorine Fire
>> Air Monitoring Overview: Ana Hoffman, Carnegie Mellon University
>> Shell Fenceline Monitoring: Adam Kron, Environmental Integrity Project and Karl Koerner, Clean Air Council
>> Citizen Tools: Mark Dixon (Purple Air, RAMP, AirVis VOC, Summa canisters)
>> Emergency Response: Eric Brewer, Beaver Emergency Management
>> Live Panel with Public Q&A: Sr. Kari

Click here to register for this event

Hurricane Harvey inundated Houston, Texas in August 2017

From an Article by Emma Newburger, CNBC, May 18, 2020

PHOTO in Article — People make their way out of a flooded neighborhood after it was inundated with rain water, remnants of Hurricane Harvey, on August 28, 2017 in Houston, Texas

Climate change is hindering progress on cancer prevention and increasing people’s exposure to deadly carcinogens, according to a new report from scientists at the American Cancer Society and Harvard University.

Hotter temperatures worldwide have fueled more frequent weather disasters like hurricanes and wildfires that release vast amounts of carcinogens into communities and delay access to cancer treatment.

“The prospects for further progress in cancer prevention and control in this century are bright but face an easily overlooked threat from climate change,” scientists wrote in a new report in the journal CA: A Cancer Journal for Clinicians.

For instance, when Hurricane Harvey made landfall on Texas and Louisiana in August 2017, it caused catastrophic flooding that inundated chemical plants and oil refineries and released deadly carcinogens into neighborhoods in Houston, the nation’s fourth-largest city.

The half-life of some of the carcinogens detected after Harvey is up to 50 years, researchers said. Some areas in Houston have experienced higher levels of childhood leukemia driven by a high concentration of chemicals in the air.

Climate change has also triggered longer and more destructive wildfire seasons in the U.S., releasing pollutants that remain in the air for months after the flames dissipate.

In 2018, California experienced the deadliest and most destructive wildfire season on record with a total of 8,527 blazes burning nearly 2 million acres. The smoke traveled all the way to New England, while air pollution in the San Francisco Bay Area was among the worst levels in the world.

PHOTO in Article — Irma Maldanado stands with Sussury her parrot and her dog in what is left of her home that was destroyed when Hurricane Maria passed through on September 27, 2017 in Corozal, Puerto Rico.

Extreme weather disasters also lower cancer survival rates. One study shows that cancer patients were 19% more likely to die when hurricane declarations were made during their therapy because of treatment interruptions compared with patients who had regular access to care.

“For patients with cancer, the effects of hurricanes on access to cancer care can mean the difference between life and death,” the authors wrote.

When Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2018 it shut down several factories that provided live-saving IV fluid bags to U.S. hospitals, causing shortages in cancer facilities nationwide.

Cancer is the No. 2 cause of death globally. Nearly 10 million people worldwide will die from cancer this year, according to researchers.

Some cancer treatment centers have tried to adapt to climate threats by implementing plans to provide resilience to future flooding events.

Climate-change mitigation efforts in general can benefit cancer prevention by lowering harmful greenhouse gas emissions. Scientists urged interventions like increased use of renewable energy, sustainable manufacturing and reduced intake of red and processed meat.

“Climate change is not a future threat. It is impacting cancer outcomes today and there are things we can do to respond,” said Leticia Nogueira, a scientist at the American Cancer Society and an author of the report.

PHOTO in Article — Fire fighters attack the Thomas Fire’s north flank with backfires as they continue to fight a massive wildfire north of Los Angeles, near Ojai, California, December 9, 2017.

Plastics continue to degrade into smaller sizes becoming more dangerous

From the Cover Story of Consumer Reports Magazine, Volume 85, Number 6, June 2020, pp. 26 – 35.

Part 3 — A Trail of Chemical Harm

No matter what new information scientists discover about the potential danger from microplastics, we already have sufficient evidence that the chemicals found in various plastics can have serious adverse effects on our health, says Leonardo Trasande, M.D., director of the Center for the Investigation of Environmental Hazards at New York University and the author of “Sicker, Fatter, Poorer” (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2019), a book about endocrine-disrupting chemicals.

“What we know raises serious red flags about chemicals used in plastic containers,” he says. They affect brain and organ development in children, and are linked to infertility and cardiovascular problems. Around 10,000 adult men die from cardiovascular disease linked to phthalates every year, he says.

There’s essentially no limit to the types of plastic that can be produced from thousands of types of chemicals, leading to products that range from flimsy high-density polyethylene grocery bags to bullet-stopping Kevlar. These chemicals are added to different plastics to give them various properties. Most people are familiar with better-known villains, such as BPA, which has been used since the 1950s to make hard, clear plastic like that used for some beverage bottles. But many other chemicals in plastics have been linked to serious health effects, including other bisphenols (in the same family as BPA), phthalates, and styrene. These chemicals can seep from packaging into food and then into the human body, Trasande says.

The shape and structure of chemicals such as BPA and phthalates cause them to interfere with the endocrine, or hormonal, system, which is why they’re known as endocrine disrupters. Tiny amounts of hormones, measured in parts per billion or even per trillion, affect the function of a wide range of systems throughout our bodies. And that’s what makes even a low dose of BPA or these other endocrine disrupters a focus of medical concern.

Bisphenols are thought to affect reproduction; some experts have suggested a link to the significant decline in sperm count in high-income countries over the past few decades. But there is also concern that they may affect brain development and the immune system, and can increase obesity and cancer risk — especially cancers influenced by the endocrine system, such as mammary and prostate cancer, says Laura Vandenberg, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts Amherst School of Public Health and Health Sciences.

Phthalates are also known to disrupt hormones, and prenatal exposure to phthalates is associated with lower testosterone in male offspring. Styrene, another chemical found in plastic and food packaging, has been linked to nervous system dysfunction, hearing loss, cancer, and more.

“BPA is the poster child for these types of chemicals,” says Patricia Hunt, Ph.D., a professor at Washington State University’s School of Molecular Biosciences in Pullman. The outcry around BPA created enough consumer pressure that by 2008, some manufacturers started to remove it from certain products. However, when companies removed it, they often replaced it with other chemicals that are structurally similar to BPA, such as bisphenol S and bisphenol F.

“We’re starting to realize that the BPA replacements have very similar biological effects as the original chemical,” Vandenberg says. That means a product touting its BPA-free status might be just as harmful. Worse, these replacements face less scrutiny—“a byproduct of the lax regulatory framework in which we live,” says Trasande, who describes the efforts to keep up with these replacements as “chemical whack-a-mole.”

Recent research has also revealed that we may have underestimated our exposure to these chemicals all along, Hunt says. Scientists have typically measured the presence of BPA in our bodies by analyzing the products of metabolized BPA in urine and converting them back to the original substance; these efforts found BPA in more than 90 percent of people studied.

Hunt and colleagues have developed a new way to directly measure not just the BPA in urine but also its metabolic products processed by the body. In doing so, they found BPA levels in the human body that may be 44 times higher than a national survey found using the older method.

Our exposure to other chemicals has usually been measured in the same indirect way, Hunt says. That may mean we’ve also underestimated our exposure to phthalates and other chemicals of concern. “Our data is suggesting some people—[and] some pregnancies, some fetuses—are in fact exposed to quite high levels [of BPA],” she says.

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See also: Endocrine-disrupting chemicals weaken Americans’ life-or-death battles with COVID-19 — Jerrold J. Heindel and Linda S. Birnbaum, Environmental Health News, April 23, 2020

Endocrine-disrupting chemicals masquerade as hormones. These insidious contaminants increase the diseases that cause the underlying conditions that result in susceptibility to COVID-19.

Most Americans have endocrine disrupting chemicals in their bodies. We are exposed to them via our food, the air we breathe, our drinking water, and the products we allow into our homes and lives. Plastics, personal care products, drugs, pesticides, flame retardants, air pollution, household products, food additives, nonstick cookware, and many other products contain endocrine disrupting chemicals.

Human epidemiological studies and experiments in laboratory animals establish without question that such exposures can increase susceptibility to these diseases and many more. Exposures can also cause immunosuppression, which increases vulnerability to infections.

Public support for non-profit public service organizations very important

Letter to Friends of Public Health Projects, 2/26/20

The Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project Board of Directors would like to announce the hiring of a new Executive Director, Alison Steele.

Ms. Steele comes to EHP from her post as Director of Community Programs and Advocacy at Conservation Consultants, Inc. in Pittsburgh. She has had a variety of management and programmatic positions in the environmental and energy efficiency fields. She received an MBA from Duquesne University, with a focus on sustainable business practices and has a distinguished undergraduate record from Drew University where she majored in Physics.

She will take over the position from the founding Director, Raina Rippel, who helped bring EHP from a fledgling idea to an accomplished, widely-respected public health organization, the only one focused exclusively on the health consequences of shale gas and oil development.

Ms. Steele will begin her tenure as EHP’s Director on March 3rd bringing with her a wealth of experience, knowledge, and enthusiasm.

Thank you, Jessa Chabeau, Public Health Program Manager

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See also: Research & Factsheets | Environmental Health Project

The Environmental Health Project (EHP) is dedicated to providing resources to clients, residents, and community organizations to enhance their understanding of the potential health risks associated with unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD or “fracking”).

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Specific Public Health Issues | Environmental Health Project

Do you think your health may be affected by nearby unconventional oil and gas development (UOGD or “fracking”)? If you have any concerns about your environmental conditions, be sure to let your health care provider know or contact EHP for help.

EHP’s Public Health Nurse serves the needs of both adults and children whose health may be affected by UOGD (“fracking”). She is available by appointment for both home and office visits and makes referrals to appropriate health specialists on an as needed basis.

The EHP office, located in Washington County, PA, is open Monday – Friday 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. by appointment only. To discuss your health concerns and schedule a visit, please contact EHP at 724-260-5504 or info@environmentalhealthproject.org.

Environmental Health Project (EHP)
2001 Waterdam Plaza Drive, Suite 201
McMurray, PA 15317