GTLOT (Get The Lead Out Topic) NW Portland Neighborhood Asks: Where's The Lead Coming From?

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NW Portland neighborhood asks: Where's lead in air coming from? Friday, February 18, 2000

By Brent Hunsberger of The Oregonian staff

Residents' suspicions were verified three years ago, when specially designed buckets placed outside their Northwest Portland homes found 20 metals in the air.

Now the metals have turned up again, this time in glass beakers set out on front porches and backyard patios scattered amid the neighborhood's trendy boutiques and condominiums.

The levels of lead and other metals found in the beakers weren't alarming. But they were high enough and concentrated enough to compel environmental health officials from three agencies to begin a broad search for the source.

In coming months, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality plans to survey 500 businesses in Portland's industrial corridor for possible lead emissions.

The agency is looking more closely at Esco, which operates two Northwest Portland steel foundries and has been the subject of repeated odor complaints by neighbors. DEQ has asked Esco for records detailing lead amounts in scrap metal that its foundries melt into parts.

"Nobody is in a position to say where that lead is coming from based on the samples," said Nancy Couch, compliance assistance coordinator in DEQ's Northwest Region. But the samples were high enough to warrant concern, Couch said.

Lead accumulates in human blood and tissues. In sufficient amounts, it can damage kidneys, liver and nervous system, causing brain damage and even death.

Before oil companies phased out leaded gasoline, automobile exhaust was a primary source of lead. Today, most childhood lead poisonings result from old paint dust in homes. Atmospheric levels are largely the result of metals processing and battery manufacturing, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Through the 1990s, complaints poured into DEQ from Northwest Portland residents about occasional odors, smoke and dust at their homes. Between January and November 1999, DEQ's Northwest Region recorded 59 complaints from the public about air quality, all from Northwest addresses.

In 1997, the Northwest District Association set out special monitoring buckets to determine the cause of intermittent but pungent chemical odors. The sampling found 20 metals in the air, including some elevated levels of styrene. DEQ traced some of the odors and pollution to a small automotive parts manufacturer in the area.

The agency persuaded Faulkner Automotive Electric Co. to replace a volatile solvent it used to coat electrical wires. The change to a water-based alternative reduced hazardous emissions by 92 percent and saved the company money, agency officials said.

But odors were still present, so the neighborhood group set out glass beakers at 15 outdoor sites for 15 days in August.

Four beakers contained lead levels of 200 micrograms per square foot -- 10 times higher than levels found in other beakers. A second round of sampling in September and October detected lower levels -- between 40 and 74 micrograms per square foot -- but they were concentrated in a five-block-long corridor between Northwest 23rd and 24th avenues. Other metals also were present in the beakers.

Neighborhood activists called the cluster a "hot spot," noting that most of the measurements exceeded EPA's proposed indoor standard of 50 micrograms per square foot.

"What we think we've uncovered, basically, is that regionwide we've got elevated lead in dust," said Robert Amundson, a Portland physiologist who assisted with the Northwest District Association's air monitoring projects. "We don't know what the source is. But because it has health implications on children, one of the agencies should be looking at it and coming up with ways of reducing it."

Environmental health officials caution against drawing firm conclusions from the study. No outdoor dust standards exist, and the neighborhood's collection methods differed from the wipe-sample method that EPA favors for indoor dust monitoring. EPA's proposed standard also probably will apply to indoor floors and enclosed porches, not outdoor patios and front steps, agency officials said.

Industries aren't the only possible source. DEQ has asked the Multnomah County Health Department and the Oregon Health Division to help the Northwest District Association determine whether paint chips or dust might have drifted into the beakers.

Still, neighborhood leaders suspect that some of the lead, like the odors, rides southwesterly winds from Northwest Portland's industrial corridor into its residential and shopping district.

Indeed, the neighborhood has aimed its monitoring at industrial suspects, particularly Esco. Nearly one-third of the complaints that DEQ's Northwest Region received last year fingered Esco's two steel foundries between Northwest Thurman Avenue and St. Helens Road as the source of odors.

Carter Webb, Esco's manager for environmental affairs, said its scrap metal contains too little lead to pose a concern. As part of its state-approved air emissions permit, the company agreed to study ways of reducing odors and excess emissions at its foundries.

"I know we're not a major source of lead," Webb said. "But I'm not going to tell you that there are not trace elements."

EPA and DEQ also are trying to identify controls that industries can use to reduce metals and other hazardous air pollutants thought to pose health risks to humans. The state's program, if financed by the 2001 Legislature, could include regular air monitoring for hot spots and new rules on emissions.

You can reach Brent Hunsberger at 503-221-8359 or by e-mail at brenthunsberger@news.oregonian.com.

http://www.oregonlive.com/news/00/02/st021817.html



-- Dee (T1Colt556@aol.com), February 19, 2000

Answers

There is still lead in aviation fuel. Also, garbage incineraters give off lead into the air.

Following from: http://earthsystems.org/list/envst-l/0239.html 19 JANUARY 1999

Contact: News & Information n_blount@acs.org 202-872-4451 American Chemical Society

Central Park Sediment Cores Contradict Current Scientific Thinking

Examining sediment cores from New York's Central Park Lake dating back 100 years, a group of scientists conclude that incineration of solid waste, rather than leaded gasoline, has been the dominant source of atmospheric lead to the New York City metropolitan area, and possibly many other urban areas during the 20th century.

-- J (noone@the.door), February 19, 2000.


Yes, incineration of trash does put lots of lead in the air, primarily from the burning of PVC (which has lead as a stabilizer). Greenpeace has published a number of reports about this. See also the reports of the US-Canadian International Joint Commission on the Great Lakes (including during the Bush administration).

For what it's worth, Hillary Clinton has deep ties to the haz. waste incineration industry -- showing how little difference there is between demicans and republicrats.

-- not.here (not.saying@here.com), February 19, 2000.


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