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Recently we received the following email/question from a blog reader:
Have there been any reports about workers exposed to TCE and B cell Lymphoma in the Teleco work group?
My job was DCO Repairman – Dial Central Office Repairman – but we used TCE almost every day to clean the electronic and moving parts. So much was used our hands were white from lack of oil, and our shirts always were wet right above the belt line.
Yes, there have been reports of TCE exposure and related disease among telecommunications workers. Amongst others, workers from Lake Mary, FL were exposed to TCE through work at Stromberg-Carlson/Siemens and have
experienced health problems (including cancers) as a result. Their website can be found at http://www.exposed2tce.com.
If other readers are looking for information or have a question you’d like answered, please do not hesitate to contact us.
As a result of Tuesday’s press and hearing, we’ve received a number of emails from affected Marines and their families, all asking the same question: How can I learn more?
As we’ve posted previously, at least two websites have emerged that are run by former Camp Lejeune marines and their families:
Also, the attorneys at Anderson Weber & Pangia have agreed to represent exposure victims and their families in a lawsuit against the responsible parties. Certainly, they know much more about the situation. (Note: Those of you who arrived here looking for information about the Camp Lejeune class action lawsuit should contact them.)
Of course, the ATSDR maintains a Camp Lejeune website with answers to Frequently Asked Questions and the Marines have their own website as well (note: As of this posting, it appears the Marines website is offline – maybe too much CL traffic?).
In addition, we’ve been covering developments in the CL story for the past two years now. You can read our entire history of Camp Lejeune posts here (click link, keep scrolling down).
Finally, in case these links don’t provide the necessary information, we are attempting to determine who is best positioned to field specific questions about CL and the water contamination there. We will either report back here, or email privately to those folks who have contacted us. To be alerted when we determine a better point of contact for Camp Lejeune information, please feel free to contact us directly.
June 14, 2007 Update: For folks looking to complete a Form 95 or looking for assistance with it, please see here.
A reader recently sent us the following question:
Were there any class action lawsuits brought against the DOD around 1983-1986 for TCE poisioning at Hill AFB, Utah?
While we are unaware of any such lawsuits being filed, others may know more. If so, please contact us…or leave a comment.
We received the following question via email and thought it worth sharing*:
A local company spilled or dumped TCE and has known about contaminated soil/groundwater for a year, yet they didn’t tell the EPA until recently. Are there any regulations that state they must immediately notifiy the proper authorities about a contamination?
Note: We are not lawyers and our response here is in no way, shape, or form intended to be construed as legal advice.
That said, we believe at least two regulations exist for this situation. They are the federal Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA) and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA).
Section 304 of EPCRA and Section 103 of CERCLA require facilities to immediately notify emergency responders of accidental chemical releases to provide the most effective, timely response, thus minimizing potential risk to human health and the environment. The EPA has a helpful summary of both of these sections on their website.
* We’ve tailored the question slightly from its original form
We just received the following reader question by email:
I have read several recent newspaper articles that state DOD has identified 1,400 DOD sites that are contaminated with TCE. Do you happen to have a copy of or know where I can obtain the underlying documentation for that statement?
Yes. The documentation is available here (as we first reported in March 2005). If you follow the link, download the powerpoint presentation, and find slide # 10, here’s what you’ll see (click slide to enlarge):
Update: You may also recall, this is the same presentation in which the Air Force calculates DOD’s current cost of TCE clean-up at $5 billion. They speculate that this cost could increase by over $5 billion more if TCE is officially declared more dangerous than previously thought or regulated any further because of it. Air Force would bear $1.25 billion of this cost increase. Here’s what those slides looks like:
Since we’re always open to fielding and sharing questions from readers, we have just added a new topic filter over to the right —–>
It’s called…get this…Reader Questions (yes, creativity abounds on a Thursday afternoon).
If you are struggling to find information that readers (or we) can possibly assist with, please don’t hesitate to contact us. With permission, we’ll be glad to post any questions (and responses) that may be relevant for our readers.
A reader recently contacted us, looking for the following information (reprinted here with permission):
I am a real estate analyst in search of empirical studies specifically
regarding the effects of TCE contamination on residential property values
anywhere in the United States. If you are aware of, or have conducted such
studies please contact me directly at wayne [at] hwltd.net.
Though we’ve referenced the topic of property value impact from contamination and cancer clusters only sparingly in the past (here and here), we have not posted any TCE-specific data and are not aware of its existence.
Since we thought this topic may be of interest to many others, we have posted the query here for your consideration. If you have any specific information on the topic, please feel free to reply directly at the email address above…or consider sharing your knowledge with us and other readers via the comments feature below.
A reader of mailing list to which we subscribe recently asked the following question. We thought it might be of interest to readers and assume some of you may have experience/knowledge in this department, so we are reproducing the question here, with permission:
I am dealing with a factory near a middle school that is renewing its permit to release up to 100 tons per year of TCE. Among other things, we are concerned about the dangers to students and staff at a middle school about 600 yards downwind. One criticism I have heard is that other cases of TCE exposure come either from workers inside a plant or from exposures through groundwater — either directly (as in Woburn) or indirectly, as in vapor intrusion into enclosed homes. The company and the state agency both say that exposure via air over 600 yards is not a documented problem because the material disperses in the air.
Does anyone know of cases where harm has been either demonstrated or confirmed resulting from TCE air emissions from a plant, to people living or working several hundred yards away?
If you have any input on or experience with this topic, please post it using the comments feature or feel free to contact us directly. With permission, we’ll be sure to share any feedback we recieve.
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