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We will be migrating this blog to a new platform/host over the next few days or so. Please bear with us as we iron out the kinks. Thank you for your understanding.
We’ll be offline and unable to post anything new until July mid August ???. Will also be unable to respond to private emails until then. Lots to catch up on when we get back, but it will have to wait.
Thank you for your understanding and continued support.
The mountain of evidence confirming TCE’s danger merely grows and grows. This came across our plate this week:
Public release date: 7-Jan-2008
Contact: Amy Molnar
amolnar@wiley.com
Wiley-Blackwell
Trichloroethylene is a risk factor for parkinsonism
Parkinson’s disease, the most common neurodegenerative movement disorder caused by aging, can also be caused by pesticides and other neurotoxins. A new study found strong evidence that trichloroethylene (TCE) is a risk factor for parkinsonism, a group of nervous disorders with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease. TCE is a chemical widely used in industry that is also found in drinking water, surface water and soil due to runoff from manufacturing sites where it is used. The study was published in the October 2007 issue of Annals of Neurology (http://www.interscience.wiley.com/journal/ana), the official journal of the American Neurological Association.
Led by Don M. Gash and John T Slevin, of the University of Kentucky in Lexington, KY, researchers conducting a clinical trial of 10 Parkinson’s disease patients came across a patient who described long-term exposure to TCE, which he suspected to be a risk factor in his disease. TCE has been identified as an environmental contaminant in almost 60 percent of the Superfund priority sites listed by the Environmental Protection Agency and there has been increasing concern about its long term effects. The patient noted that some of his co-workers had also developed Parkinson’s disease, which led to the current study of this patient and two of his co-workers diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease who underwent neurological evaluations to assess motor function. All of these individuals had at least a 25 year history of occupational exposure to TCE, which included both inhalation and exposure to it from submerging their unprotected arms and forearms in a TCE vat or touching parts that had been cleaned in it. In addition, questionnaires about experiencing signs of Parkinson�s disease, such as slowness of voluntary movement, stooped posture and trouble with balance, were mailed to 134 former workers. The researchers also conducted studies in rats to determine how TCE affects the brain.
The results showed that 14 former employees who reported three or more parkinsonian signs worked close to the TCE source, were found to exhibit signs of parkinsonism when they were examined and were significantly (up to 250 percent) slower in fine motor hand movements than age-matched controls. Clinical exams of 13 patients who reported no signs of parkinsonism revealed that they worked in the same areas as the symptomatic workers or further from the TCE vat, they exhibited some mild features of the condition and their fine motor movements were also significantly slower than controls, although they were faster than the group with symptoms. The rat studies showed that TCE exposure inhibited mitochondrial function (which in humans is associated with a wide range of degenerative diseases) in the substantia nigra, an area in the brain that produces dopamine and whose destruction is associated with Parkinson’s disease. Specifically, Complex 1, an enzyme important in energy production, was significantly reduced in the substantia nigra. Dopamine neurons in this area also showed degenerative changes following TCE administration.
The authors acknowledge that while the study was not a large scale epidemiological investigation, the results demonstrate a strong potential link between chronic TCE exposure and parkinsonism. ‘It will be important to follow the progression of movement disorders in this cohort over the next decade to fully assess the long-term health risks from trichloroethylene exposure,’ they state. Although previous studies identified pesticides as a risk factor for Parkinson’s disease, the drug MPTP was previously the only mitochrondrial neurotoxin linked to the disease. The authors conclude: ‘Trichloroethylene is implicated as a principal risk factor for parkinsonism based on its dopaminergic neurotoxicity in animal models, the high levels of chronic dermal and inhalation exposure to trichloroethylene by the three workers with Parkinson’s disease, the motor slowing and clinical manifestations of parkinsonism in co-workers clustered around the trichloroethylene source, and the mounting evidence of neurotoxic effects in other reports of chronic trichloroethylene exposure.’
Thanks to Lenny Siegel, Director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight (CPEO), for the tip
We’ve not yet reviewed, but wanted to alert readers to the the following documents, available for review at the New York State Health Department’s website:
- Health Consultation – Health Statistics Review Follow-up (Public Comment Draft) – March 26, 2007 – NEW
- Information Sheet – Health Statistics Review Follow-up (Public Comment Draft) – March 26, 2007 – NEW
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Written Response Form – Health Statistics Review Follow-up (PDF, 11KB, 1pg.) – March 26, 2007 – NEW
From the Information Sheet:
What is a health statistics review?
A health statistics review uses existing health data from data sources like birth certificates and health registries to determine whether health outcomes in a particular community are occurring at higher, lower, or about the same level compared to statewide or national levels after taking into account the age, race, and sex of individuals in the community. A health statistics review does not tell us why elevations or deficits in health outcomes exist and can not prove whether there is a cause and effect relationship between exposure to chemicals and health outcomes. While a health statistics review can take risk factors commonly found on health records into account, a health statistics review may not be able to take into account certain individual risk factors for health outcomes such as medical history, genetics and occupational exposures which may explain the elevations or deficits. Rather a health statistics review can generate hypotheses and may indicate whether a more rigorous study should be considered. This health statistics review follow-up is the second major report resulting from the step-wise approach to addressing health outcome concerns related to environmental contamination in Endicott, NY.
Why was a health statistics review conducted?
A health statistics review was conducted because of concerns about possible exposures to chemicals known as volatile organic compounds (VOCs). Groundwater in the Endicott area is contaminated with VOCs from leaks and spills associated with local industry and commercial businesses. Trichloroethene (TCE) and tetrachloroethene (PCE) are two main VOCs of concern in the area. The VOCs moved from the contaminated groundwater into air spaces in the soil and then into indoor air through cracks in foundations in some buildings, a process known as soil vapor intrusion. Because of possible health concerns, the New York State Department of Health conducted the prior health statistics review and the health statistics review follow-up.
The follow-up health statistics review gathered additional detailed information to see if known risk factors may have played a role in the higher than expected levels of health outcomes shown in the previous review. The follow-up looked at individual birth defect records, birth certificates, cancer records, and death certificates to find information about risk factors such as smoking, occupational history, family medical history, and medication use. Newspaper obituaries, Motor Vehicle records, city directories, and telephone directories were used to trace residential histories.
The follow-up also reviewed two additional birth outcomes, conotruncal heart defects (specific defects of the heart’s outflow region) and stillbirths. The scientific literature suggests that both of these outcomes may be associated with TCE exposures. The follow-up also reviewed cancer incidence for all types of cancer, taking account of race. Findings from the follow-up review as well as the findings from the prior review were used to guide the development of possible options for next steps.
More to come…
Over a year ago, TCE clean-up efforts at Idaho National Laboratory were paused to observe progress. Now, the Associated Press reports:
A naturally occurring bacteria is being used to clean up a hazardous waste plume [of TCE] in the aquifer under the Idaho National Laboratory.
[...]
Bacteria native to the underground basalt in the area is breaking down the organic solvent and turning it into harmless byproducts, scientists say. Scientists are considering other areas where the bacteria could help.
“The natural bacteria are solving the problem,” Ron Crawford, a University of Idaho professor who is studying the bacteria, told the Post Register.
The DOE has plans to clean up other areas with the bacteria that can break down TCE, and use a method that makes the bacteria “breathe” TCE when oxygen is removed.
Read more here
It’s hard to tell from the story if they are referring to trichloroethylene (TCE) or tetrachloroethylene (PCE) below, but, nonetheless, the Salt Lake Tribune (UT) reports:
Petroleum and solvents in the soil and groundwater beneath what was once a downtown mall are stalling Ogden’s effort to build a high-adventure recreation center.
The concentration of the solvent tetrachloroethylene (TCE) in the groundwater of one test hole was at 13 parts per billion, more than twice the contaminant level the state allows for drinking water, Thiriot said.
Thiriot, who is manager of site assessment for the state’s Superfund program, said the TCE concentration found so far is not a grave concern.
But TCE is heavier than water, so more tests are needed to determine whether the groundwater underlying the future recreation center is seriously polluted.
“If they increase in concentration as we go deeper, then we’ve got a problem,” Thiriot said.
Read more.
The Billings Gazette (MT) reports:
Montana and federal officials Tuesday released the final plan for cleaning up solvent-contaminated soils and groundwater in the Lockwood Superfund site.
The cleanup will take about 10 years and cost an estimated $14.3 million.
The report, called a Record of Decision, identifies the remedy for the site as approved by the state Department of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
[...]
The chemicals, which are commonly used as degreasers and in dry cleaning, include tetrachloroethene (PCE), and its breakdown chemicals, trichloroethene (TCE), dichloroethene (DCE) and vinyl chloride.
Read the full story.
The New Burn Sun Journal (NC) reveals:
An independent panel of scientists is recommending that the federal agency researching past water contamination aboard Camp Lejeune notify all people potentially exposed, expand its areas of study and allow those affected an advisory role, according to a report released Thursday evening.
The ATSDR website hosts the report, in which the following recommendations appear:
- Future studies should be conducted in full partnership with the exposed community.
- An advisory panel, with long-term stability, should be established to oversee health studies of persons with potential exposure to volatile organic compounds (VOCs) at Camp Lejeune.
- Identify cohorts of individuals with potential exposure, including adults who lived on base; adults who resided off base, but worked on base; children who lived on base; and those who may have been exposed while in utero.
- Initiation of recommended research activities need not await completion of current ATSDR activities to better characterize past exposure, but should be conducted in parallel with the current work.
- The 1997 ATDSR Public Health Assessment of Camp Lejeune should be amended with a recognition that adult exposures to VOC may result in adverse health outcomes, and also include updated information on potential exposures.
- All persons potentially affected by exposure to VOC in the drinking water at Camp Lejeune should be notified.
- Future funding for Camp Lejeune health studies should come through direct Congressional action, not DOD, to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
The Press & Sun-Bulletin (Binghamton, NY) reports:
Workers at Sanmina SCI should see their doctors if they are concerned about exposure to traces of trichloroethylene gas recently detected in the factory, a local health official said Tuesday.
Johannes Peeters, director of the Tioga County Department of Health, said there are health risks associated with trichloroethylene (TCE) exposure, but they vary from person to person. He could not characterize risks to 750 workers at the printed circuit board plant off Route 17C, where samples taken earlier this year found TCE gases at concentrations up to 40 times higher than a guideline recently set by the state Department of Health.
“Anytime people are exposed to anything, the first line of defense is (to) go see your doctor,” Peeters said.
Gary Litwin, director of the state Department of Health’s Bureau of Environmental Exposure Investigation, said a ventilation system, under construction, will eliminate the problem.
[...]
The state began applying a much stricter guideline for TCE in October 2003 after scientists found gases from the solvent, spilled into the ground decades ago, were entering businesses and homes near industrial sites in the Southern Tier.
“There’s a reason they changed the standards. There must be a risk associated with it,” Peeters said.
Read the full story here.
The Argus Leader (SD) reports:
The Department of Defense says it will continue an environmental cleanup of jet fuel, solvents and other contaminants at Ellsworth Air Force Base, even if the base is closed, as the department has recommended.
Ellsworth is a Superfund site, and the cleanup ordered by the Environmental Protection Agency has cost the Air Force $61 million during the past 10 years.
The cleanup is necessary to redevelop the base for almost any purpose, should it close. Ellsworth supporters vow to do all they can but acknowledge that the odds of keeping the base open aren’t in their favor.
Read more.
From the Daily News (Los Angeles, CA):
Although officials and documents say soil or water was never tested for toxics and radioactivity, developers are poised to break ground on a 147-home project downhill from the Santa Susana Field Lab — and outraged environmental activists are demanding a review.
Approved by the city in 2001, the Sterling Homes development would build luxury houses about 1.3 miles east of the Simi Hills lab, where a partial nuclear meltdown occurred in 1959, and Boeing continues testing rocket engines.
[...]
But documents buried deep in city archives show that the developer’s consultants based their assessment on only a visual survey of the property and never actually sampled soil or water or tested for toxic contaminants.
Read the full story.
From the Ithaca Journal (NY):
Contamination is not being removed as expected, and there may be more of it from more places than imagined.
As an exercise in science, the present reality is unsatisfying. As a condition under which human beings are allowed to live, this reality is unacceptable.
For decades we’ve let this situation to linger. Emerson, which didn’t make the mess, has done what’s been demanded to clean it up. They have even promised to try new methods and test new areas to fight the TCE contamination. State agencies, at times lagging behind Emerson’s effort, have done what the political winds demanded, which translated into precious little until recent years.
It is time to admit that we can no longer dabble in this problem. We must dive in.
Read the full editorial.
From the Pioneer Press (St. Paul, MN) (free reg req’d):
A cylindrical tower packed with thousands of what look like filled-in whiffle balls could help solve Bayport’s water woes.
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency officials are considering a technology called air stripping to remove the contaminant trichloroethylene, or TCE, from the city’s water. The procedure involves pumping the contaminated water to the top of a tower and allowing it to percolate down through the balls while air is forced up through the column.
[...]
The Bayport City Council will hold a public forum from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. Monday at the Bayport Public Library to discuss the city’s concept park plan and water system. For more information, call Bayport City Hall at 651-275-4404.
Read the full story here.
From the Poughkeepsie Journal (NY):
Children are more susceptible than adults to cancer and developmental problems after exposure to TCE, a chemical found at polluted sites in Dutchess County, a doctor and an environmental epidemiologist testified at a hearing Thursday.
The hearing in East Fishkill focused on the evolving science related to the effects of toxic vapors that can seep into buildings from polluted groundwater, and the best way to reduce them.
“We don’t have as much information as we’d like to have, but what we do know is of great concern,” said Kathleen Burns, a member of the International Society of Environmental Epidemiologists with 20 years of experience studying TCE.
TCE, or trichloroethylene, is a solvent long used by industry to dissolve grease. In the human body, it can dissolve the fats and proteins that cells use to control what substances enter or leave, Burns said. Once in the cell, it can damage DNA, the genetic material essential to cell replication, leading to cancer or developmental problems.
The hearing was held at the request of Assemblyman Patrick Manning, R-East Fishkill. Manning and Thomas DiNapoli, D-Great Neck, Nassau County, chairman of the Assembly Committee on Environmental Conservation, heard testimony from several experts, agency officials and residents.
The committee has already issued a report calling on the departments of health and environmental conservation to quickly test sites where “vapor intrusion” could pose health risks, and to set conservative guidelines for acceptable levels of contaminants to protect residents.
Read more. Also see coverage of citizen testimony at the hearing in the Hudson Valley News (NY)
According to today’s Washington Post (free reg req’d):
Eric DeJonghe believes it is better to be safe than sorry. That’s why he recently took tap water from his Sterling home to a Herndon lab to have it tested for a chemical whose tongue-twisting name he has come to know well: trichloroethylene, or TCE.
DeJonghe, president of the Broad Run Farms Civic Association, has reason to be concerned: In 22 of 67 wells in the section of his subdivision recently tested by the Loudoun County Health Department, the water was found to contain TCE, which can increase the risk of health problems, including cancer, in people exposed to it for long periods. Sixteen of the wells showed TCE concentrations at or above the highest level allowed by the Environmental Protection Agency.
[...]
[Director of Loudoun County health department, David] Goodfriend said that finding so many wells with TCE — a solvent typically used to remove grease from metal parts — was “concerning,” particularly because it meant that some residents might have been exposed to the chemical for many years. But he said the pattern was not noticed until this year.
[...]
If the landfill is linked to the contamination, its owners — Philip Smith of Oakton, Va., and the estate of his deceased partner, Albert Moran — will be responsible for cleanup, Steers said.
Read more.
If you have a private well that supplies water to your home in the town of Cheshire, CT – a town with:
- a population of approximately 30,000 people,
- public water supply serving 80% of the town,
- private water supply serving the others,
- a confirmed history of ongoing TCE contamination throughout it’s entire public water supply for 2-3 decades…at times, at levels north of 200 ppb (40 times the national safety standard),
- TCE (and other VOC) contamination found in the town’s private water supply in multiple wells over past 20 yrs,
- 1 official Superfund site,
- 16 other EPA ID’d contamination sites (many of which have been waiting for an NPL decision for 20 years),
- a 35+ year contamination history,
- and elevated cancer rates over time, some with increasing trends, of (at least) the following types: breast cancer, brain cancer, non-hodgkins lymphoma, pediatric cancers, and “all female invasive cancers”
- there is no formal program of recommendation, reminder or advice to help private-well users protect their water supply, even though cancer-causing, industrial contaminants have been discovered nearly all across the town.
We wish we could report this was a new problem. Or that it was isolated to Cheshire. But this appears to be a Connecticut problem. Remember CT? The state that leads the country in hazardous waste sites discovered by the EPA before 1985 but still haven’t been cleaned up? The one that leads the country in breast cancer rates and ranks 3rd nationwide for non-hodgkins lymphoma and bladder cancers? Yep. That’s the one. Well, it appears CT has been living with a deficiency in its public health protection policy for quite some time.
From a 1980 New York Times article:
June 15, 1980, Sunday, Late City Final Edition
SECTION: Section 11; Connecticut; Page 1, Column 4; Connecticut Weekly Desk
LENGTH: 1552 words
HEADLINE: TESTS OF PRIVATE WELLS: EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF
BYLINE: By ANDREE BROOKS
[...]
Today about 500,000 people, representing 20 percent of the households around the state, are served by private on-site wells, according to Richard Woodhull, chief of the water-supply section of the State Health Department. Though water pollution has been much in the news lately, officials agree that little has been done to protect or educate the thousands of householders dependent on their wells.
”Except for the initial test when the house is built, it’s every man for himself,” said Alan Smith, director of environmental services for the Aspetuck Valley Health District.
While all the wells and reservoirs serving the municipal water supplies are now regularly checked by state and local officials for industrial pollutants – which include such suspected carcinogens as trichloroethylene (known commonly as TCE) and benzene, in addition to more traditional contaminants – there is still no regulation governing even the basic monitoring of private systems.
There is no formal program of recommendation, reminder or advice to help private-well users protect their supply. The 1979 study conducted by the Connecticut Water Quality Managing Board, with headquarters in Middletown, identifying approximately 100 major water supplies, focused only on the protection of public sources, according to Peter Alagna, assistant director of the board.
Jack Graham, a retired geologist who lives in Weston, said: ”Most people don’t even know they have a problem until they become ill or the water starts to look or smell different.”
Mr. Graham is in the forefront of a movement seeking a regular program in Weston to monitor wells for the traditional pollutants as well as the more recently recognized industrial wastes suspected of causing cancer
25 years and multiple superfund/hazardous waste sites later, and nothing has changed in CT. In a recent email, a representative of the CT Department of Public Health confirmed emphatically, “the private well is the responsibility of the home owner.”
And all the while, unknowing residents remain at risk.
The state has offered to buy filtration systems for 22 homeowners’ wells in the Broad Run Farms subdivision near CountrySide that are contaminated with a toxic chemical used to degrease metal.
During Monday night’s board of supervisors Public Safety Committee meeting at the government center, Department of Environmental Quality representatives Richard C. Doucette and John Bowden said it is doubtful they will be able to reimburse one woman who already paid the $4,000 for a filtration system to protect her home’s water. Homeowners who have not already purchased systems will get some assistance, they indicated.
Not that it’s any of our business (but how much of this blog is, really?), it seems to us, the DEQ could easily find a way to offer the very same assistance to each home owner, including the woman who has already taken steps to protect her home’s health. Whether the assistance is compatile with her $4,000 filter should be for her to decide. Otherwise, isn’t the DEQ merely paying people off for having remained exposed? Surely this can’t be the policy DEQ is trying to promote…
can it?
Read more in Leesburg Today (Loudoun County, VA)
The American dream has turned into a nightmare for Green and Glenda Jackson after the couple learned that the site where they built their first home is contaminated with a chemical believed to be linked to cancer.
In its former life, the property – in the 1600 block of W. Galena St. – was a gas station and leather tannery. Traces of trichloroethylene, or TCE, a solvent sometimes used to degrease metal parts, has been found in the soil underneath the Jacksons’ home.
“Someone should have known this,” said Glenda Jackson, whose property formerly belonged to the City of Milwaukee. “We are very angry that the city allowed us to stay in this house with all of the known health risk. I don’t want us to end up with cancer.”
Read the full story in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI).
Broad Run Farms residents will petition the Environmental Protection Agency to designate the Hidden Lane Landfill as a Superfund site.
Eric DeJonghe, president of the Broad Run Farms Civic Association, said they want the federal government to clean up the pollution.
Read more in the Loudoun Connection (VA)
They’ve agreed to ask voters for the funds ($5 million) to move their school “… for the safety of our students.”
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