Tag: bodily injury

  • Medical Waste Impacts A Wide Range Of Businesses Outside of The Medical Field

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  Medical waste is a huge environmental exposure for a variety of businesses not in the medical industry.  From the example in the link below of hotels, to porta john pumpers, gas stations, public government facilities, schools & colleges, sporting venues, camp grounds & parks, airports & commercial aircraft, livestock operations, restaurants & other businesses with public restrooms, homeless shelters….  With the amount of outpatient medical procedures taking place today, that means there is more medical waste generated that is not monitored for proper disposal.

    Most businesses do not think about their environmental exposure to medical waste.

    OSHA opens new inquiry at Beacon Hill hotel

    By GLOBE STAFF 

    Juan Carlos Espinal is an experienced housekeeper at the Wyndham Boston Beacon Hill, but he is afraid to empty the garbage. On the night shift, he scans the wastebaskets for the glint of a hypodermic needle. And if he finds one, as he did recently, often there is no safe place for him to throw it away.

    “When you’re cleaning, you never know what’s in that garbage can,” the 29-year-old father of two said recently in Spanish. “This is the problem.”

    These and other concerns prompted a federal agency to open a new investigation into the Wyndham less than a year after the agency fined the hotel for failing to protect the housekeepers from used needles, blood, vomit, and other biohazards.

    The hotel is steps from Massachusetts General Hospital and other medical facilities and offers patients a discount to stay there. But the largely immigrant housekeeping staff says the hotel made few improvements since the Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the hotel $12,000 in November.

    OSHA fined the Wyndham for failing to protect the housekeeping staff from biohazards and “physical hazards such as lacerations and puncture wounds from contact with used needles” and other sharp devices. The agency reduced the penalty to $6,000 after the hotel agreed to address the concerns.

    But in August, the housekeeping staff sent another letter to OSHA saying the hotel was not consistently providing durable gloves in the correct sizes so that workers could clean rooms or gather contaminated linens. And overnight workers like Espinal had no access to special containers to safely dispose of used needles.

    OSHA does not comment on pending investigations but agency spokesman Ted Fitzgeraldconfirmed that a new inspection is ongoing.

    Workers say gloves are critical to their health on the job, protecting them from powerful cleaning chemicals or bloodstained sheets. If they do not have the proper size gloves, some said they avoid certain tasks or rinse their old gloves with rubbing alcohol and reuse them.

    Since March, they said, at least nine staff members have worked without the proper gloves. Some have used flimsy gloves to clean rooms; others have simply gone without them.

    “I’m a mother with three children. If I get sick, who is going to bring bread to my home?” said Aura Berciano, a 42-year-old who fled violence in El Salvador and has worked at the hotel for 20 years, before Wyndham purchased it a few years ago. Her husband, Jose, also cleans there.

    Between them, they have cleaned rooms hundreds of times over, and said they have encountered horrific scenes. Jose said he once found a room filled with so much blood that it squished underneath his feet.

    More recently, Aura said, she discovered that a colostomy bag had leaked all over a hotel room. She cleaned it up.

    General Manager Tom Chmura declined to be interviewed through a spokeswoman, but the hotel issued a statement saying the OSHA investigators visited several weeks ago. The statement said all workers have access to proper equipment and supplies and are encouraged to report concerns.

    “The safety and well-being of our associates and guests is paramount and measures are put in place to provide a safe and comfortable working environment,” said the statement from the Wyndham Hotel Group. “We fully cooperated with the inspectors’ inquiries. We’ll work closely with them should they have any further questions or need any additional information.”

    Last year, the hotel manager cast doubt on the workers’ claims after a labor union, Unite Here Local 26, issued a critical report about the working conditions there. The hospitality workers’ union is trying to organize the Wyndham staff.

    In May 2015, Chmura denied that housekeepers were working in unsafe conditions. “I think they have to be taken within the context of who’s making the allegations,” he said.

    Six months later OSHA fined the hotel. Housekeepers say they sought help from the union after managers ignored their concerns.

    Most of the 32-member housekeeping staff are immigrants from Haiti, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, and other countries, and workers pointed out that until the safety concerns surfaced, they had little to bind them together. Many did not even speak the same language.

    And many simply accepted the conditions, worried about losing their jobs.

    Until OSHA investigated, for instance, Angela Lemus cleaned for years using latex gloves, even though a severe latex allergy left her hands bloody. After the investigators fined the Wyndham, the hotel provided latex-free gloves, but not in her size.

    Now she slips her small hands into the large gloves and wipes fluids carefully to prevent them from leaking onto her hands.

    “It’s so dangerous,” said Lemus, a 34-year-old mother from El Salvador.

    She said she did not complain to hotel management about the gloves, because she did not believe they would fix the problem — a concern union officials echoed as well.

    “These are incredibly brave people,” said Kelly McGuire, an organizer for Local 26. “They want to feel safe at work and they don’t trust the company to do anything about it.”

    Some housekeepers are still uncertain about whether they want to join a union.

    But Espinal, an immigrant from the Dominican Republic, said the experience has taught him about federal laws and regulations that he never learned growing up in New York. He said he dropped out of school at age 11 to work in his uncle’s bodega. Nobody ever intervened to bring him back to school, so he ended up lacking confidence in his English and unsure of his rights in America.

    Now he is considering going back to school for his general equivalency diploma. “I was afraid,” said Espinal. “But not anymore. I know my rights now. I know what I’m doing.”

     

  • CDC Concerned Over Growth In Legionnaires Cases

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  Legionnaires Disease is a bacteria that can create an environmental liability for those using central air conditioning systems, fountains, room-air humidifiers, ice-making machines, whirlpool spas, water heating systems, showers, misting systems typically found in grocery-store produce sections, cooling towers used in industrial cooling systems, evaporative coolers, nebulizers, humidifiers, windshield washers….

    A little background:  Legionnaires is a bacteria that got its name after a 1976 outbreak at an American Legion Convention in Philadelphia.  221 people contracted the bacteria and 34 died.

    What risk management strategy are you implementing to address exposure to Legionnaires Disease for your client’s?  Pollution liability insurance can protect property owners or those with an insurable interest for their exposure to Legionnaires.

    CDC officials said this new study was prompted by two factors: First, the public notoriety of cases over the last three years that included, first, the Pittsburgh VA, then a cooling tower outbreak in New York City, and, last year, the outbreak in Flint, Mich.
    CDC officials said this new study was prompted by two factors: First, the public notoriety of cases over the last three years that included, first, the Pittsburgh VA, then a cooling tower outbreak in New York City, and, last year, the outbreak in Flint, Mich.
    By Sean D. Hamill / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

    Legionnaires’ cases in the United States quadrupled from 2000 to 2014, with about 5,000 people a year — and probably many more — now being infected by the deadly form of pneumonia, but the exact reason for the growth is unclear, officials with the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

    And too many of those cases occur during an outbreak, CDC Director Tom Frieden said Tuesday in a phone call with reporters to announce the publication of a comprehensive study on outbreaks published on the CDC’s Vital Signs webpage.

    “I’ll give you the bottom line [of the study] right off the top: Almost all Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks are preventable with improvements in water system management,” he told reporters.

    During that 15-year period of 2000 to 2014, the CDC investigated 27 confirmed, land-based — as opposed to ship-based — Legionnaires’ outbreaks.

    Those outbreaks included the 2011 and 2012 Veterans Affairs Pittsburgh Healthcare System that the CDC determined infected 22 people and led to the deaths of six of them. Overall, 415 people were infected in the 27 outbreaks, and 65 of them died, the CDC said.

    PG chart: Legionnaires’ cases increasing
    (Click image for larger version)

    The CDC study found that in 23 of the 27 outbreaks it investigated there were “gaps in maintenance that could be addressed with a water management program to prevent Legionnaires’ disease outbreaks…”

    There were many more people sickened and killed during other outbreaks the CDC was unable to investigate during that timeframe. It noted in the study that from just 2000 to 2012, it had requests to investigate about 160 outbreaks.

    CDC officials said this new study was prompted by two factors: First, the public notoriety of cases over the last three years that included, first, the Pittsburgh VA, then a cooling tower outbreak in New York City, and, last year, the outbreak in Flint, Mich.

    In addition, last summer, after nearly a decade of work, the American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers — known as ASHRAE — completed its recommendations for dealing with the water-borne disease of Legionella in building water systems. ASHRAE’s recommendations are expected to eventually find their way into many of the country’s state or local building codes, carrying the power of law.

    Since last summer, though, the CDC “heard the ASHRAE standards weren’t easy to understand unless you were a building engineer,” Dr. Frieden said.

    As a result, the CDC on Tuesday also released an online “Toolkit” that it hopes will make adopting the ASHRAE standards easier for building owners and managers.

    The Toolkit was piloted in Flint, where the CDC took it to building owners and managers who were impacted by the outbreak there that infected 91 people — including 50 cases in a local hospital.

    In addition to the few, widely publicized outbreaks that occur annually, the CDC said it is equally concerned about the overall rise in Legionnaires’ cases, with more than 5,000 annually, nearly all of which occur without little to no publicity.

    “And we think [the number of people infected] is much higher,” said Cynthia Whitney, co-author of the Vital Signs study, “not because we don’t hear about the cases, but because we believe they’re never diagnosed.”

    The number of cases may be rising steadily for a variety of reasons, she said, including: More healthcare professionals know to look for it; better testing; a larger, more vulnerable and aging population; and a warmer climate that makes it easier for Legionella — the bacteria that causes Legionnaires’ disease — to grow.

    Victor Yu and Janet Stout, two Pittsburgh-based Legionnaires’ experts who were not involved in the CDC study, noticed in the Vital Signs report, however, that the CDC said nothing about regularly testing a building’s water for Legionella, something they have recommended for 30 years.

    “The CDC has a long history of recommending not looking for Legionella as a prospective element to assess risk,” Dr. Stout said.

    The CDC has said for decades that it believed testing regularly for Legionella would give building owners a false sense of security since people have contracted the disease when there were no signs of the bacteria in the water system.

    Dr. Whitney said there is no testing recommendation in the Vital Signs study because “we didn’t want to get into it.”

    But she said because the ASHRAE standards now recommend testing water, the CDC has now changed its position on testing since last summer.

    “We are not against testing” water for the presence of Legionella, she said. “We think it has its place, particularly in healthcare facilities.”

    Sean D. Hamill: shamill@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2579 or Twitter: @SeanDHamill.

    First Published June 8, 2016 12:00 AM

  • What Happens After The Fire…..

     

    BusinessFire
    Firefighters work to extinguish a fire at Gene’s Auto Parts in Traverse City, MI ~ Record Eagle/Tessa Lighlty

    What You Need To Be Discussing With Your Clients About The Aftermath Of A Fire and How Pollution Insurance Can Play A Role

    The Article and related links below highlight a simple fire that took place at Gene’s Auto Parts near Traverse City Michigan.  Gene’s does auto salvage and parts sales.  Some of the contaminants that were probably released during the fire would be air emissions from burning tires, plastic, inventory…, cadmium, lead, asbestos, petroleum products, anti-freeze, mercury….  Are these contaminants covered under the fire policies you sell?  What is your strategy to fill in this gap?

    Businesses that can have similar environmental exposures as Gene’s Auto Parts due to a fire would be auto manufacturers & dealers, commercial truck manufacturers & dealers, agricultural equipment manufacturers & dealers, trucking companies, marina’s & ports….etc

    If your client purchases fire insurance and experiences as loss, what happens after the fire department puts out the fire? The water and chemicals used to put out the fire mix with anything which melted or was released during the fire including the charred remains. Often times this leaves behind a toxic goo creating a pollution liability for the property owner. The fire department is immune.

    If the property owner does not have a pollution policy and they experience a fire, there are a lot of costs the insured is self-insuring.  As your client’s professional risk manager have you informed them of the potential pollution exposures they are self-insuring? What about third party bodily injury from neighbors inhaling fumes?  What about third part property damage to neighbors when the goo migrates on to their property, cost for emergency response crews, defense costs, investigation costs, business interruption…?

    Insurance professionals that sell fire insurance and do not educate their insureds on the value pollution insurance offers, are opening themselves up to an E&O suit.  Not to mention this creates a professional reputational risk exposure as well.

    Environmental Risk Managers is here to assist you with all things environmental! Including the aftermath of a fire like this.

     

    BusinessFire2
    Megan Woods, Reporter – 9&10 News

    Blair Township fire destroys business, closes busy road

    • By ERIN SLOAN esloan@record-eagle.com and TESSA LIGHTY tlighty@record-eagle.com

    TRAVERSE CITY — Clouds of heavy smoke billowed into the sky over Blair Township when an auto parts shop caught fire, triggering the closure of a major roadway. Fire crews on Friday responded to Gene’s Auto Parts on M-37 shortly before noon, said Blair Township Fire Chief Jim Carroll.

    The blaze started in a back building where cars are deconstructed and salvaged, he said.”The building is really hard to get around in inside and we tried to hold it to the back building as long as we could and then it went over our heads into the next building forward,” Carroll said. “We’ve gotten it away from the office.” Chris White, an office employee at the shop, was working in the front office when flames erupted.”We didn’t think that it was going to affect us, but it started spreading so they said ‘get out,’” she said. “Very sad. Very sad how people are going to be out of a job. It’s just scary.” White said she was able to save some files from the office before being evacuated. “We couldn’t get the water into the back part but then things started to get really heavy — smoke and heat so we decided we had to come out,” Carroll said.

    The building, which is most likely a total loss, was difficult to maneuver around, especially with the heavy, black smoke that enveloped the property, Carroll said. “It’s one of the biggest I’ve seen,” Carroll said. Crews battled the flames from ladder trucks and the ground outside of the building, but the thick smoke became a concern after one firefighter was sent to a local hospital for observation, he said.No one else was injured before or during the blaze. Carroll was unsure what caused the fire as of Friday afternoon.”It’s all car parts. All the little bangs and beeps and explosions you hear are actually mostly airbags,” he said. “Everything else in there is OK, but there is metal.”

    Jack Akers, a resident who lives across the street from the shop, and was a longtime friend to the company’s founder, the late Gene Denman.”It almost makes me cry because I’ve seen (Gene) start it,” Akers said. “I thought they had it under control and it’s just gone, it’s gone. I’m just wondering what in the world the dollar amount is going to come out to.”Akers has watched his friend’s business grow for years from its Acme location to the one between Nimrod and Blair Town Hall roads. The business celebrated 50 years in 2014.”I feel closer to it than anyone else because of the friendship, and we were friends. I’ve seen him grow this business from Acme to here and then see it grown into a million-dollar business. That’s the part that really hurts,” Akers said.American Red Cross Disaster Services arrived on scene as soon as they could to help keep emergency crews fed and hydrated, said Bud Ingram who serves on the organization’s action team.

    “We were paged by dispatch to offer assistance,” Ingram said. “We scrambled out to get coffee and pizza for everyone.”Ingram made a stop at a Holiday gas station for donated coffee, and picked up pizza, crackers, sports drinks and bottled water for the crews. M-37 was closed for at least five hours Friday as Blair Township Fire, Grand Traverse Metro Emergency Services and Grand Traverse Rural Fire battled the flames and Grand Traverse County sheriff’s deputies diverted traffic.

    Gene’s Auto Parts Fire Additional Links:

    http://www.record-eagle.com/news/local_news/update-blair-township-fire-destroys-business-closes-busy-road/article_378a70ba-9725-5412-af65-b29b74ab200b.html

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bovjrWvXU0s Video

    http://photos.record-eagle.com/Genes-Auto-Parts-Fire-April-8/ Photos

    http://www.9and10news.com/story/31684591/genes-auto-parts-begins-clean-up-after-devastating-fire

  • Environmental Liabilities Create Reputational Risks

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  The reputational risk associated with pollution liabilities is often overlooked or not even considered.  One reason for this is environmental liabilities tend to be a severity versus frequency issue.

    Volkswagen with their emissions scandal, Flint Michigan and most municipalities with their lead pipes for potable water and the below link updating Lumber Liquidators and the increased risk of cancer for consumers who have used some of their products.

    Whataretheysaying

    Let’s drill down and look at the small businesses that operate in your community that are exposed to reputational risk due to environmental liabilities such as auto dealers, manufacturers, agricultural, aviation, contractors, golf courses, health care facilities, marinas, gas stations, real estate owners and developers, resorts, schools… all have exposure to reputational risk from environmental liabilities.  What is their strategy to deal with this exposure.

    As Will Rogers once said “It takes a lifetime to build a good reputation, but you can lose it in a minute.”  That certainly holds true for environmental liabilities.

    Lumber Liquidators Set To Slump After Revised Cancer-Risk Report

    Lumber Liquidators shares were set to tumble on Monday after a revised U.S. federal agency report showed people exposed to some types of the company’s laminate flooring were three times more likely to get cancer than previously estimated.

    The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said on Feb. 18 it estimated the risk of cancer was six-30 cases per 100,000 people, compared with the two-nine cases it had estimated in a Feb. 10 report. The CDC said the revised results were preliminary.

    Lumber Liquidators’ shares were set to open more than 15 percent lower on Monday, which would be the stock’s biggest intraday percentage drop in six months. (Get the latest quote here.)

    The CDC said it had used an incorrect value to calculate ceiling height, which meant its estimates of the airborne concentration of cancer-causing formaldehyde were about three times lower than they should have been.

    CBS “60 Minutes” reported on Sunday it was alerted to the possibility that scientists had not converted feet to meters in some calculations.

    Lumber Liquidators was not available for comment outside regular business hours. It had supported the recommendations of the CDC’s previous report on the safety of flooring made in China between 2012 and 2014.

    The company’s’ shares and sales have been in a tailspin since March last year when CBS “60 Minutes” reported the retailer’s laminates from China contained excessive levels of formaldehyde.

    Up to Friday’s close of $14.21, Lumber Liquidators’ shares had risen 17.5 percent since the CDC’s initial report. But they are still down 79 percent since the company had in late February last year warned of the CBS report.

  • Lead Contamination And An Aging Infrastructure

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  The fallout from the Flint, Mi. lead contaminated water crisis is putting the spot light on businesses / municipalities that deliver potable (drinking) water.  Flint estimates it would take $55,000,000 to replace their lead pipes.

    The potable water industry is what some would classify as highly regulated.  However, back when lead pipes were used to supply potable water it was not so regulated because for the most part we did not understand the dangers of lead.

    As the article links below highlight there are many ways environmental problems can flow into potable water and lead is not a Flint environmental exposure but a nationwide environmental exposure.

    A well-known fact is, as our infrastructure (water, sewer, storm water, roads, bridges, dams…) continues to deteriorate, it creates huge environmental exposures for business and municipalities that use / maintain them.  The environmental exposure created by infrastructure deterioration grows with each passing day.

    eS Risk Transfer Strategy:  Businesses and municipalities as part of “Best Practices” must have a financial assurance strategy to address potential liabilities created by deteriorating infrastructure.  A financial strategy to address legal fees, investigation & clean up costs, third party bodily injury, third party property damage, third party business income, disposal costs….  While pollution insurance won’t cover the cost to replace the lead pipes it can cover a lot of associated costs that come from environmental exposures created by deteriorating infrastructure.  Since environmental liabilities are generally a severity versus frequency issue, you must assess the economies of scale afforded by transferring your risk to a third party insurer versus self-insurance.

    Ohio village issued 2nd state EPA violation for lead problems

    CLEVELAND | BY KIM PALMER

    Ohio environmental officials gave a northeast Ohio village another violation for failure to submit two weekly water reports and not communicating test results to homeowners after elevated levels of lead were found in some of the drinking water in January.

    The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency’s Tuesday notice is the latest complaint levied by the state against Sebring, 60 miles (97 km) southeast of Cleveland, after the agency found village officials failed to properly warn residents about water chemistry that caused corrosion in piping leading to 28 homes and one school building in January.

    An Ohio EPA spokeswoman said if Sebring does not fix the problem, the state agency could fine the village or involve the Ohio Attorney General on the criminal side. However, the spokeswoman does not expect either to occur.

    Sebring’s manager, Richard Giroux, said the village believes it was meeting all the state EPA’s deadlines and the discrepancy may have arisen from the initial use of an incorrect address by state officials. The Ohio EPA spokeswoman said miscommunication was not the issue.

    The Ohio EPA first reported elevated lead levels to Sebring officials on Dec. 3. The notice in Ohio follows the controversy over dangerously high lead levels in the water of Flint, Michigan, which has led to calls for the resignation of Michigan Governor Rick Snyder.

    Schools in the Sebring district were closed for three days in January after two samples from Sebring’s McKinley Junior/Senior High School tested with lead levels above federal standards.

    Sebring officials must submit weekly pH and alkalinity monitoring results reports, offer free water quality testing to all residents upon request and provide bottled water or filtration systems to homes where results are over the federal allowable level.

    “When EPA staff followed up this weekend to conduct cautionary testing on a few homes that tested above the federal allowable level, it became evident that the village had not notified these residents of their recent test results as quickly and thoroughly as they should have,” Ohio EPA Director Craig Butler said.

    Water testing results submitted Tuesday found that 664 of 698 samples have tested below the federal allowable level and test results confirm that the village’s water plant is lead free.

    A report by the EPA said that follow-up tests confirm the water coming into the homes is under federal allowable limits and that running water for several minutes successfully eliminates any detectable lead in the water.

    Lead water pipes still a concern in Boston area

    A piece of an old lead water pipe sat next to a new copper pipe on a Lansing, Mich., street.
    DAVE WASINGER/LANSING STATE JOURNAL – A piece of an old lead water pipe sat next to a new copper pipe on a Lansing, Mich., street.

    By GLOBE STAFF 

    Despite drastic improvements in the quality of drinking water over the last few decades, lead is still a concern in thousands of Boston-area homes where water is running through older pipes, officials said.

    More than 20,000 buildings in the area — many built before 1940, when the older service lines were phased out — are fed by lead service lines that run from the main municipal water line into a house.

    Malden is the community with the highest percentage of service lines made of lead; 47 percent of the city’s 11,682 service lines are lead, according to the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s best estimates. The next highest rates are in Medford (28 percent), Somerville (22 percent), Marlborough (19 percent), and Winthrop (11 percent).

    Concerns over the amount of lead in water have been reignited in the wake of the water crisis in Flint, Mich., where dangerous lead levels were recently discovered in the water.

    “We’ve been working at this problem as a society for many years, and we’ve actually made a great deal of progress. But there’s certainly more work to be done, which is why we take this so seriously,” said Stephen Estes-Smargiassi, planning and sustainability director at the MWRA.

    The MWRA sends water to 51 cities and towns, including Boston, reaching about 2.2 million people and 5,500 industrial users primarily in Eastern Massachusetts.

    The MWRA says that its water is virtually lead-free when it leaves reservoirs on its way into communities. Water mains, the large pipes that carry water through each town and city, also do not add lead to the water, the authority said. Those mains are made of concrete, iron, or steel.

    In Massachusetts, the installation of lead service lines — narrower pipes that connect mains to individual properties — stopped largely by the 1940s, officials believe.

    It is also possible that homes built before 1986 may have lead solder in their interior plumbing and that faucets made through 2013 may contain enough lead to contribute to elevated lead levels in water.

    The MWRA estimates only about 5 percent of service lines it sends water to are made of lead.

    However, MWRA officials said their records may not be accurate. For example, their records show only about 100 lead service connections in Boston. But the Boston Water and Sewer Commission says there are about 3,500.

    Steps have been taken in recent years to replace lead service lines. But there are obstacles. Replacing them can be expensive for homeowners.

    Joseph Wood, owner of Boston Standard Plumbing, said he does about one lead service line replacement every other month, compared with about two per month 15 years ago.

    He said that the average project costs between $3,500 and $5,000, but the city of Boston offers subsidies and financing that can make such project more affordable for homeowners.

    Lynn Thorp, national campaigns director at Clean Water Action, said more should be done to replace the lines.

    She said that water utilities have not made replacement a priority because there are no regulations requiring them to.

    “We need water systems to do an inventory of lead service lines and come up with a comprehensive plan for how to get lead service lines out of their systems,” Thorp said.

    She advised all residents to have their water tested.

    Philippe Grandjean, a Harvard environmental health professor who has studied lead toxicity, said that while progress has been made to reduce lead levels in water nationwide, residents should remain cautious.

    “It doesn’t mean that we’re safe and that we’ve done enough,” he said. “Every community in this country should be aware that there is a very strong likelihood that there is lead somewhere in the water system.”

    Inside buildings, lead pipes are rare, but pipes made of other materials may be held together with lead solder (which was commonly used before 1986). Brass pipes, fittings, and faucets can contain lead, too.

    One simple but effective measure to reduce the risk: Run cold water for 15 to 30 seconds if the pipes have been unused for a while to clear lead buildup. Experts also advise avoiding the use of more-corrosive hot water from the tap.

    The MWRA, for its part, alters the chemistry of its water, a practice that began in 1996, to make it less corrosive and less likely to cause lead to leach into the water.

    Lead poisoning can cause serious damage to the brain, kidneys, nervous system, and red blood cells, potentially affecting physical development and the ability to learn.

    Small amounts of lead in adults are not thought to be harmful, but even low levels of lead can be dangerous to infants and children.

    “If the lead causes brain damage, that is going to stay for the rest of the child’s life,” Grandjean said. “You only get one chance to develop the brain.”

    Lead poisoning can also be caused by exposure to lead in soil, paint, household dust, food, and certain types of pottery, porcelain, and pewter.

    While standards exist for what is considered a safe level of lead in the blood as well as in drinking water, experts in recent years have stressed that no level is truly safe.

    To monitor lead levels in water, the MWRA conducts tests in about 450 homes across its system annually. Each must meet criteria that makes them likely to have high levels of lead.

    The US Environmental Protection Agency requires that no more than 10 percent of the samples contain levels of lead above 15 parts per billion or corrective measures will be mandated. In 2015, only 2.3 percent of MWRA samples were above the threshold.

    That’s a dramatic reduction from when testing began in 1992. At that time, more than 40 percent of samples had lead levels above the threshold.

    Communities with at least one home that tested above the standard in 2015 were: Boston, Malden, Melrose, Milton, Newton, Somerville, Stoneham, and Winthrop.

    One Malden home had lead levels of 584 parts per billion, by far the worst found.

    “While system-wide results have shown remarkable reductions, MWRA continues to stress that elevated lead levels in any home deserve attention,” the authority wrote in a letter sent last month to local officials to allay fears about the Flint crisis.

    Experts say that a scenario as dire as what unfolded in Flint is unlikely to occur elsewhere because Flint’s problems were caused by a long list of unusual and avoidable failures.

    Thorp said she hoped the Flint case would spur greater awareness of how water systems around the country still need improvement.

    “We do tend to get complacent around many drinking water issues because we’ve made so much progress in this country,” she said.

    “We tend to only react when there’s a crisis revealed. We need to be much more proactive . . . and not just react when there’s a crisis.”

  • Porter Ranch Gas Leak Compared To BP Gulf Oil Spill

    environmental Strategist™, between the lines:  Typically, when strategizing with a business about their environmental exposures, businesses just think about a spill and the cost to clean up the spill as their only exposure.  The reality is the cost to clean up a spill / release is often times far less than the associated costs such as legal fees, third party bodily injury & property damage, third party business income, fines & penalties, investigation costs, disposal costs….

    Pollution insurance policies can also protect you should a third party cause contamination to come onto your property, as in the example below.  Pollution insurance policies can cover defense, bodily injury, property damage, business income and extra expense, investigation costs….  I wonder how many businesses and residents in California impacted by the gas leak wished they had invested into a pollution policy right now?

    Keep in mind, when it comes to buying a pollution policy there is just one simple question the insured needs to answer:  Understanding that insurance is simply a way to finance a loss, does it make fiscal sense to transfer your environmental exposures for fractions of a cent on the dollar or wait until an environmental loss occurs and spend one hundred cents on the dollar out of your own pocket for investigation costs, clean up, defense, third party bodily injury, third party property damage, waste transportation and disposal costs…?

    While that vast majority of pollution policies we sell are for commercial businesses, we also sell to homeowner and condominium associations.

    For solutions go to www.environmentalriskmanagers.com or www.estrategist.com.

    Porter Ranch Gas Leak Compared To BP Gulf Oil Spill

    By Susan Abram, Los Angeles Daily News

    POSTED: |

    Porter Ranch residents Susan Gorman-Chang and George Chang will be spending this Christmas away from home in a small two bedroom suite. The family re-located due to the ongoing gas leak in Aliso Canyon. (David Crane / Staff Photographer)

    The smell came from the canyons and drifted over their neighborhoods in late October, but most residents who live in the gated communities ofPorter Ranch thought the northerly gusts of wind common to their area would sweep the stench of rotten eggs away. Instead, the odor persisted.

    It became a phantom that haunted them during their twilight jogs and on their morning walks on dusty horse trails. It was there in their dens where they watched TV and in bedrooms where their children slept. It was even there on the playgrounds of nearby elementary schools.

    “It was smelling really bad,” said Susan Gorman-Chang, who along with her husband, George, has lived in Porter Ranch for more than 20 years. Now, the couple has chosen to leave the area. “Our neighbor called the fire department. It was that bad.”

    The Southern California Gas Co. knew what was happening a day before the fire department was called. They knew methane was leaking from a 40-year-old well in Aliso Canyon above the Santa Susana Mountains, that it was spewing tons of gas into the air. Several days later, they informed residents through letters that the agency would plug the leak as fast as possible.

    DISPLACING A COMMUNITY

    Eight weeks after that call was made, the leak continues. It has caused massive disruption in the northwestern San Fernando Valley community of Porter Ranch, an affluent community of nearly 31,000 residents about 28 miles from downtown Los Angeles. More than 1,800 families have been relocated by the gas company and more than 1,000 remain on a waiting list. Some say they can’t remember a displacement of residents this large since the Northridge earthquake in 1994, when 20,000 people were left homeless. Two local elementary schools have been impacted, with nearly 2,000 schoolchildren and staff slated to be moved to other schools in January.

    Enough methane gas is being released to fill the Empire State building each day, state officials have said, and the concern has even reached the Federal Aviation Administration, which issued temporary flight restrictions over the area for small aircraft and helicopters.

    The gas company has apologized but has said the leak may take four months to plug and to create a relief well.

    “It’s like the BP spill on land,” said environmental activist Erin Brockovich, who was made famous by successfully battling Pacific Gas and Electric Co. over groundwater contamination in the community ofHinkley in the Inland Empire in 1996. “I’ve really never seen anything like this. I think the magnitude is enormous. Its like a volcano, and the gas is like the lava that can’t be shut off.”

    LARGEST GAS STORAGE IN NATION

    An abandoned oil field with 115 wells, the Aliso Canyon storage facility became the second largest in the nation when it was repurposed in the 1970s, with a capacity to hold 86 billion cubic feet of natural gas.

    Gas continues to leak from a narrow pipe enclosed in a breached 7-inch well casing. The affected well, known as SS 25, is 8,750 feet deep.

    Aging infrastructure may be to blame. In a report presented to California’s Public Utilities Commission last year, concerns were raised by the gas company regarding well casings that were “further amplified by the age, length and location of wells,” according to the report. “Some SoCalGas wells are more than 80 years old with an average age of 52 years.”

    The number of wells that have needed repairs has increased, from three repairs in 2008 when tracking of repairs began, to nine in 2013.

    “Without a robust program to inspect underground storage wells to identify potential safety and/or integrity issues, problems may remain undetected,” last year’s report stated.

    The affected well passed its pressure tests, including the latest one in 2014, according to the California Department of Conservation’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources.

    ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS

    The 1,200 tons of methane gas being released daily by the affected well is adding 25 percent more greenhouse gas to the atmosphere per month than normal, said Dave Clegern, spokesman for the California Air Resources Board. Methane is about 9 percent of the total annual greenhouse gas emissions in California, Clegern added.

    “You can figure that a million metric tons — which is about the estimated monthly amount — is the equivalent of putting about 200,000 more cars on the road for a year.”

    Methane lives in the atmosphere for about 12 years, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Unlike carbon dioxide, which can live longer in the atmosphere, methane can be more devastating to the climate because of how well it absorbs heat, according the Environmental Defense Fund.

    HEALTH FEARS

    That may be bad for the environment, but families who live in Porter Ranch are wondering what the gas leak is doing to their lungs, hearts and the health of their children. Residents have reported headaches, nausea and nosebleeds. Even their dogs and cats were getting sick.

    The nurse’s office at two nearby elementary schools reported increased visits by children, up to 38 one week. The most common symptoms reported by the students were headache and stomachache.

    Earlier this month, county health officials said the gas leak did not pose any long-term health risks but then changed course after as the leak entered its sixth week and gas company officials said it might take four months to plug the well.

    Prolonged exposure to trace chemicals, county health officials later said, some of which are known carcinogens, can cause long-term health effects.

    However, they cautioned that levels examined so far in Porter Ranch are not believed to be associated with long-term health problems.

    “As the duration of exposure increases, these trace levels can produce significant long-term health effects,” county Department of Public HealthInterim Director Cynthia Harding wrote in a memo sent to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors. “As this incident has moved from a short-term exposure event resolved within days, to now a long-term event potentially lasting months, supplemental monitoring of potentially harmful trace chemicals is warranted.”

    What is less understood is mercaptan, or what’s been described as a harmless chemical that contains sulphur that is added to natural gas to make it smell like rotten eggs and so that it can be detected.

    But very little is known about the health effects of methyl mercaptan, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

    “The only information available is about a worker exposed to very high levels of this compound when he opened and emptied tanks of this compound,” according to the CDC. “He developed anemia, went into a coma and died about a month later.”

    The last report on mercaptan offered by the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry, a division of the CDC, was presented in 1992.

    “We do not know whether long-term exposure of humans to low levels of methyl mercaptan can result in harmful health effects such as cancer, birth defects, or problems with reproduction.”

    Guidelines released by the Occupational Safety and HealthAdministration to workers say that long-term exposure of mercaptan can cause dermatitis.

    There also is little information about whether mercaptan causes cancer in people or animals. Methyl mercaptan has not been classified a carcinogen by the Department of Health and Human Services, the International Agency for Research on Cancer or the Environmental Protection Agency.

    The gas began leaking Oct. 23. One day later residents began calling in complaints to the Air Quality Management District. Since then, there have been more than 1,400 complaints.

    “We have received a large number of complaints, not unprecedented, but a large amount,” said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the AQMD. “This is a large number of complaints over a couple of months.”

    The delay in communication by the Gas Co. to residents is what has raised distrust and anger in the community, said Alexandra Nagy of Food & Water Watch. The environmental nonprofit has helped Porter Ranch residents organize protests and rallies.

    “This is an extreme health crisis and it is an extreme environmental crisis,” Nagy said. “These are real health symptoms. Residents are so fed up.”

    THOUSANDS DISPLACED

    Susan Gorman-Chang and her husband, George, said they moved into Porter Ranch in 1991 when new homes were being built. They had weathered the Northridge earthquake and even evacuated their home during wildfires that swept into the canyons above them. Last year, residents formed Save Porter Ranch to discourage Termo Co. of Long Beach, which now operates 18 wells in Aliso Canyon, from drilling 12 more within the next six years — a move that could potentially tap up to 200,000 more barrels of oil.

    But the smell that was affecting them from the gas leak was too much. Gorman-Chang said she had trouble breathing after jogs. George Chang said he felt dizzy after morning walks. They were among the first families to relocate after the gas company agreed to reimburse residents who wanted to leave. Since mid-November, the Changs have lived in a two-bedroom hotel room in Chatsworth.

    “We’re lucky,” Gorman-Chang said. “There are families that had to relocate down as far as Marina del Rey. And now many can’t find places to stay.”

    But they miss their routine. George Chang said he still goes to his Porter Ranch home to pick up newspapers and mail. Gorman-Chang said she went back to their home about 4 miles away to make the Thanksgiving turkey because there is no stove in the hotel room.

    Inside their room, there is a small Charlie Brown Christmas tree that George Chang ordered because he said it was important to keep spirits up. Their son, who attends Cal State Northridge, lives with them.

    “It’s been a struggle,” Gorman-Chang said. “You have this delicate balance of life, and then all of a sudden it’s gone.”

    ‘A DISASTER AREA’

    Meanwhile, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday declared the leak in Porter Ranch an emergency to pave the way for state and federal assistance.

    “This is a disaster area,” Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich said that day. “The financial liability of Southern California Gas Co. has to be to the neighbors who have lost residential properties, the ability to sell. The home valuation has gone in the toilet.”

    Los Angeles City Attorney Mike Feuer filed a civil lawsuit against SoCalGas alleging the Aliso Canyon leak has threatened residents’ health and hurt the environment. The lawsuit also alleges a public nuisance and violation of the California Unfair Competition Law from the leak.

    “It is the most significant event and potentially biggest health emergency in the history of Los Angeles,” Feuer said. “There’s a huge spectrum of concern out there.”

    Brockovich, who is working on behalf of the law firm Weitz & Luxenbergwhich filed a lawsuit on behalf of residents, said monetary compensation won’t be enough for the residents. She said the gas company should have had a contingency plan in place, in case of such leaks.

    “There has to be a new plan moving forward,” Brockovich said. “As we move forward, lawsuits are not going to work anymore. There needs to be measures to change what has happened, to prevent it from happening again and to assure total safety to those people. This is, I think, a huge wake-up call.”

    Staff Writers Dana Bartholomew, Sarah Favot, Dakota Smith and Greg Wilcox contributed to this report.

    Los Angeles sues gas company over 6-week-old leak  – more on the story here

  • Silica – The Workplace Killer

    environmental Strategist, between the lines:  If you are not familiar with the pollutant Silica, please keep reading. Some of the businesses impacted by exposure to Silica are agriculture, real estate developers, excavators, road builders, manufacturers, mining operations, and municipalities with dirt roads…. Pollution liability insurance can protect you for silica exposure.

     

    Silica: Setting a Standard

    After decades of fighting for better worker protections against silica, new standards finally are within reach.

    Aug 5, 2015 | EHS Today

    Two years ago, Alan White of the United Steelworkers Local 593 testified in support of new silica standards during public hearings held by the U.S. Department of Labor.

    White, who had worked at a foundry in Buffalo, N.Y. for nearly two decades, found out six years ago that he would die from exposure to silica in his workplace.

    Despite his smoke-free, alcohol-free lifestyle, simple activities like walking the mile home from work became too difficult as a result of the onset of silicosis – a chronic lung disease caused by the inhalation of silica particles.

    “When I got my first job at the foundry, I made more than $60,000 the first year and thought I was set. I was ready and willing to give my all to work. But I never realized that that included my life,” White said during his testimony. “Now I know that my lifestyle probably won’t benefit my long-term health because of the devastating effects of silica exposure.”

    Today, White still is working, still fighting a battle he knows he can’t win against a disease brought on by unsafe work conditions.

    He is not alone.

    The American Lung Association estimates that 2 million U.S. workers, particularly those in mining, quarrying, sandblasting, pottery making, rock drilling, road construction, stone masonry and tunneling, are exposed to free crystalline silica dust and thus are at risk for developing silicosis.

    About 100 people die from silicosis each year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And, while that number has decreased dramatically (85 percent) in the past 50 years, deaths among younger people (those aged 15-44) are still occurring, a trend the CDC attributes to new jobs that place workers at risk for silicosis like hydraulic fracturing, sandblasting denim and engineered stone countertop fabrication and installation.

    The effects of silica dust have been known for centuries, yet it continues to be a workplace killer.

    That’s because the silica standards in place by OSHA were set 40 years ago and attempts to delay updates to those standards have stalled the process, said Peg Seminario, safety and health director for the AFL-CIO.

    “It’s still a problem because it’s not controlled and it’s not controlled both because the standards are out of date and aren’t sufficiently protective and also are hard to oversee and enforce. It’s still a problem because too many employers aren’t installing safeguards,” Seminario said.

    However, after years and multiple attempts to set new standards, change could finally be on the horizon. OSHA as soon as early 2016 could pass new standards for worker protection from silica.

    A Time for Change

    The new standards proposed by OSHA – one for general industry and maritime and one for the construction industry – would set a new universal permissible exposure limit: an 8-hour time-weighted average of 50 micrograms of respirable crystalline silica per cubic meter of air. The standards, which also suggest control measures and precautions, would replace the existing standard set in 1971 that is based on calculations and differs by industry.

    “It’s not just limiting the amount, it’s really putting in a different approach that actually helps you get controls in place,” Seminario said.

    With the new standards in effect, nearly 700 lives could be saved each year, OSHA estimates. And another 1,600 new cases of silicosis per year could be prevented.

    “My health will not improve, but as OSHA moves forward with this silica standard other workers will be able to enjoy their time with their grandchildren,” White said.

    The new standards would align OSHA with the recommended exposure limit (REL) that NIOSH proposed in 1974, said Stephanie Stevens, a health communication specialist for NIOSH.

    Despite the lack of formal protections, however, some industries are taking steps of their own to manage the hazard.

    The Silica/Asphalt Milling Machine Partnership, for example, developed the Best Practice Engineering Control Guidelines to Control Worker Exposure to Respirable Crystalline Silica during Asphalt. The document established recommendations for the use of ventilation controls and of water sprays to help industry lower silica exposures.

    The effort, led by the National Asphalt Pavement Association, was 10 years in the making and involved collaboration between labor, industry and government groups.

    “It’s not as though there haven’t been efforts made by some employers; there have. The voluntary efforts haven’t been sufficient,” Seminario said. “It’s not become a widespread practice.”

    Instead, companies and foundries like the one from which White developed silicosis focus on “obvious safety hazards” like trips and falls, lifting, heat exposure and plant traffic.

    “But they did not tell us about the unseen dangers. They never told me about silica and the health effects that breathing it can cause,” White said.

    Some industry groups are arguing that the new standards proposed by OSHA are too restrictive.

    The Construction Industry Safety Coalition, a group of 25 national trade associations, in March said that the new standards would cost the industry $5 billion per year – 4.5 billion more than OSHA estimated – and would cut 52,700 jobs from the national economy.

    Jeff Buczkiewicz, president of the Mason Contractors Association of America, said that “the current silica rule has done a fantastic job of reducing related illnesses.”

    “Our industry needs a rule that is based on real-world construction site scenarios that is not technologically and economically infeasible to implement,” he said.

    But Seminario said the AFL-CIO doesn’t believe the current standards are protective and partially attributes the decline in the number of silica-related deaths to the nature of work and how workers are more transient, thus less likely to have health problems identified as silica-related.

    “The [fact] that we still have so many in industry saying the current standard is fine, that we just need more enforcement, that to me is just criminal and so dishonest. It just demonstrates that there really is no interest in protecting workers,” she said.

     

    RELATED

    Working with Silicosis: Alan White’s Story

    President Obama Should Veto Safety Cuts, ‘Poison Pills,’ Safety Groups Say

    OSHA and NIOSH: Protect Workers from Silica Exposure during Countertop Installation