Parents Fear Foul Fumes At School : Symptoms Spur Health Concerns About Nearby Industries

When children eat their lunch at Tweedy Elementary School, they sit alongside a gray block wall.

The wall is part of the Cooper Drum Co., an Atlantic Avenue firm that refurbishes 55-gallon steel drums used in the oil industry.

Long a neighbor to the school, the company changed some of its operations this year in response to complaints from parents and school employees about the pungent smell of chemicals from that company and other nearby firms.

But now parents in this 85% Latino school are running into a wall of a different kind.

In April, parents pushed for more action after a February chlorine spill at another nearby plant heightened fears that the proximity of industrial firms to the school on Southern Avenue posed a long-term health hazard.

They pressed city, county and state officials with their concerns about recurring illnesses and health problems among school staff, students and nearby residents.

No Answers for Parents

Parents are still pushing and still getting no answers.

“I should be worried about how well my children are doing in school, not how safe is the school,” said Socorro Cuadra, who has three children attending Tweedy.

At the urging of Assemblywoman Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles), the county Department of Health Services agreed to survey school personnel’s health problems to determine if the symptoms can be traced to the school. But parents are unhappy because the children--who share exposure with the teachers and aides--will not be included.

School staff and parents say workers and children have consistently complained about similar symptoms for several years: headaches, stomachaches, sore throats, swollen eyes, chest pains and allergies.

They are worried that serious health problems may develop as a result of long-term exposure to fumes from the many industries in the school’s vicinity. Staff and parents say industrial odors are common in the schoolyard, and range from chlorine to paint to soap. The South Coast Air Quality Management District says it receives several complaints each week about odors at the school.

“My children often tell me, ‘Mommy, I feel sick,’ ” said Ruth Jimenez, who works as a teacher’s aide and is president of the school’s advisory council. She noted that her children--three now attend Tweedy and two others have graduated--frequently complain of stomachaches, headaches and sore throats.

Complaining Since late 1984

Cuadra said she has been complaining about the problem since she moved to South Gate in late 1984.

“I started to smell strange odors in the school. They were very strong,” Cuadra said.

When her children didn’t want to eat their food because of stomachaches, she thought they were making it up, she said. Then they started throwing up.

“I started to get concerned. I started to complain,” she said.

Jimenez, like other parents and staff, said she is tired of waiting “for answers. Parents know what is going on and they feel nothing is being done. We want to know what the companies . . . have done.”

Jimenez said parents felt reassured in April when Waters asked local and county officials to meet with parents and school personnel. The result was promises to look into the problem by the air-quality district and health department to, which completed its survey last month.

However, no one at the school knows the status of the studies.

Waters, who said she was recently informed about the “bureaucratic bog-down,” has given the agencies until Monday to report on their findings.

Will Urge School’s Closure

Waters is convinced that the data will corroborate claims by parents and school workers, she said, and when she has the documentation she will “ask the school board to close the school.”

“The school is located in the heart of an industrial area. It doesn’t take a Harvard scholar to see the potential of exposure is so great,” she said in an interview last week.

If the information is not received, Waters said, she will conduct a hearing and subpoena records.

Parents and staff have been living with the chemical odors for years. But it took the release in February of deadly chlorine gas at Purex Corp.’s plant at Firestone Boulevard and Rayo Avenue to provoke community action. The accident sent 71 people, including 27 children, to hospitals with nausea and dizziness; 400 children and staff were evacuated as the cloud drifted over Tweedy Elementary.

“The spill acted as a catalyst for community involvement,” said Principal David Sanchez, who noted that “concerns about air quality date back to October, 1984.” Before, he said, parents had complained privately to him about the “safety and welfare of their children” playing so close to industries.

Sanchez was hospitalized during the chlorine spill, and said his throat remains red and sore.

Seeking Pattern

Paul Papanek, chief of the health department’s toxics epidemiology program, said the survey is intended to show if there is a “pattern of complaints” at the school.

“From that, we can see what kind of health effects to focus on,” Papanek said. In addition to the staff survey, the department is also looking at student absenteeism rates. He said all the staff questionnaires have been returned and it may be two or three weeks before the results are analyzed and forwarded to the school district.

He said the children were not included in the survey because the department wanted to use the teachers and school staff as a “starting point.” Based on the results, he said, the department might conduct further studies.

The department is not only investigating the effects of the February incident but also whether “ongoing lower-level emissions (from nearby factories are) causing symptoms and concerns.”

Apart from the survey, he said, the county health department has been inspecting surrounding companies looking for illegal disposal methods.

The air-quality district has also studied air contamination near the school. Ron Ketchum, a spokesman for the district, said results of the study done over the summer were sent to the health department for evaluation.

Although Cuadra is slightly relieved now that the agencies have been pushed to action, she said her complaints fell on deaf ears until the chlorine spill in February, which led to the assistance from Waters’ office.

‘Kids Not Secure’

“I got really angry,” said Cuadra, whose 10-year-old son was briefly hospitalized. “Our kids are not secure in that area.”

Calvin Lee, controller for Cooper Drum Co., confirmed that his company had made several changes in its operations to alleviate the problem, but would not discuss them. “We have been cooperating with the school and district determining whatever corrective measures” needed to be made, Lee said.

Sanchez said the firm put up stacks and an air scrubber, spending about $200,000. Nevertheless, parents and school staff say that problems persist, with odors coming from the many other industrial firms near the school.

Los Angeles Unified School District board member John Greenwood, whose district includes South Gate, told parents in June that the district will be moving the school about a mile south in the next three to four years.

Although a specific site has not been chosen, the school district is looking in the vicinity of Atlantic Avenue and Tweedy Boulevard.

Andrew Pasmant, director of community development for South Gate, said the City Council will be considering a resolution on Monday asking the district to work with the city to relocate the elementary school to the site of the proposed regional high school which is to be built in South Gate.

Dominic Shambra, a coordinator in the school district’s priority housing office, said the district is now looking at potential sites for both schools “away from the chemical area.”

But some parents are unhappy with the move, saying it’s an attempt to let the issue die.

“Greenwood killed the issue by telling us the school is going to be moved,” Cuadra said. “Meanwhile, what’s going on? Meanwhile, our children are still going to the school.”

‘The Same Area’

Jimenez said that even a mile south “we’re still talking about the same area,” and she is especially concerned about the children because many of the staff have had repeated sicknesses and prolonged absences. “If it’s happening to the staff, what about the children?” she said.

Sanchez said parents complain that their children are ill and still exhibit side effects. He said he did not know how many staff members have been absent due to inhalation of chemical odors, but he did confirm that a teacher’s aide has been ill with “respiratory problems” since the beginning of August.

“I just want peace of mind,” Jimenez said.