Miscarriages Arouse Fears of Toxics Near Bell Gardens Plating Plants

The teachers and administrators of Suva elementary and intermediate schools did not worry too much when health officials told them in January that minute amounts of hexavalent chromium--a carcinogen--were detected in the air around the schools.

Then came February, when two teachers miscarried severely deformed fetuses. A third teacher had terminated her pregnancy in September when she found out the fetus she was carrying was deformed.

Hexavalent chromium, a byproduct of chrome plating, has been known to cause cancer in chrome factory workers, said Dr. Paul Papanek, chief of the Los Angeles County Health Department’s toxics epidemiology program. It also has caused miscarriages and birth defects in animals exposed to high doses.

“I worry about what it’s doing to the teachers and kids in the school,” said Brenda Kelly, 29, who had a miscarriage last month. Kelly teaches at Suva Intermediate.

Two chrome factories near the schools--Chrome Crankshaft Co. and J & S Chrome Plating Co.--discharge hexavalent chromium into the air as they have been permitted to do since the 1960s, officials said. Health and air quality officials recently began monitoring to determine the exposure to people in the area and the health risks they face.

At this point, officials say the toxic metal has not been detected in concentrations high enough to cause alarm, although testing continues.

“It wouldn’t be surprising to find two or three miscarriages in a year,” Papanek said. “You couldn’t conclusively say that it is out of the ordinary.”

Officials said they would not notify residents surrounding the factories unless there was evidence of a significant health risk. There were no immediate plans to perform a health survey, officials said.

“If it is a problem, then we’ll take strong action at that point (to reduce emissions),” said Art Davidson, spokesman for the South Coast Air Quality Management District, which monitors and enforces air pollution restrictions in the Los Angeles area.

The presidents of the chrome-plating companies defended their operations and said their own workers have reported no unusual health problems.

Because of industry, hexavalent chromium is present in minute amounts in the air throughout the Los Angeles Basin. Background levels of the heavy metal in the Los Angeles area range in concentration from 5 nanograms to 11 nanograms per cubic meter of air, Papanek said. A nanogram is one billionth of a gram.

Last October, the state Air Resources Board took air samples near the schools and detected ground-level concentrations of hexavalent chromium ranging from 10 to 40 nanograms per cubic meter of air. Studies indicate that long-term or lifetime exposure to one nanogram of hexavalent chromium per cubic meter of air will result in 12 to 150 additional cancer cases per million people, said Cliff Popejoy, an air pollution specialist with the state Air Resources Board.

Officials say less is known about whether the chemical causes miscarriages and birth defects in people, although it has been shown to do that in animals.

“Certainly there isn’t any human data that (indicates) that could happen, but that’s not always reassuring,” Papanek said.

The AQMD is continuing to monitor the air around the two schools. Air samples are being analyzed and a report is expected to be issued this spring, said Bill Dennison, director of engineering for the AQMD.

State and local air pollution authorities are gearing up to strictly control the amount of hexavalent chromium released into the air from all sources.

Particulates Controlled

So far, emissions of hexavalent chromium from most sources in the Los Angeles Basin have been controlled as part of a general category of pollutants called particulates. Particulates also include dust and other relatively innocuous pollutants, officials said. Neither of the chrome-plating plants near the Suva schools has exceeded its particulate limits, Davidson said.

Last month, the California Air Resources Board adopted regulations to stringently control hexavalent chromium as a separate and highly toxic pollutant. Eventually, industry will be required to remove 95% to 99.8% of the heavy metal from their emissions. The two Bell Gardens plants will fall under the more stringent regulations.

“When you compare it to other toxic compounds in the air, it’s one of the bigger problems,” Popejoy said.

The county and the Montebello Unified School District were notified of the elevated levels of hexavalent chromium in late October as required by the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, Davidson said.

When teachers were informed of the findings during a school meeting in January, air quality and health officials spoke mostly about the potential cancer risk, and mentioned the possibility of miscarriages and birth defects, teachers said.

The district was advised that special precautions, such as restricting outdoor activities, were unnecessary, district Supt. John P. Cook said.

“According to the health department, it’s not a medical emergency so we don’t need to do anything at this time, Cook said. The school sent out notices to parents in January notifying them of the findings, officials said.

Lynda Richardson, a 37-year-old teacher at Suva Intermediate, ended her pregnancy last September after doctors told her the fetus she was carrying was severely deformed.

“I was very shook up after hearing all this,” said Richardson, who said she wonders whether the deformities were related to the hexavalent chromium in the air.

Kelly and Angela Carter, the last of the three teachers to have a miscarriage, said they at first put the information out of their minds.

‘It Worried Me’

“Most of us just shrugged it off, even when I had the miscarriage,” Kelly said. “Until Angela lost hers, and she was the third in such a short time, that’s why it worried me.”

“Maybe it was just a fluke,” Carter said. “But I feel if they survey they will find a high percentage of miscarriages. Even the men are concerned because it’s not just the miscarriages, but it’s also the cancer factor.”

There are about 120 administrators, teachers and aides at Suva Intermediate and about 1,900 students. Suva Elementary has about 130 staff members and 1,160 students.

Nick Monsour, Suva Intermediate principal, and Margaret Hangartner, Suva Elementary principal, said they have received no complaints about student health problems that might be related to hexavalent chromium. Hangartner said nobody on her staff has had health complaints related to the chemical.

Exposure Limited

Federal regulations limit exposure of chrome-plating workers to 50 micrograms--or 50,000 nanograms--per cubic meter over an eight-hour period.

“We have not had a bit of a problem,” said Harry Williamson, president of Chrome Crankshaft. “People have been with me 32 years and never had a problem.”

B.J. Kirwan, an attorney, responded for James Mancuso, president of J & S Chrome. “He (Mancuso) has been in the business for 30 years and he has never had an employee who has been ill (from hexavalent chromium),” Kirwan said.

Last January, the county Department of Health Services found no evidence to indicate emissions of hexavalent chromium from a Glendora plant increased the incidence of miscarriages, birth defects or other health problems among nearby residents.

The health department’s inquiry was prompted last summer by reports of four miscarriages by women living in the neighborhoods near the plant.