GE Plant Investigated for Chemical Hazards : PCBs: State, federal agencies find violations while probing possible workplace dangers at Anaheim facility.

General Electric Co. is under investigation by federal and state authorities for allegedly exposing workers to chemical hazards and contaminating the environment at its Southern California regional plant here.

Cal/OSHA, the state’s worker-safety agency, and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are probing employee complaints that polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)--chemicals banned for their toxicity and severe environmental impacts--have been mishandled at the plant.

Officials at both agencies told The Times they have found violations at the GE Apparatus Service Center in Anaheim, but declined to provide details because their investigations are continuing.

“It appears there is some basis to the allegations. How serious they are, we have no way of telling yet,” said Greg Czajkowski, chief of the toxics division at EPA’s regional office in San Francisco. “At the minimum it indicates some sloppy housekeeping on GE’s part.”

GE management, both in Anaheim and at its divisional headquarters in Schenectady, N.Y., say they view chemical handling as a top priority and expect the investigations to show the plant complies with worker-safety and environmental laws.

But several workers at the Anaheim plant told The Times that they were not warned of the health risks of PCBs and that supervisors told them it was unnecessary to wear safety equipment.

The employees say their skin has been soaked countless times with PCB waste while they drained fluids from electric transformers, and that they often wore shorts and T-shirts instead of protective suits and respirators.

“Sometimes we had the stuff up to our elbows. It was dripping from my arms,” said Jerry Maxwell, 41, who has worked there for almost three years. “They (management) never told us anything. They blew it off, telling us it was no more dangerous than peanut butter.”

Mel Dinkel, manager of the Anaheim plant, strongly denied the employee claims.

“I can’t imagine any of that happening, and I don’t know why they would say this,” Dinkel said. “We continually reiterate to them how important it is to follow the rules.”

PCBs, a family of more than 200 related chemical compounds, are designated by the EPA as a probable cause of cancer in humans. They were banned from use in the United States in 1979 after an outbreak of PCB poisonings in Japan and discovery that they persist in the environment for decades and accumulate in the food chain. Federal and state law requires employers to protect workers from PCB exposure.

At the GE plant in Anaheim, employees drain PCBs from old electrical equipment before it is disposed of. It is the only facility in Southern California, and one of the largest in the West, where so-called decommissioning work is conducted.

Jim Brown, Cal/OSHA’s manager in Orange County, confirmed that inspectors have found worker-safety violations at the plant’s PCB-handling area but that no details can be released yet. The investigation has been extended to the entire facility, and a Cal/OSHA inspector revisited the site on Friday to take air samples to test for PCBs.

A union official at the plant said a Cal/OSHA inspector told him 42 health and safety violations have already been found, including improper protective clothing and lack of respirators, and that proposed fines could reach $75,000.

Also, the EPA is working with the Orange County district attorney’s office and the state water board to investigate the workers’ allegations that they routinely spilled small amounts of PCB fluids.

Czajkowski of the EPA said some contamination of the plant’s soil and asphalt was found, and that the agency will probably pursue a penalty once its investigation is complete.

The General Electric plant, with annual revenue of $18 million, employs 94 workers. Only seven employees work with large amounts of PCBs, while another 30 employees repair transformers that the company says contain small or undetectable amounts of PCBs. The remaining workers have no PCB exposure.

Millions of old electric transformers and capacitors across the country still contain PCBs, which were widely used as insulating fluids in electric utility equipment from 1929 to 1977. The equipment is gradually being taken out of service, drained of the hazardous waste and incinerated.

General Electric, based in Connecticut, is one of the nation’s largest handlers of PCBs. It has 15% of the $250-million-per-year PCB decommissioning market, according to the company. The Anaheim plant handles about 2 million pounds of PCB waste each year, Dinkel said.

EPA and state water quality officials said the PCB contamination detected at the plant apparently will not threaten the public, since the compounds adhere to soil or asphalt. But any PCB contamination is considered serious because it easily collects in human and animal tissue and does not break down.

“Workers could get this on their clothes and hands and eventually on their mouth,” Czajkowski said. “This could build up in their system.”

Steve Sandberg, who was the plant’s PCB department leader until October and worked for 2 1/2 years with the chemicals, started complaining to his employers and authorities last year, after lesions appeared on his thighs, knee and face, and PCBs were detected in his blood.

“GE has misled us from Day 1, and they are still misleading us,” said Sandberg, 36. “They never gave us any hazard training. They said it couldn’t hurt you. They don’t have any right to expose us to chemicals that can harm us without telling us. I don’t want money from them. You know what I want? I want them to set the facility straight.”

A July medical report shows Sandberg’s blood contained 62 p.p.b. of PCBs, about 10 times more than what some studies show an average person might have. Maxwell said he has suffered lesions similar to Sandberg’s, although only 10 p.p.b. of PCBs were found in his blood. Health experts say they do not know what amount in the bloodstream is dangerous to humans.

Sandberg was removed from his PCB job in October when a doctor told him to avoid further exposure, and he is now driving trucks for the company.

Dinkel said if his workers are not wearing safety equipment and are spilling PCB fluids, “that would definitely be without my knowledge. It would be totally out of compliance with what we require.”

Dinkel said the company tries to ensure that workers wear the proper equipment by conducting periodic inspections. But ultimately, he said, “a lot of it is left up to the employee. A supervisor can’t be everywhere.”

GE officials said workers who handle PCBs are taught health and safety issues during a two-day training session. They also receive annual recertification training.

“The PCB business is a minor part of our business here, but it is an important part and a highly regulated part,” said Richard Peters, GE’s risk control program manager. “You can’t make any mistakes because you’re being watched (by regulators). We had to work long and hard to get the permits we have.”

Before the current investigation, the Anaheim plant was inspected three times by the EPA since 1987. The EPA found no violations in those earlier inspections, and Czajkowski said they indicated the company had good chemical storage and record-keeping practices.

The company has never before been inspected by Cal/OSHA.

Medical officials say the long-term effects in workers exposed to PCBs are poorly understood despite 15 years of study.

The most widely reported health effect is chloracne, a painful but curable skin disorder that causes large skin lesions. Liver damage also has been reported among some workers.

But researchers remain uncertain about whether PCBs cause cancer or other long-term harm in workers. Some scientific studies have shown excessive amounts of malignant melanoma and liver cancer in workers who manufactured PCB transformers, while others have not.

Still, the EPA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health warn that exposure to PCBs should be kept to a minimum. Cal/OSHA requires employers to monitor the air, keep fumes at a low concentration and provide full protective suits, gloves and booties to avoid skin contact. Respirators are required if there is a danger of heavy exposure, Cal/OSHA officials said.

A GE manual states that safety glasses, gloves, aprons and shoe coverings are to be worn by employees handling PCBs, and outlines a list of precautions for handling spills. Notebooks containing information about chemical hazards are available at several locations in the Anaheim plant, as required by law.

But three employees told The Times that their GE supervisors advised them those safety precautions are a “joke” because PCBs are not dangerous and never should have been banned. They said the only time they were told to wear the gear was when a corporate or EPA inspector was present, or to impress customers when they were doing work outside of the plant.

“There’s no way in God’s green Earth I would have gone near it if I knew what I know now,” said Scott Robinson, 29, who is now on stress disability but worked with PCBs at the plant for 1 1/2 years.

GE officials said the corporation believes that PCBs do not pose a health risk to workers. But they stressed that position does not affect their compliance with regulations.

“If there are supervisors laughing about safety requirements, I suggest they . . . look for another job. Because safety is not a laughing matter, and we do not take lightly what Mr. Sandberg is saying,” said Len Doviak, GE’s public affairs manager in Schenectady.

Medical records show Sandberg’s skin lesions may or may not be linked to PCB exposure. One doctor, from a medical clinic that GE recommended, examined Sandberg in July and wrote in his diagnosis that the sores were boils, which “rule out PCB exposure.”

But his current dermatologist, Dr. Gloria Stevens of Upland, wrote in a Dec. 18 report that the cause was unknown, and might be due to industrial exposure to PCBs. She has recommended that Sandberg see a medical toxicologist for a complete tissue analysis.

A PCB Primer

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) are a family of more than 200 synthetic compounds known as chlorinated hydrocarbons.

Important characteristics: They are persistent, lasting for perhaps centuries before they break down.

Uses: Because they are resistant to fire, they are used in electric transformers and capacitors.

Cancer risk: PCBs are classified as an animal carcinogen and a possible carcinogen for people. There is not enough scientific data to prove that they cause cancer in workers.

Route of exposure: PCBs contaminate the food chain when absorbed by animals and fish. Other sources for people are inhalation or skin absorption. They tend to accumulate in fat cells but can migrate and lodge in such organs as the liver and spleen.

Outbreak: In 1968, more than 1,600 Japanese were poisoned by large quantities of PCBs that accidentally got into rice bran oil. The incident helped lead to a U.S. production ban in 1979.

Sources: National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

Researched by Janice L. Jones, Los Angeles Times