U.S. Agency Seeks $353,000 Fine From GE : Safety: EPA says cancer-causing chemicals were mishandled at company’s Anaheim plant.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is seeking $353,000 in fines from General Electric Corp. for allegedly mishandling dangerous, cancer-causing chemicals called polychlorinated biphenyls at its plant here.

The civil complaint, announced Tuesday, came after a 1 1/2-year EPA investigation triggered by employees who told The Times that unsafe conditions and chemical spills occurred regularly at the Anaheim plant for several years.

The fine is one of the highest that the EPA has sought under a special federal law regulating PCBs, which were widely used for insulation in electrical equipment before they were banned from U.S. production 24 years ago.

“We’ve had higher (proposed fines), but this is high. This is significant,” said EPA spokesman Bill Glenn in San Francisco. “These are serious violations and we feel they warrant serious penalties.”

GE spokesman Leonard Doviak, at corporate headquarters in Schenectady, N.Y., said Tuesday that the company will appeal the proposed fine by requesting a hearing. He declined to comment, however, on the allegations.

The EPA is one of three government agencies that has sought penalties against GE for its allegedly unsafe handling of hazardous materials in the past year.

The complaint, which was received Monday by General Electric Chairman John F. Welch Jr., was prompted by violations that federal inspectors said they found during two inspections in late 1991 and early 1992.

EPA officials said work areas were contaminated with the substances, which are considered particularly dangerous because they are easily absorbed through the skin and tend to collect in human tissues as well as the environment.

The GE Apparatus Service Center at 3601 E. La Palma Ave. handled about 2 million pounds of PCB waste per year, making it one of the largest facilities in the West for removing the material from transformers and other large electrical devices. The PCBs part of the Anaheim operation, however, has been scaled down by GE in the past year.

Steve Sandberg, a GE employee who triggered the federal investigation by complaining about safety procedures, said Tuesday that he was pleased by the EPA action. But he said the fines against the multibillion-dollar industrial giant should have been larger because the health of employees was at risk.

“That’s not a very big fine for jeopardizing people’s lives and the environment. But it’s $353,000 they will have to put out if they don’t appeal it,” Sandberg said. “It serves them right.”

Sandberg handled PCBs at the Anaheim site for 2 1/2 years, and he was work leader in its PCBs department until October, 1991, when he was removed from that job on doctor’s orders and put on medical disability. PCBs were found in Sandberg’s bloodstream, and he is still suffering recurring skin lesions that may have resulted from exposure to the chemicals, his medical records show.

Sandberg said coming forward to complain about the conditions while he was still employed by GE might have ruined his career, but “I just feel I may have saved myself and many other people.”

PCBs, considered a probable cause of cancer in humans, have been linked to various ailments in humans, including a recurring skin disease called chloracne and malignant melanoma, an often fatal skin disease.

Several employees, including Sandberg, told The Times in 1991 that they were often up to their elbows in PCB waste while working on transformers without proper protective clothing or respirators they later learned were required by federal law. They said the company never told them the chemicals were dangerous.

GE officials denied the workers’ allegations in interviews with The Times in January of last year. They said that they had complied with all environmental and worker-safety laws and that all workers were fully trained regarding the risks. They said the complaints were generated by some disgruntled employees.

But a few weeks later, the EPA suspended GE’s license to handle PCBs because of alleged violations found during inspections in November, 1991, and January, 1992.

The license was reinstated 17 days later, after the EPA concluded that the company had changed its storage procedures to comply with laws. The cleanup of contaminated areas, however, is not considered complete.

In its complaint, the EPA alleges that 39 pieces or groupings of PCB equipment were illegally stored outdoors in unprotected areas for up to 90 days. Of the proposed $353,000 fine, all but $10,0000 resulted from those alleged storage violations.

“If it’s out in the open like that, it’s exposed to the elements and the potential for contamination increases quite a bit,” Glenn said.

The rest of the fine relates to EPA tests that reportedly show contamination of soil, asphalt and heavy equipment used by workers at the plant.

The California Environmental Protection Agency is seeking another $64,510 in fines from GE’s Anaheim plant for nine similar violations of state laws, including improper training of employees.

GE was also fined $11,000 last year by Cal/OSHA for 50 violations of state worker-safety codes relating to PCBs and other hazardous materials.