Price Pfister and Lead Rules

California Atty. Gen. Dan Lungren is being unjustly accused by the vice president of Price Pfister as responsible for the layoff of 550 workers and the shifting of jobs to Mexico (“Price Pfister Makes Cuts to Meet State Rules,” Sept. 19; “Pacoima Losing Jobs as Employer Shifts to Mexico,” Oct. 1).

The case in question was a challenge by the attorney general to Price Pfister’s water faucet manufacturing process utilizing extremely high levels of lead that then leached into the drinking water. Price Pfister Vice President Sam Wheeler claimed, “Due to the wonderful Proposition 65 lawsuit, we had to get out of that [foundry] business.”

The charge is false. As The Times article itself indicates, Price Pfister’s new, environmentally safe method of manufacturing lead-free faucets is still occurring at their Pacoima facility. Only final assembly of faucets, which was not changed by the lawsuit, will occur in Mexico. Price Pfister is simply scapegoating environmental compliance laws to justify taking jobs out of the country.

Moreover, in a brief filed by Price Pfister’s attorneys before the California Supreme Court--a body to whom we must assume they would be truthful--the company told the court that its new lead-free manufacturing process was not even the result of the attorney general’s lawsuit. Instead, it was due to a new voluntary industrywide standard.

Either Price Pfister is misrepresenting the facts to the Supreme Court or to the Los Angeles Times.

Under the terms of the settlement, by the year 2000 faucets manufactured by Price Pfister and other companies will no longer have hazardous levels of lead. In the interim, prominent warnings on their products that do contain significant amounts of lead will be required. Consumers will be able to make an informed choice: between “leaded” and “unleaded” faucets. This is a clear victory for public health, with no adverse economic impact, notwithstanding Price Pfister’s “green bashing.”

AL MEYERHOFF

San Francisco

Meyerhoff is senior attorney, Natural Resources Defense Council