Air Pollution Worries Parents

Communities With Factories Frustrated, Lack Health Research On Air

(AP) 
In the Ohio River Valley where Wittberg lives, nine neighborhoods in and around Marietta and Wood County, W.Va., rank among the worst 100 nationally for health risks from factory emissions.

There are more than 20 industrial plants along or near the Ohio River in those two counties. The plants regularly spew tens of thousands of pounds of manganese, chromium, sulfuric acid, and formaldehyde.

"It's a toxic soup of contaminants because of all the different facilities in the area," said Michelle Colledge, an environmental health scientist with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The river corridor also is a major contributor to factory air pollution in West Virginia, which has the highest health risk per person of any state. Indiana ranks second in per capita health risk, followed by Ohio, Pennsylvania, Iowa and Alabama.

Residents around Marietta, with the help of Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, petitioned the government several years ago to study the health impact of the region's air.

Tina Trombley, president of Recover, a local environmental group, said the community wanted to find out for sure if the high incidence of asthma and several types of cancer are the result of air pollution.

The study found arsenic and manganese in the air consistently exceeded levels that scientists believe could harm health, but provided no definitive link to disease. Further monitoring at specific sites was ordered.

"We need to do a full-fledged study and we're hoping that's what they will be able to do for us," Trombley said.

The initial federal study focused on an industrial complex south of Marietta that includes four major facilities. The largest, the Eramet Marietta metal refinery, released more than 550,000 pounds of manganese compounds in 2000, and more than 25,000 pounds of chromium compounds. Another facility, Eveready Battery, releases more than 16,000 pounds of manganese compounds a year.

Jeff McKinney, environmental manager at Eramet, said neither the study nor any other data suggest that "emissions from area industry have adversely impacted the health of residents. Moreover, we have not seen manganese exposure-related neurological effects in our long term employees."

For Colledge and Wittberg, the area offers a unique opportunity to determine conclusively how long-term exposure to manganese dust affects humans, particularly children.

The pilot study Wittberg participated in several years ago included an EPA researcher and a University of Quebec scientist. They measured differences between children in Marietta and those in Athens, a similar-sized Ohio town 45 miles away.

They gave a battery of 13 tests to fourth-graders in both cities, who had been matched for age, sex and parental education. The tests measured such things as educational proficiency, balance, visual contrast sensitivity and short-term memory.

"The Marietta kids did worse on almost everything," Wittberg said.

The implications are potentially far-reaching if the Marietta children's IQ scores turn out to be 10 to 15 points lower because of the manganese exposure, he said.

"Brilliant kids are now simply smart; smart kids are average and average kids are not average any more," Wittberg said. "I believe it is the whole lives of the kids that are affected. I don't think that the damage can be undone."