Research on dioxin is offered

[Neil Tangri <ntangri@essential.org>]

Research on dioxin is offered

   Federal official listens to Parchester residents' call for dioxin
testing and vows to investigate the matter

 By Shawn Masten
 TIMES STAFF WRITER


 RICHMOND -- Residents of neighborhoods in the path of Richmond industry
long have wondered why so many people in the area have been ill. Working
with Communities for a Better
Environment, they have been organized wo demand action.

 At their request, the federal government may try to help them find the
answers.

 About 10 Parchester Village residents at a meeting Wednesday night
demanded that the government test them and their neighbors for dioxin,
 a carcinogen and byproduct of oil refining. A similar test was
conducted in a badly polluted Louisiana town.

 After hearing resident after resident recount the untimely cancer
deaths of family members and the unusual rate of respiratory problems
and
 other illnesses, a government toxic-substance official vowed to launch
an investigation but stopped short of promising a dioxin test.

 "Everybody's sick. Everybody's dying," said longtime Parchester
resident Ethel Dotson. "All this illness and stuff has been going on for
years.
 People have been having problems. We want to know why."

 Compounding the residents' fear are recent reports that a December test
found high levels of dioxin in 12 of 28 residents of Mossville, La., a
 mostly black community in the shadow of petrochemical and vinyl
factories.

 Bill Nelson, senior regional director of the Agency for Toxic
Substances Disease Registry in San Francisco, said it's obvious the
Richmond
 residents have health problems that need to be addressed. "There's been
explosions and releases," said Nelson, whose agency is a branch of
 the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "We can provide some
assistance, but it may not necessarily be dioxin testing."

 Parchester lies in the path of Chevron's Richmond refinery, which had
an explosion in March and a chemical release in June.

 Nelson said the Parchester investigation could take up to a month and
is likely to involve the Contra Costa Health Services Department, the
 state Health Department and the federal Environmental Protection
Agency.

 Research on the number of cancer deaths in Parchester will be compiled,
data on the level of dioxin in the area will be collected and soil and
 ground water will be tested, he said.

 The county and the state Health Department have conducted a number of
environmental studies and risk assessments in the area over the past
 10 years. Although the results haven't identified a connection between
illness and industry that doesn't mean the residents are safe, said
 Wendel Brunner, director of county public health services.

 But it will have to be determined whether dioxin testing is the best
solution, Brunner said.

 "What I think we need to do is work with everybody to clean up the
environment and minimize these kinds of accidental releases and fires
that
 really have an impact on the communities," he said.

 Residents say otherwise.

 "We deserve to be tested," said Eddrick Osborne, president of the
Parchester Neighborhood Council, which represents 398 households. "We
 need to know what level of dioxin we've been exposed to. We want to
make sure that the air we breathe, the water we drink and the vegetables

 we grow in our back yards are safe.

 They vowed to continue their efforts.

 "We're demanding that they do the test immediately," Dotson said.
"We'll pressure them until we get what we want."

 Industry officials contend that the residents' fears are unfounded.

 "I hope these folks aren't being overly concerned," Chevron spokesman
Dean O'Hara said Wednesday. "I hope that with more factual
 information they might be at least comfortable in their proximity to
us."

 Regional and federal authorities have debated over the primary sources
of dioxin pollution in the Bay Area. Environmentalists argue that
 industry is to blame, while water and air pollution authorities contend
that fireplace smoke, diesel buses, construction equipment and cars are
 the culprits.

 Dotson said the Mossville test was conducted after years of pressure
from community activists and environmentalists. It may have been the
first
 of its kind in the country since Nelson said he knew of no other human
dioxin testing.

 The test is relatively new, extremely complicated and very expensive,
he said. The CDC in Atlanta has one of the few laboratories equipped to
 do it, Nelson said.

 The Mossville test has prompted Louisiana Gov. Mike Foster to organize
a multi-agency task force to identify the origins of the dioxin. There
 are reportedly 137 potential sources. These include industries,
municipalities, small businesses and farms.

 "I don't think as African-Americans we are asking the questions enough
as to why are these dioxins and these plants in our communities," said
 Lavonne DeJean, a West Contra Costa School District teacher who
attended the meeting. "People of color need to ask for accountability
and
 protection."

 Shawn Masten covers Richmond. Reach her at 510-262-2725 or e-mail
smasten@cctimes.com.





                                          ©1999 Contra Costa Newspapers,
Inc.


--

Neil TANGRI