Georgia-Pacific Leaves Toxic Legacy

Wendy Steffensen is the North Sound Baykeeper with RE Sources. She is currently investigating opportunities with the city of Bellingham to reduce their purchase of products containing PBTs.

PBT? What does it mean? PBT is a fairly well-known acronym in circles of people who think environmental toxicology is a perfectly normal thing to talk about over lunch. PBT stands for Persistent Bioaccumulative Toxin. Okay—that’s what it stands for—what does it mean? PBTs are long-lived chemicals or metals that accumulate in animal tissue and that are toxic. Simple and straightforward; they are everywhere.

This article will highlight a few PBTs and what we can do about them. The specific PBTs that will be discussed are mercury (past legacy), flame retardants (present regulations) and polyvinyl chloride (future concern).

The most well-known PBT in Bellingham circles is mercury. Mercury is cause for fish advisories in Lake Whatcom and throughout the U.S. Mercury contaminates the Georgia-Pacific (G-P) site, G-P’s treatment lagoon, and sediments in Whatcom Waterway and the surrounding marine environment of Bellingham Bay.

The most contaminated of these sediments are buried, as the bulk of mercury contamination occurred early, from 1965 through 1970, and incoming Nooksack River sediment has covered it. In total, it is estimated that G-P released 10 to 13 tons of mercury into Bellingham Bay.

Mercury accumulates in fish in Bellingham Bay, Lake Whatcom and all other water bodies. Fish take up mercury from the water as it passes over their gills and from the food that they eat. When mercury is in the organic form of methylmercury, it bioaccumulates, i.e. bodies take it in and hold onto it at a much faster rate than they release it.

This holds true for the whole of the animal kingdom, including fish, birds, otters, seals, whales and people. The further up the food chain one eats, the more exposure there will be to toxic mercury. That is why, as a rule, small fish species have less mercury than larger fish-eating fish, and these will have less mercury than those who feed on them, including eagles, otters and humans.

Methylmercury is the most toxic form of mercury; it crosses the blood-brain barrier, which normally keeps many toxins out. Mercury in the brain disrupts the functioning of brain cells. There is also evidence that it has adverse effect on the circulatory system, as well.

At very low levels, mercury is especially harmful to developing fetuses and young children because their nervous systems are still developing. They are four or five times more sensitive to mercury than adults. Mercury exposure can cause permanent damage to the brain, with effects ranging from hearing and visual problems, to mental retardation and learning disability. According to The Washington Post (Feb. 6, 2004), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scientists said that new research indicated that 630,000 U.S. newborns had unsafe levels of mercury in their blood in 1999-2000.

Pregnant women, nursing mothers, women of child-bearing age and children under six are advised to monitor their intake of fish; eating less than six ounces of fish per week and avoiding long-lived, large fish that routinely have greater concentrations of mercury, such as shark and swordfish. The Whatcom County Department of Health has issued an advisory stating that women of child-bearing age and children under six should not eat smallmouth bass and should limit their consumption of yellow perch from Lake Whatcom.

Older women and men are not immune from the effects of mercury. Adults who have exposure to too much methylmercury also experience effects on their central nervous system. Symptoms may include trembling, numbness or tingling, sometimes long after the exposure has already occurred. At higher exposures, walking could be affected, as well as vision, speech and hearing. In sufficient quantities, methylmercury can be fatal.

In wildlife, methylmercury also impairs the ability of animals to flourish. There is evidence of impaired reproduction, growth, and development, as well as behavioral abnormalities. Behavioral or neurologic problems in predators that rely on speed and coordination to obtain food can be especially detrimental.

Monitoring at the G-P site and surroundings has shown that mercury is present in the sediments, in the upland portion of the mill site and in the groundwater under the mill site. Some of these levels exceed what is allowed under regulation and must be “cleaned up,” either capped, removed or contained in some way. The greatest exposures to G-P’s mercury occurred in the late 1960s and 1970s. The worst of the damage has been done.

We must now determine how much mercury can be left in our waterway, the marine sediments and the land. We are now left to figure out whether capping or removal or “natural recovery,” i.e. natural burial, is needed and where it is needed. We’re left to decide what level of contamination in the uplands should remain. Should we clean to residential, commercial or industrial levels?

These questions are hard questions—there are no easy answers. Cleanup costs money and regulations require cleanups only to a level deemed “safe.”

Asking these questions can also leave us feeling defeated because in their asking, we must acknowledge that the bay is contaminated and we can’t change what has been done. Because mercury is a persistent bioaccumulative toxin, we are left with it in our Bellingham Bay as a legacy toxin and as a reminder not to let the same happen again.

As people became aware of the very real danger posed by PBTs and chemicals in general, regulations slowly started to become stricter, starting with the Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) providing permits and limits on pollution. In 2000, Ecology went a step further at the direction of the Legislature. Ecology issued a Washington PBT Strategy, which called for the evaluation and listing of PBTs and the development of specific chemical action plans.

In 2003, the chemical action plan for mercury was released. It detailed steps that would be needed to promote safer disposal of mercury-containing items, replacement of mercury-containing items with alternatives, and in future years, reduction of mercury pollution in manufacturing and mining operations.

In 2004, the class of flame retardants known as penta-brominated diphenyl ethers or PBDEs were reviewed and a draft Ecology chemical action plan was issued. The plan calls for a review of recycling of PBDE-containing items, additional monitoring of PBDE in the environment, and the prohibition of the manufacture, sale and distribution of new products containing PBDEs. Final approval of the plan awaits Ecology’s final issuance and approval by the legislature.

PBDEs are used in a variety of products from upholstered couches, drapes and blinds to the housings of stereos and computers. PBDEs are not used in clothing, and some manufacturers have already replaced them with alternative retardants. There are three major formulations of PBDEs. They are known as penta, octa and deca denoting how many bromines they have on their chemical structure. Penta and octa are more toxic than deca and Ecology has asked the legislature to phase them out in 2006. Deca is less toxic, but has been shown to breakdown to the more toxic penta and octa forms; Ecology is requesting its phase-out in 2008.

PBDEs actually leach or are released from products. People are exposed primarily through food and dust. In infants, exposures occur through breast milk and dust. PBDEs accumulate in fat, breast milk and blood. The amount of PBDEs in human breast milk has been rapidly increasing along with the use and manufacture of PBDEs. Most PBDE production and use is in North America. Not surprisingly, breast milk from North American women contains 10 to 100 times that found in European or Asian women.

Evidence of toxicity comes mostly from animal studies. These have shown neural toxicity with impairments of memory and learning and endocrine disruption with effects on the thyroid and reproductive system. There is evidence that the high exposure levels of PBDEs in humans are approaching comparable levels in animal studies where toxicity was evident.

Interestingly, the behavior of PBDEs is similar to that of the well-known PCBs (polychorinated biphenyls). They are similar in chemical structure, accumulate in fat and move around the globe similarly; both have been found accumulating in the fat of Arctic animals, being deposited in the Arctic through the atmosphere and food chain transfers.

Polyvinyl chloride (PVC) is everywhere and we take its safety and use for granted. There is mounting evidence that the manufacture and incineration of PVC can release toxic compounds, including dioxin, the most potent carcinogen known. Discarding PVC in landfills can release plasticizer compounds called phthalates (pronounced “tha-late”), which are used to make PVC flexible.

Phthalates are considered carcinogenic and a reproductive toxin. Phthalates are also found as components in food packaging and in hospital equipment, such as IV bags. Regulatory agencies do not believe that the release of phthalates into food or water is cause for concern. Other groups and municipalities, however, are taking a more precautionary and proactive approach.

San Francisco and New York state have banned the use of PVC pipe. Some manufacturers, such as The Body Shop, Mattel and Honda, have begun using alternatives to PVC. Additionally, the group, “Health Care Without Harm” a coalition of health care institutions and concerned groups and citizens, is working to highlight the problems of phthalates in hospitals, and to begin their phase out and replacement with alternatives.

Right about now, as you are reading this article, you are saying to yourself things like, “Everything is toxic” and “How am I supposed to live my life?” As we go along, it seems that we should just try to keep informed and make the best choices we can.

Often times, the choices appear to be made for us. We often don’t know how our homes are constructed, or that there are flame retardants embedded in our furniture and computers. Without specific knowledge about the chemicals in products and possible alternatives, individual consumers often have a hard time purchasing in accordance with their desires.

Additionally, products that contain PBTs are often purchased in bulk or used primarily by large buyers, such as hospitals, schools or municipalities.

The regulation of PBTs may eventually move them out of the environment. A faster approach may be to move PBT-containing products out of the market! We can do that with our individual purchasing power, and we can also do that through influencing large buyers of products. Health Care Without Harm is working to influence hospitals.

In a similar manner, some municipalities are influencing manufacturers through their own purchasing resolutions. Seattle, for instance, has passed a purchasing resolution designed to reduce their purchase of products with PBTs, such as mercury, lead, cadmium, PVC, pentachlorophenol (used in treatment of telephone poles) and PCBs. The passage of purchasing resolutions in your hospital, school or municipality can only help to eliminate PBTs.

PBTs are everywhere. We can only hope to reduce our exposure, our children’s exposure and the exposure of wildlife. We can do that be being mindful and by learning from the legacy of Bellingham Bay. We should work to limit toxic pollution as soon as we become aware of it. §

•Department of Ecology: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/eap/#pbt.

•Washington Toxics Coalition: http://www.watoxics.org.

•Health Care Without Harm: http://www.noharm.org.