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Letter from Dr. Aubrey J. Serewicz, Sept. 3, 2010:
On Monday August 30, I attempted to view the testing apparatus for H2S measuring at the Cortland School. I was summarily refused with the comment that such visits are not allowed on days when children are in school. Needless to say, I was there before the children arrived. (more…)
While Waste Management is jockeying for position and the School Board is pondering the bad hand it was dealt, the parents of Cortland are left in a quandary.
They need not be. Hydrogen Sulfide is not some new plague. The science of the damage it can wreck on people has been known for decades. The Federal EPA has spearheaded this study but Congress has allowed it to remain toothless. Just like with the West Nile Mosquito and the Lyme Deer Tick, parents will have to protect their children.
Every molecule of H2S eliminates one molecule of Copper within the child’s liver. There is no immunity to H2S, there is only reserve. The Copper in the liver helps to build white blood cells and to construct strong blood vessels. A normal 7 year old child with a healthy diet has a liver Copper concentration of 35 ug/g. With an average size liver of 110 g there should be a reserve of 3200 ug of Copper.
If we take a current case scenario from the Carnow, Conibear Report at Cortland School, the initial .080 ppm analysis can be shown to contain160 ug of H2S in 1470 liters of air. 1470 liters of air is also the volume of air that a 7 year old might breathe during a 7 hour school period. Since a 7 year child needs 400 ug of Copper per day this child could incur a deficit of 160 ug from its reserve. Unless this is compensated with increased copper, this reserve could fall below the 25 percentile level in 10 school days. A content of 15 ug/g in the liver could result and enter the critical range. From the actual reading in a classroom of .38 ppm and .62 ppm out of doors it is possible to gauge the potential range of the problem.
What happened to the children in the 2009-2010 school year? How could they now be protected? Copper concentration in the liver can be determined by a liver biopsy. Conveniently, though, hair analysis is an acceptable substitute and does reflect long term Copper status.
In fact, a recent study of adults living within .4 miles of this landfill was conducted by hair analysis. The landfill adults showed an average Copper concentration of 9.75 ug/g, while adults living at least 3 miles away tested at 29 ug. In addition, all of the landfill adults had critical cardiovascular problems. Veterinary Laboratories run hair analysis on valuable animals all the time. If a physician doesn’t know what to do with the hair analysis data a veterinarian can help.
Navarro and Wood (2003), Journal of Nutrition, determined that multi-mineral supplements had little short term effects with Copper. Fortunately, foods high in Copper are the best protection you can give your child. Consulting the USDA National Nutritional Database one will find these as highest in Copper. They are listed here in ug/oz: liver 2683/oz, cashews 633/oz, pacific oysters 452/oz, almond butter 257/oz, peanut butter 163/oz. Quaker Oat Granola 103/oz. How much does your child need? It depends on their current copper status and knowledge of the H2S burden from the landfill. Currently, the instrumentation that Waste Management is obliged to use to monitor their site activates at above 10 ppm.
One thing is certain. Don’t wait for help from your County or Village government.
EPA: Canister 15x more accurate than PID “Jerome”
Evaluation of Fugitive Emissions Using Ground-Based Optical Remote Sensing Technology
More Info: (From Dist428.org)
Tentative Date Set for ILPCB Public Hearing
On June 29th during a status conference Waste Management Inc of Illinois requested more time to prepare for the appeal case filed by a group of DeKalb citizens. Thus the public hearing on the case has been set tentatively for October 18th thru October 20th. The decision will then be handed down by the Illinois Pollution Control Board by December 16th.
The public hearing will be held at a DeKalb County location yet to be named by the ILPCB. During the hearing witnesses will be called and testimony given regarding the fundamental unfairness on the part of DeKalb County Board members and administration in their handling of the process of WMI application for expansion of the existing landfill. The appeal by the Stop the Mega-Dump citizens’ group states that members of the county board were biased, that ex parte contacts were made and citizens did not have ready access to WMI application.
“We want the citizens of DeKalb County to know that this expansion is not a done deal.” Dan Kenney, Chair of the citizens’ group said. “A large majority of the county citizens missed an opportunity to voice their concerns about the proposed landfill expansion at the 1st public hearing in March. In fact most citizens didn’t know about the expansion plan until after the hearing and many are under the false understanding that it is over because the county board voted yes 16 to 8 for the expansion. We want citizens to mark their calendars and plan to attend this hearing. It will be an opportunity for them to voice their frustration with the way the county went about this expansion process and to express their concerns about the planned expansion.”
The following is Dr. Aubrey J. Serewicz’s response to the Guest View published in the Daily Chronicle from Dale Hoekstra, Director of Operations at Waste Management
Waste Management and its Director have no shame! Dale Hoekstra, who in sworn testimony, says he has no knowledge of how hydrogen sulfide behaves and has no chemical background is lecturing concerned citizens as hysteric about measured data. Further, he belittles our intelligence to claim it is all over Dekalb County, but not at the landfill. The company’s statement shows a lack of integrity bordering on falsehood.
1. They testified H2S can be smelled at .001 ppm and it’s odd at 80 times that concentration no one at Cortland School noticed the odor.
2. Methane was not detected because it is many times lighter than air, rising like a helium balloon. H2S is heavier than air and hugs the ground, collecting at night until blown around.
3. The distance from the Cortland School playground to the fence line of the landfill is 1352 feet, ¼ mile. Not ½ mile or 1 mile as claimed in other Chronicle articles.
4. Air does neutralize H2S but it takes 14 hours. It only takes 3 minutes for a pocket of H2S to travel from the 110 foot peak of the fill down to Cortland School.
5. OSHA, the workplace limit, is the law for mature adults and its high limit is all that the company follows. NIOSH, its advisory agency, with lower limits and shorter time is ignored. The CDC with its limit at .030 and some 20 other states with this lower limit is also ignored. They ignore the progress of health science and claim concern of neighbors.
6. At lower concentration the obvious symptoms are lethargy and confusion. As a result in the month of February 2010, alone, 4 landfill workers in the US have been killed at landfills, run over by equipment. They were apparently confused.
Yes, there is fear, but it is Waste Management that fears. It fears real data and real science. The toxicity regulation of H2S was held back by the EPA from enforcement for 16 years until April 27, 2010. At the University of Illinois, Urbana, 3 Schools, covering 5 Departments, have published a report in 2007 showing that H2S is a Genotoxic material. They cite 48 other confirming papers. This is real science. Let us take heed before it is too late.
Dr. Aubrey J. Serewicz
