Document 6bb4npdrEK2KvXkO65mDOyGg1

iy, December 22, 1987 The Washington Post THE CHEMICAL CORRIDOR fa c->-]rp">7/<-A 37 fie W 5 <o cn Oy -nI Kay Gaudet, left, became concerned when sister Peggy Hoffman and nine other women she knew had miscarriages. Jobs and Illness in Petrochemical Corridor In Louisiana, Pollution Is Familiar but Pattern of Disease Is New By David Maraniss and Michael Weisskopf WuNflgtoo post Stiff Writer* ST. GABRIEL, La.--Kay Gaudet, the village pharmacist, started keeping her list one year ago. The first name on it was Peggy, her younger sister. The next nine were friends and neighbors. All had been pregnant about the same time, but there were no babies to show for it, only the private agony of miscarriage. Gaudet was concerned and curious. Was it coincidence? How many other women in St, Gabriel, population 2,100, had suffered similar fates? Gaudet spread the word at her drug store, a? the Catholic church where she prayed each day and up and down the oak-lined river roads. Anyone who's had a miscarriage, tell Kay. Week by week, the list grew: Alice, Angie, Belin da, Charlotte, Dayna, Dell, Elizabeth, Emma, Irma, Karen, Matlin, Pam, Rhonda, Sandy, Sherri, Tammy, Terri, Tina, Tyra, Vera. Today, the names total 63. St. Gabriel lies along an 85-mile industrial corri dor where about one-fifth of America's petrochem icals are produced. It begins in Baton Rouge, with the giant tinkertoy maze of pipes, stacks and catcrackers in the shadows of Huey Long's skyscraper Capitol building, and follows the Mississippi River down to the southeastern rim of New Orleans. The air, ground and water along this corridor are so full of carcinogens, mutagens and emoryotOAins that an environmental health specialist defined living here as "a massive human experiment," the state attorney general called the pollution "a modern form of bar- See LOUISIANA, AiO, Coll s " 77ie industry tomlimtt gtU man I than its than 9/ criticism," an ! J industry spokesman sold. "Hv /ref j | that in th>t vn ire haw an ii> J empltjry cniirOnminial ft<9f(L" 4a Photos by Dayna Smith --Ths Washington Pest Residents Tally dancer Cases, Miscarriages , IfluRU McUb*, right, ills Bates Rrega yank with WUUa FonUacL MiUii *erkd at Capetymcr *4 Chamteal Carp, In baekgrtn^ and *471 tba wl and *41*4 an th* prise *f jaba^. Louisiana. rvAi nsm,* and a chemical union leader now :en to it is 'the national sacrifice n*.a Aa it rolls south, the Mississippi Is an desa progression of wide loops. Seen' >m (he sky, they resemble .colossal que*; n marks--rightside up and upside wn--each quiukil turn lined with pe(themical plants, refineries and toxic n(e dumps, and dotted at bottom or top 1 town. Question marks loom large In iny of these towns, not just in the poetic eep of the river but tn the We-ind-deith ncerns of the people. Jo PUqueroine, they wonder why Tiger e Guteita and six other people came down (h lung, brain or kidney cancer on one ialt span of Delacroix Street. Their pariah r county), Iberville, ia one of 10 in the utheastern one-third "of Louisiana that ik m the top 10 percent of lung-cancer ache nationwide, and while th* percent, e of cigarette amokers here is high, pubhealth specialists think there might be >re to it. tiger Joe, who died of lung can- r three years ago, never imoked. In Chalmetlc, Elda Trapini would tike to ow why the street she lives on, Jacobs rive, became known as `Cancer Alley* th IS cancer victims in two blocks, and iy, a half-mile away on Deeomtne Street. t sister and nephew were among icven ncer victims on one btock. On Coco Road m Gelsmar, whose yelvish-green industrial plume can be seen ) miles sway, they ask why cats and dogs ve lost their hair, why aluminum screens soon after they are installed and why jn-age and middle-age men are dying of Iney and testicular cancer. In the old Company town of Norco, natalist Milton Cambre puzzles over (he dispearanee of Spanish more from (he live it stands and crawfish from the ponds, /idles, marshes and canals. And in' $L Gabriel, they want to know why there are ao many names on Kay Gau- chemieils. such as vinyl chloride, and their det's list. possible effects, and it just clicked. I had to' Her figures mean that one of every three raise the question, so l did,' My mom is al pregnancies there since 1943 has ended in ways saying to me, 'Kay, shut up, didn't you fetal death, more than double the Louisiana ever see that Silkwood movie? If you're not average. Aj the numbers grew, Gaudet and worried about yourself, what about your many others here began to think what was kidsF And (say that's exactly what I'm,wor once unthinkable; Perhaps the local chem ried about--my kids.* ical plants--19 of them within five miles of V'Gaudet and her husband, Chris, have two town, eight more across the nver m Plaque- healthy little girls. The oldest, Christine, 9, mine--had something to do with it. Nearly has watched her mother so carefully over 400 million pounds of toxic pollutants ire the'past year that she knows the Issues, released into Uie atmosphere here each sometimes pretending she is a television re year, .techidtel5<tt,O0OHPDubdi. of vinyl, porter; with imaginary microphone in hand, chloride* a^ipgredlentmorpta*tlc that 'is a' ahe asks; Why are all these babies dying? carcteogen fad xuspectad ymbryotuin. N Thar question is being explored by the `Something Wat Vary Wrong* - Tutane School of Environmental Health, but officials there do not expeet'to aolve the This hypothesis was not easily posed in St. GabrieL For decades, the town's eco nomic' health,his been tied to the chemical sod petroleum refinery companies lured to .Louisiana afthr Wcx^d w*r II. providing half of its manufacturingIncome, Some huv mystery. A feWStud*e* dune In the United States, Canada and England show an abnor mally high rate of apontaneoua abortions and birth defects among women whose hua* bands -work near vutf^chiofid* who live `dbwudKfU'fium -ribyl-chJortde ` polj bands of the miscarrying women worked in those plants, which employ one of every five Laborers in the state. Gaudet grew up in tlon plants. But as Inline scientist Lu Amt White told the 5L Gabriel women at meeting in s company village up at the huge Exxon re-' late August: 'It's very possible you may finery in Baton Rouge, where her father never get a definitive answer.* still operates the pipes, from birth, she was Fred Loy and Richard Kreiner of the accustomed to the sights and smells of Louisiana Chemical Association say the pau heavy industry. city of definitive scientific evidence makes But to be familiar, she decided, is not to ^them feel as if they are "battling ghosts* in be immune. responding to charges against the industry. 'I'm not trying to be a heli-raiaer or a goody-goody, 1 just think we have a situa tion that needs answering.* said Gsudet, 37, whose pharmacy just past the stoplight Oa Rtc. 74 has become a clearinghouse and meeting place. 'When I first started with the list, some people wanted me to say nght away that the chemicals were at fault. But I didn't want to say anything that I didn't know to Once, when asked about the St, Gabriel sit uation, Loy said: "Before w* cart conclude anything, the state has to find out if there ia even a problem, how bad it is and what is causing it____ They uy the chemKrtl plants are causing the miscarriages, but they have no proof. I could uy they screw too much and that's the cause of the mis carriages. But then I would have no way to prove that.* be true. Then last summer, it started to get *}tli human nature to want to blame out of control When four women miscar something, whether it's Gpd or industry or ried in eight days. I realized that something your body," Kreiner said. 'The industry was very wrong here. 1 started studying the sometimes gets more than its share of crit icism. We feel that In this area we have an exemplary environmental record ,... We` shipping lanes. Petrochemicals, made with petroleum provided by refineries and with alt, sulfur and water provided by nature, followed easily. By the 1970s, the Industrial corridor wit known as Amerire'a Ruhr, producing 60 percent of the nation's vinyl chloride, 60 percent of the nitrogen fertilisers end 24 percent of the chlorine. Today, the river b lined with 136 petrochemical plants and seven oil refineries, nearly,one for every half mile of the Mississippi. ' lobs, Monty nd Pollution The jobs and' money, they brought to 10 river parishes transformed one of the poor est, slowest-growing sections Of Louinun* Into communities of brick houses and shop ping centers. But they sbo brought pollution. The nar'row corridor sbsorbs more toxic substances annually than do moat entire states; earcinogens such as benzene, carbon tetrachloride end ethylene dichloride; experimental mu tagens or fetal poisons such as toluene, eth ylene oxide and chloroform. Coast Guard divers retrieving sediment samples from 1 bayou In 1979 suffered second-degree burns on their hands, St. Gabriel Gcitmar tnd plaquemine alone--10 square pules--eia pollute the air with aa much as 25 million pounds per year of there chemicals and dump 75 milnon pounds of industrial wastes into the Miriia* lippi, according to studies. Another 3.5 mil lion tons of toxic dehris--more than 1 per cent of the nation's total--is buried, dumped In landfills sod stored in surface ponds or injected through underground metal pipes deep into the earth. Toxic fumes from a waste site near the Devil's Swamp section of Baton Rouge caused nausea, headaches tnd vomiting in workers two blocks away during a cleanup effort last month. Despite its longterm dilution In the en vironment, the corridor pollution leaves telltale tracks. In the 1970s, the Environ mental ProtedWAgency found 66 pollot- ants m New Ortednk drinking water and 3Ji lethal chemicals InTlnr air of Ptequemicww The-groundwater off 23 industrial sitre^ along the river Isteatyrated with toxic mn-} terials, burrowing toward, the drinking-wig* ter aquifere of communities,,served by wellv' - Motorists driving down!, the corridas j main highway ire reminded in hyperfaolq the ultimate chemical disaster,"Stops! on the Bayou?* rends a billboard hoisted by, workers on-etriktffcma one ^.tbe^etr^ chemical plants*/ ^ , * ,. ,,| Such a region plght.be expected, tp re-, (mhle a.congested., sooty notefa .oa .the. Rust Belt. Not the chemical corridor, with: its neat neighborhoods and forests drshiny pipes. Pollution registers quietly hgre-^ta*1 * the taste of New Orleans water, which,' Cajun dMaqisnera complaj^can spqiT , rything!ltp<b,'bqurooa'U'red bfan* fad * rice; te tie btectotwd lenvps of fruit treed,* in the acrid odor and white particulate WP out from the Murphy Od Refinery to ChaP mette.'ln the erecuitioa of the town oP Good Hope. for^O years, residents there' including Charles and Barbara Robtcheaux,* kept their soitcuen peeked (a flea monthly firea at a local refinery. "l "We always kept our valuables m a ref* l place where we route grab them at a m*1 merit's notice,' recalled Chutes Rot*! cheaux, 54. The 100 families of Good Hope, devised a warning system, knocking at each Others doors to rouse neighbors, often kt the middle of the night. They would meet St the Presbyterian church where they kept their cars facing the river--the path of el cape. i. The refinery bought out the Robkhtiui - family and other residents in the tarty 1990a, and today Good Hope consist* of few abandoned structures and weeds. From whole communities, the diwupttes A devolves to the tedivtdml trauma of Jeuf Mings, an -nsfaputic from plaquemtee, felted from ber riding Uwp mower Am An- as LOUISIANA, All Col 1 n tates, pockets of poor blacks and Areduns who fished, hunted and tripped in the bay ous and settled on streets named for their ttroehtakil plant* dot Ote skrtlre behind Lreiitau'i sk/wapor iUU wyltet te Batre Rougt Warning sign was puled test awth te IteviTi Swamp, vbN dasd trass Indicate pollution Wvl Tht 1970 dean AirAd rtquir& th* EM to rtgulolt hajcrdousoirpollutant*, 7Ti4 ogwef ha tminion tlanrfardifor ttvtn ruiManett, but they don 1 indudo many ofth* COtridar't dtadlUti cAemittf* V4* hM" ' Bsrbsrs sad CharUi gobicheaux urv*y sbsadwed airaat wker* (hay and (hair Beigbberi w Uv*4. Prosperity, Illness and a Common Thread of Pollution LOUISIANA, fpHM AlO It's Just in every block of this mechanic for seven years in one of Story said. "W have not been able y I*fo< by a bluish cloud of chlorine, she laid, wit released with* Otrt Wiming by the Dow Chemical small town* of 10,000 people, said Gulotta, a City councilman. "Every where you turn, you find some body's get cancer." plant 300 yards from her backyard. Hospitalized for three weeks with moratory ailments. B4hngs, 60, aid, t respect chlorine just like i tXShe has heard some experts pin the cancers on smoking, but Gulotta knows that Tiger Joe never smoked. She also knows that since respect i fun.* Dow Chemical opened in the 1969s, Her thick-skinned defense is it and other companies followed, the rituat in the chemical corridor, lightning hugs she caught u a little where pollution is woven into Ufe girl in PlaQuemine have disap patterns much the way noUe be peared, So have the dragonflies and comes pan of communities In the the river shrimp, once plentiful path of jetliners. But the threat of The pecan trees In her backyard catastrophic disease has turned bore deformed nuts this year. these river settlements into a cor "It haa helped the economy," Gu- ridor of fear, lotta said, "But if it's going to kill us Kay Caudel's list of miscarriages all, what good is itf !'only the blast manifeststion of The Question echoes throughout that fear. More detailed, scientific the corridor, especially in places lists document cancer death rates such as Geitmer, a predominantly that grew ai the chemical corridor black town across the river from the Geismer plants, BASF Corp* and his Story prompts Union leaders to Question some companies' com mitment to health and safety, inside and outside of their gate*. Before BASF locked out Cudd and other striking workers in June 1964, he handled equipment doused in toxic chemicals, Including cancer-causing formaldehyde, Cudd said in an In terview ut Ut* October. "They would send us out to pul) a valve, and it would be full of chem icals." he recalled. "Impossible to do It without getting it on us. It was quite frequent that we'd have dwmicsls on our clothes and hands." Two of Cudd's coworkers devel oped testicular cancer in recent years. Another has stomich cancer. A lourih killed himted after sus pecting that he hid developed s to determine any Workplace rela tionship," The centra! Issue facing Geismer a4 the tMir* eanidor 11 how to co exist with the plant*. No on* is rec ommending the shutdown of com panies SO vital to Louisiana's for* tunes. Th* most common prescrip tion Is regulation. But within Louisiana's traditional political culture, the environment has only recently received atten tion, There are no fulltime environ mental lobbyists in Baton Rouge, while the chemical association has five and the association of business and industry has 10 more. The state Department of Environmental Quality is not funded by the legis lature, relying solely on fines, per mit fees and federal grants. Every plant Is required by State law (q obtain permits for water snd grew. By the bte 1970s. the area had enjoyed and endured IS to 20 years of industrialisation, the esti mated latency period for carcino gens. _ .'Statistics compiled by the Nation- , a! Cancer Institute show that the state hai the nation's highest lung Cancer mortality rate for white males, 25 percent higher than the national average during the 1970s, Six river parishes ranked among Ptaquemlne and next to St. Gabriel. brain tumor. In September, doctors Miny families have been living told Cudd, 45, that he had kidney then since their slave ancestors re cancer and had three to six months ceived land after (he Civil War, land to live. He died Nov. 7. that once fed them. Now, they let BASF general manager Les Sto the earth be fallow and bod their i ry said (he company requires pro Well water. The fear began six tective clothing for workers han years ago with the overnight death dling chemicals and that any expo Of 30 cows grazing nearby, local sure to chemicals by Cudd was `in leader Amos Favorite said. I violation of our procedure." As for Neal Cudd was a maintenance | health problems of BASF employes. air emissions. But the legislature exempted air polluters built before 1970. and parts of half of the state's plants qualify. Where permits are required, critics say, the state is too generous in setting limits and too lenient in enforcing them. Companies frequently exceed their permits without penalty. . There wet* 76 'accidental re leases' and six Spills by 14 of th* 19 plants in the Geismer-St, Gabriel the top 10 percent of U-S. counties area in the first nine months of for such deaths, t\d New Orleans, 1986. totaling 47,800 pounds and in a 197-4-78 survey of nine other 4,100 gallons of sir pollutants, ac L_.tumor registries, scored 45 percent higher than average. cording to a Sierra Club study. Among the 14 offenders, two were Mortality rates have increased fined. 2.5 percent annually since 1960. and 80 Of every 100,000 white Industry In Conrnm<nt ftuies died of the disease ut the !970i compared to 52 per 1OO.000 from 1950 to 1959. At least one river parish ranks among the top 5 percent nationwide of deaths caused by cancer of the lung, stom ach, gall bladder, intestine, liver, pancreas, bladder, thyroid, eso phagus and skin. The Industry, meanwhile, h*S been able to retain its tax breaks (10-year property tax exemptions foe new or expanding manufactur ers) by controlling state board* and local Councils that make such dec* iona, In Plaquemine, for instance, Eiu Lee Gulotta is the only one of six City Council members who does not work for t chemical company. Link to Cancer Uncertain At Louisiana State University, Pollution's rote in the corridor's cancer profile is open to debate, Studies by Dr. Manse 5. Gottlieb of the Tulanc University School of Medicine showed that people who drink water from the Mississippi have `'significantly higher- rates of rectal cancer than consumers Of well water and that residents within one mile of Urge petrochemical plants have a 4.5 times higher 'chance of getting lung cancer than those living 1 to 3 miles away. ; Industry officials tay the studies are flawed because they are based on desth certificates that often con tain erroneous data. Dr. Walter Huton. associate medical director cl Ethyl Corp, in Baton Rouge, said that while extreme chemical expocures might lead to cancer and oth er serious diseases, he does not be lieve the levels here are h>gh enough to have "an adverse effect On health." Out at the Ochsner Clinic in New Orleans. Dr. Velma Campbell said A CHEMICAL GLOSSARY BENZENE: A dear. fUmmabU Uqu*d used as s solvent In th* rubber and plastics industries end si a Chemical intermediate, or building Mock. In th* 1 Synthesis of phaimaceutiCats end detergents. High exposure to benzene c*n depress th* central nervous system, causing headaches, nausea and loss Of muscular coordination. Benzene Is a recogntod human carcinogen that causes leukemia and has bean iikU to apUimC anemiS, in *mcn tne ecus lit the bon* marrow <r destroyed CARBON TETRACHLORIDE: A nonflammable, colorless liquid used in fir* eitmguithers and m industry as a solvent for oils, waxes and resins. The chemical can depress the central nervous system and cause Nv*r Dr, Paul Tempkt, chairman of the environmental policies department, uid his staff has never received funding to study chemical pollutants along the comdor because "it hasn't been politically favonbk to do so." After Gottlkb'a Studies Sug gesting a link between cancer* and chemkit pollution, her funding dried up. Louisiana Attorney General Wil liam J. Guste, Jr. blames the EPA for poor regulation, crititixmg the agency for ~unwillingne*4 or inabil ity' to set limits on toxic air con taminants and for failure to inves tigate the health effects of heavy chemical (ill sut In the state. The Clean Air Act of 1970 re quires the EPA to regulate hanrdOuS air pollutants. Seventeen year* later, th* agency has emission startda^dsfor *v4S ubxMnucs, and 4 fist does not Include many of the corridor's deadliest chemicals. An EPA Spokesman said Setting stan dards for the contaminants is `ex traordinarily expenaive and time- the studies suggest a `positive cor relation" between the high cancer rates and pollution. Many physi cians are concerned about 'ongoing exposure .,, ta tow levels of can and kidney damage by killing cells and Interfering with the organs' normal (unctions There is danger lor those eipesed to carbon tetrachloride if they also consume alcohol, which elicits a particularly potent reaction $qme studies with animals have shown carbon ttUachlonde to be Carcinogemc- consuming." One of Guste'* assistants, envi ronmental Specialist Willie Fon tenot, has spent SO much time in vestigating reports of spills that he cer-causing products simply be cause we know that exposure to carcinogens at any level raises the risk,* she uld. Campbell said corridor residents have been subjected to a `massive CHLOROrOAM: Once the chosen anesthetic of many hospitals, th* colorless, volatile liquid 1$ now used as a solvent in UCsvtn and plasties Chloroform depresses the central nervous system and chronic eiposur* can lead to liver and kidney damage Some studies with animals have shown it to be carcinogenic. Chloroform sometimes appears in public water supplies SS S byproduct of chlorination, but knows where he 1* along the cor ridor entirely by amelL "We must be approaching the carbon-process ing plant," he will say, Sticking his nose out the ear window for a sniff. During th* gubernatorial primary human experiment* in which *large government standards regulate acceptable levels. this fall, several candidates, includ Quantities of a wide variety of Sub ing governor-elect Buddy Roemcr. stances Have been discharged into the air and water. Now we are landing back and seeing what the Outcome will be.* The Question in St. Gabriel and some neighboring towns is not what, but how bad, the Outcome will be. In Plaquemme, Etta Lee CulotU started assessing the damage three years ago Her husband. Tiger Joe, healthy all his life, died suddenly of lung cancer, and Etta Lee surveyed other households on her three-block street. Srven >!. /our of dim fatal. Then, she c.invASjed`wilhin a five-block radius. Forty i>io/e can- ETHYLENE OXIDE: A chemically reectnr* gas used as a sterilising agent for surgical instruments and in tht production of polyester resins, antifreet* and other things. Acute exposure to ethylene oxide can load to respiratory irritation, slun or eye irritation. Some studies with animals have shown it to ba carcinogenic. TOLUENE: A colorless, flammable liquid found a* a constituent of gasoline and paints Th* greatest toxic dangers from toluene are associated with depression of the central nervous system. Humans can be exposed to higher concentrations of this chemical without toxic , effects than to the other chemrcaH on this I'iL There a no evidence .that toluene * carcinogenic. VINYL CHLORIDE: A colorless gas used m the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride plastics. There Is evidence that vinyl chtqrtd* is carcinogens to humans, particularly affecting the liver; it has also been linked to tumors m the lung Vinyl chloride depresses the central nervous system and it t yjspee'ed emlsrvotovm 'discovered that public sentiment on environmental issue* sppesri to be changing. One pod showed Marly 75 percent of respondents would accept stronger environmental reg ulations even if that meant a km of jobs. Roemcr, who his pledged that job* will not outrank environmental concern* In his administration, may test that sentiment. There's a dear change in public perceptions,' he uid, *!t used to be that the chemicals were viewed as being in the slat* and national in terest. Now the feeling ia that while chemicals have to be produced, we uui wc it uoi tuuuuiiQiyfic mui tba/ ft57" 8/30 our statistics," Bach-Stewart said. W"The data we have could be off Women worried because of the way the statistics are compiled." Gaudet said the state's figures are skewed. One year, Gaudet said, />. h.,, r St. Gabriel recorded a 39 percent about reason miscarriage rate. // "The trouble with the state fig ures is that they are only including women who miscarry arid have ' since had a live birth," Gaudet for miscarriages said. Fred Loy, spokesman for the Louisiana Chemical Association, is R&S 029559 Chemicals in air toxic? skeptical a problem exists at all. "No one keeps good figures on miscarriages, so we don't know how many there really are in St. By ALLAN C. KIMBALL Gabe or around the state. It's frus Post Reporter trating to have to defend ourselves against I this problem when -we ST. GABRIEL, La. -- Women in this community of 2,100 near Ba . don't even know there is a probleaK ton Rouge are worried that the very air they breathe has caused 49 miscarriages in the past three to begin with," Loy saidl . - If there is a problem with the number of miscarriages iri the city! years. "I'm petrified," said Peggy Hoff Loy said, it is more likely due fji inherited physical characteristics azj man, 32, who miscarried three lifestyle habits of. the womnen uirj-^iv years ago and is pregnant again. Louisiana's Department of volved. "We don't make nerve gaas in St. * Health and Human Resources be Gabriel. We make chlorine and dfr* gan an investigation into the prob- tergents like the stuff .that ends q: r lem last week.. in Fab or Tide. How toxic is that? Whether a similar problem is- he said. . ! possible south of Houston among ,- . Very toxic, according to Gaude; 1; the, neighborhoods that border She cited state statistics from th ^ v chemical plants is unknown, health past three years showing some < S' 'officials said.' 1 "It's certainly possible;'but . the 18 chemical plants in St. Gabr -; ; el have released millions of pounds , we've had no reports of clusters of of vinyl chloride and carbon tetra miscarriages, so no studies have chloride, both known embryo tost- `been made," said Mark Canfield, ins. ' ' - - ` j chief epidemiologist of the Harris Dayna Traigle, 26, had a miscar County Health Department. riage during her second pregnane^. The National Institute for. Occu . She had ,no problems with hW pational Safety and Health said \ first baby, she said. After her mis more than 1 million women of carriage, complications with h$ child-bearing age nationwide are exposed to industrial chemicals that might cause miscarriages or . birth defects. i-.. Post photo by Allan C. Kimball j-.. t'. Peggy Hoffman, left, arid DaynaTraigrei54tiydfacherri: third pregnancy confined her to bed for three months. Her second daughter was bom healthy. "1 don't know if it's the plant "The only thing I can attribute ical plant ln S^^^e|^a.^ but it's something," Traigle sail the miscarriages to is the environ "It's not just , a coincidence s{> ment," said Kay Gaudet, a pharma "We tutve tmin- many of us have miscarried. I'd ' cist who is St Gabriel's only health dicate there. is ithat overjoyed to know it's not professional. / * ~: community. `NeitherTiSve%e%een plants if the state can tell us this She began compiling statistics ' contacted by any physician in the just the normal average." after Hoffman and several*of her area," said Gwen'Bach-Stewart, a Traigle said no one wants ,th&j friends had miscarriages about the spokeswoman for the state's chemical plants to close..'. - JI same time in 1984.;--^ . Health and Human .Resources de^ "But we'd, sure like the state t, "This number is/way too high partment, "But because of the con- , come in here, with stricter restrii * when compared to liye birth rates cems of the people there, we are , tions on them," she said.- in the state," Gaudet^akL- going to conduct a complete scien : Bach-Stewart said state heilt . Not evetyOn^^BK'with Gau- tific study.". - /- ' *, y workers have met . with ' feder ' The health department`claims health' officials from Washingto: the miscarriage rate in St. Gabriel is" ,. and the Genters for Disease.Coi 14.4 per 1 lOpO^pregnandes, which . trol in Atlanta to help develop thei is lower than ;the^T4;?f: statewide study. * average and the nationwide rate of In the meantime, she said, a 15. ' public health. ntirse^jMily^ejyaili able to St. Gabyict^^defU^tWyn with pregnantyf,pt^iferiB;^ina4|tj answer questions,` ` ' ""i* SI>