Document DMZpn3gQ9J9JdrY2ZLe470vOn

CALIFORNIA U C SF to C urb Hospital ToxicsBRIEFLPrangeCounty Register June 14, 1989 PDo_l#l/ut*ion-Control Devices I fH,rt... \ Chemist says By Elliot Diringer borhoods said they would have to ethylene oxide, a potent carcinogen EPA withheld dioxin evidence An Environmental Protection Agency chemist has charged that agency officials suppressed evi dence of dioxin and other poisons at wood-treatment waste sites, af fecting drinking-water supplies in the Oroville area and three other rural communities. C hronicle SlajCT I h it e r withhold judgment on the highly Officials at the University technical report until hearing the assessment of an independent con of California at Sun Francisco sultant. said yesterday they will volun tarily curb toxic releases from hospital sterilizers at the m edi cal center even though they be lieve the gases pose no m ajor health risk. "It sounds like there's no real problem in terms of danger to the community," said Kathe Traynor, who represents the Haight Ashbury Improvement Association on the li aison group. "But I don't know. I The decision to install pollution would be very curious to have the control devices, which may cost as ^second party's report, too commonly used in hospitals and lab oratories to sterilize surgical imple ments and research materials. Putting pollution "scrubbers" on the school's three large steriliz ers --two at the hospital, and one at the dental clinic -- will cut ethylene oxide emissions by 95 percent, said Leroy Balzer, assistant vice chancel lor for environmental health and safety. Installation of the scrubbers will begin this fall, he said. The EPA also softened its regu lar ion_of wood preservers-in re- much as $500,000, was triggered by the findings of a two-year examina A Second Opionlon Steve Hill, a toxics expert with the Bay Area Air Quality Manage s p o n i ndii,ctry lobbying political pressure from several congress members, including then-Senator and now Vice Presi dent Dan Quayle, according to Cate Jenkins, a chemist at the agency's headquarters who helped draft the new industry rules. EPA officials in Washington and San Francisco could not be reached for comment Tuesday. Elsewhere in her report to Con gress, Jenkins charged that agency officials suppressed evi dence of dioxin contamination in sites near drinking water supplies for the communities of Sweetwater, Tenn.; Joplin, Mo.; and DeQueen, Ark. tion of toxic and radioactive emis sions from the school's Parnassus dam pus. UCSF agreed to_bring in a sec ond consultant afterLthe advisory group questioned the credibility of 1 The $1.6 million study, believed the~Radian Corp.. the firm that per to be the most exhaustive environ-1 formed the environmental analysis. mental checkup undergone by any* Their concerns stemmed from char medical center in the country, was ges last year that Radian had manip started by the university two years ulated data to downplay the risks of ago as a way of soothing community dioxin from North Coast pulp mills, fears about pollution from the a chargejhe company denied. school's research laboratories. Although the university has UCSF administrators said the commited $10,000 to hire the second report's findings, submitted yester consultant, a firm has not yet been day to the San Francisco Depart selected ment of Public Health, should reas sure people that it is safe to live next The university launched the environmental review in an effort t door. to shore up relations with neighbors *TheReol Issues* worried about chemical exhausts t and about state findings that UCSF ment District, said his agency is pro posing rules to control ethylene ox ide from commercial sterilizers but regulation of hospital sterilizers is "further down the line." He said he knows of nb controls on hospital sterilizers anywhere in the nation. Canter Risks Assessed Radian's analysis found a theot etical cancer risk at various points in the surrounding neighborhood that ranged from a low of 1.2 in 1 million',, at Douglas Elementary, School in Eureka Valley, to a high ol 14.2 in ! million, at the south end ot ^dgewood Avenue, just east of the campus. By comparison, the Environ mental Protection Agency typically "I think it does effectively lay researchers had repeatedly violated aims for a risk no higher than one ii to rest a tremendous amount of con rules on handling of radioactive ma a million when setting limits on pes cern." said Vice Chancellor Bruce terials. ticide residues in food, but just thi: Spaulding, who oversees environ mental health and safety at the campus. "Regrettably, a lot of (the concern) in the past has been specu lation or fear. Now we have a real firm basis to get down to the real issues." Those concerns had also fueled a rancorous dispute with residerts of Laurel Heights, where the uni week the agency announced nev i controls on benzene emissions tha ' allow risks as high as one in 10,000. versity p.ans to relocate some of its A projected risk of one in a laboratories. Under court order, the Million means that over a 70-year university is preparing a new envi period one additional case of cancer ronmental study on the proposed would be expected for every 1 mil The study found that the move, which will Incorporate data lion people experiencing the maxi "worst case" scenario -- a person frop?_thc Parnassus campus review. mum expected exposure. standing at the point of maximum exposure for 70 years -- poses a Wator/Air and Soil Tested cancer risk of 14 in 1 million, the equivalent of one additional cancer case in San Francisco every 100 years. Installing pollution controls on the sterilizers, the report said, would bring the risk down to 4.7 in 1 -million. * . The Radian findings are based on hundreds of air, water and soil samples collected on and around the campus, computer modeling that projects the likely path of pol lutants leaving the campus, and a theoretical analysis that tries to pre "At the beginning, our commit dict affects on the exposed popula ment was that if we found some tion. thing that could be controlled we would do It," said Spaulding. "We found one thing and immediately set on a course of action for the best available control technology, even though we .don't.believe it_poses a real risk." According to the university, the study found that radiation lev els are 33 times lower than the gov ernment standard, chemical releas es to the sewer system are one-sixth the allowable level, and all the air emissions combined posed only Members of an advisory group that serves as liaison between the slightly more risk than a neighbor hood dry cleaner. university and surrounding neigh Most of that risk comes from