Document bB3XBk5wqQz8e3y0kXny9oB4k

l`it'0 i LEACHING OF TOXIC AND CARCINOGENIC CHEMICALS INTO DRINKING WATER REQUIRES PREPARATION OF AN ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT REPORT Thomas R. Adams Ann Broadwell Adams, Broadwell & Russell 400 South El Caroino Real, Suite San Mateo, CA 94402 370 (415) 342-1660 Attorneys for Local 467 Plumbers and Steamfitters Union MAR 0 4 1934 > f * BFG07176 TU00280 r lifMlrt Jm he-. if. Introduction At one time plastic pipe for domestic water use was commonly regarded as the plumbing equivalent of a "better mouse trap". It was both cheaper to buy and easier to install. . However., Curing the seventies, evidence developed which created serious problems for the plastic pipe industry. In 1973 and 1974 vinyl chloride was found to be a potent cancer causing substance, barge amounts of free, unbonded vinyl chloride that had not completed the chemica reactions to form vinyl chloride plastic were found in plastic pipe. By 1975 and 1976 the plastic pipe industry developed a process to remove the unreacted vinyl chloride from the plastic pipe. Unfortunately, vinyl chloride was not the only problem, in order to be useable the pipe needs additional chemicals to give it flexibility. These chemicals are called plasticizers. Until comparatively recently the plastic pipe industry used the deadly PCBs as plasticizers. How the industry is making widespread use of phthlate esters, particularly DEHP. The fact that DEHP causes cancer was established in a study released only a month ago, on . October 15, 1980, by the National Cancer Institute. Although the plastic industry insists the pipe is safe today, the industry adamantly refuses to disclose the ingredients of plasti pipe, claiming that the ingredients are a trade secret. What is the public to do? Should we rely on assurances of f the safety of plastic pipe from the same industry that told the public that vinyl chloride was safe and that PCBs were safe? Under California law there is an answer to these questions. 1- - Z0820002 ( C