CHICAGO, Illinois, July 14, 2008 (ENS) – A month-long public comment period begins today on a proposed $3.8 million plan to clean a toxic insecticide from soil and sediment in two creeks near the Nease Chemical Superfund site in Columbiana County, Ohio.

The Nease Chemical Co. operated from 1961 to 1973, producing household cleaning products, fire retardants and pesticides, including an uncommon chemical called mirex.

Mirex has been listed as a persistent, bioaccumulative, and toxic pollutant by the EPA. It is a manufactured insecticide in the form of a white crystalline odorless solid used to control fire ants and as a flame retardant in plastic, rubber, paint, paper and electronics. It was banned in the United States in 1978.

The Superfund site covers 44 acres along state Route 14, 2.5 miles northwest of Salem on the Columbiana-Mahoning county line.

At the Nease Superfund site unlined ponds were used to treat chemical waste, which seeped into the area’s soil and ground water. Surface water runoff from the waste treatment ponds flowed into nearby Feeder Creek tributaries that run through the site causing pollution in the Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek which is east of the site.

Rutgers Organics, based in Germany, acquired the property in 1977, but never operated there. The site was placed on the Superfund National Priorities List in 1983.

After reviewing a feasibility study prepared by the responsible party Rutgers Organics Corp., U.S. EPA Region 5 evaluated three cleanup alternatives.

Nease Superfund Site near Salem,
Ohio. (Panoramic Photo Collage by
Masumi Hayashi)

The agency’s $3.8 million plan is considered to be “protective of human health and the environment. It will provide long-term effectiveness and is cost-effective,” the agency said.

The plan entails removal of the most contaminated sediment in the Middle Fork of Little Beaver Creek and removal of Feeder Creek sediment. It includes removal of the most contaminated floodplain surface soil.

All this contaminated soil and sediment will be disposed back on the Superfund site at the former Nease facility, where it will be covered with clean soil, the EPA says.

Separate from the work outlined in this proposed cleanup plan, EPA approved a cleanup plan in 2006 to address the portion of the Nease site known as Operable Unit 2.

Ground water and mirex-contaminated soil cleanup work for this portion of the site of the site is expected to continue through 2011.

Mirex breaks down slowly in the environment and may remain in soil for years,” the EPA wants. It can build up in fish or other organisms that live in contaminated bodies of water, and it can also build up in animals or people who eat contaminated fish.

The EPA says on its website, “We are not sure now mirex affects people’s health, but it may cause cancer and can affect the skin, liver, and nervous and reproductive systems. Exposure to mirex happens from eating food or touching soil containing the chemical.”

A meeting to accept public input on the plan will be held at 6:30 pm, July 31, at Salem Public Library, 821 E. State St.

Residents who need special accommodations for the meeting may contact Community Involvement Coordinator Susan Pastor by July 24 at 800-621-8431, Ext. 31325, or pastor.susan@epa.gov.

Comments also will be accepted online via www.epa.gov/region5/sites/nease, where background information including a current fact sheet can be viewed.

EPA will choose a final cleanup plan after reviewing all comments received during the comment period. The agency may modify its proposed plan or select another of the options outlined at the public meeting or in the fact sheet.

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.

SACRAMENTO, California, June 10, 2008 (ENS) – California Attorney General Edmund G. Brown Jr. has filed a lawsuit against companies that manufacture or distribute body care and household cleaning products that have tested highest for the carcinogenic chemical 1,4-dioxane. The lawsuit was filed May 29 in the Alameda County Superior Court.

Named as defendants are Avalon Natural Products, which makes the Alba brand products; Beaumont Products which makes VeggieWash and Clearly Natural brands; Nutribiotic, which makes grapefruit seed extract personal care products; and Whole Foods Market California, Inc., which sells the Whole Foods 365 brand.

The lawsuit seeks an injunction and civil penalties to remedy defendants’ failure to warn consumers that cleaning products such as body washes and gels and liquid dish soaps containing l,4-dioxane sold by defendants expose consumers to chemicals known to the State of California to cause cancer.

Some natural personal care products
contain a known human
carcinogen, California alleges.
(Photo credit unknown)

Under the Safe Drinking Water and Toxic Enforcement Act of 1986, Health and Safety Code section 25249.6, usually called “Proposition 65,” businesses must provide persons with a “clear and reasonable warning” before exposing them to such chemicals.

The chemical 1,4-dioxane was listed under Proposition 65 as a chemical known to the State of California to cause cancer on January 1, 1988.

The California attorney general alleges that each defendant has known since at least May 29, 2004 that the body washes and gels and liquid dish soaps contain l ,4-dioxane and that persons using these products are exposed to the chemical.

In addition to violating Proposition 65, the lawsuit alleges that each defendant has engaged in unlawful business practices which constitute unfair competition.

The defendant companies face maximum fines of $2,500 per day for each violation.

The defendants’ products were tested in a study commissioned by the Organic Consumers Association, OCA, and released in March. The study analyzed “natural” and “organic” brand shampoos, body washes, lotions and other personal care products for the presence of 1,4-dioxane.

Results for all products tested is online here. http://www.organicconsumers.org/bodycare/DioxaneResults08.cfm

A reputable third-party laboratory known for rigorous testing and chain-of-custody protocols, performed the testing, the Organic Consumers Association says.

The chemical at issue in the lawsuit, 1,4-dioxane, is typically produced as a byproduct when ingredients are processed with the petrochemical ethylene oxide, which has become standard practice for many cleansing and moisturizing products.

“The OCA’s 1,4-dioxane study elevated the issue of fake ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ brands that utilize petrochemicals in their formulas in March, and now we are seeing labeling enforcement on a scale never seen before,” says the association’s National Director Ronnie Cummins.

“We used an independent laboratory and found that numerous ‘natural’ and ‘organic’ brands tested positive for 1,4-dioxane, a cancer-causing contaminant resulting from the petrochemical ethylene oxide being attached to one or more ingredients,” Cummins said.

Last week, the Organic Consumers Association sent a letter to the four companies named in the lawsuit asking if they are planning changes to their labeling or product formulations. Only one company responded.

In a letter to the association Beaumont Products of Kennesaw, Georgia wrote, “Upon being notified that there was a problem with our product, we verified that the problem existed, then took immediate action.”

Beaumont says they have reformulated their products to remove the problem ingredient.

“These companies need to stop treating the inclusion of cancer causing chemicals in their products as business as usual and reformulate before consumer confidence in the natural products and organics industry is permanently damaged,” says consumer activist David Steinman, who conducted the OCA study and exposed the presence of 1,4-dioxane in baby bubble bath products in his book “Safe Trip to Eden.”

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services considers 1,4-dioxane as “reasonably anticipated” to be a human carcinogen.

Few studies are available that provide information about the effects of 1,4-dioxane in humans. Exposure to very high levels of 1,4-dioxane can result in liver and kidney damage and death. Eye and nose irritation was reported by people inhaling low levels of 1,4-dioxane vapors for short periods up to several hours.

Studies in animals have shown that breathing, ingesting, or skin contact with 1,4-dioxane can result in liver and kidney damage.

View This Story On Eco–mmunity Map.