The Fayette Citizen-News Page

Wednesday, May 1, 2002

Expert: De-icing spill not at harmful level in Fayette

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@TheCitizenNews.com

Deicing chemicals from Hartsfield International Airport that contaminated Fayette County's drinking water in January likely didn't reach levels that would significantly harm local residents, according to an expert from Emory University.

In a public forum at the Peachtree City Library last week, Dr. Howard Frumkin said Fayette was likely exposed to levels at least 20 times less than has caused reproductive problems with mice and rats in clinical studies. That's assuming the "worst case" scenario that 180,000 gallons of the deicing chemical reached the Flint River at its headwaters near Hartsfield, Frumkin noted.

"But I'm not standing here and saying there was no exposure," he said.

The big difference between what happened to Fayette's water in January and the studies on rats and mice, however, is that Fayette wasn't exposed to the ethylene glycol for more than a few days, Frumkin said. The mice and rats had the chemical injected over a longer period of time in the clinical trials, he noted.

"I feel comforted by the fact that it probably only lasted for days," Frumkin said.

Frumkin cautioned, however, that unborn babies could be at the greatest risk from exposure to the contaminated water. He urged mothers to work with their physicians to monitor the baby's growth closely.

"I think careful scrutiny during pregnancy is justified," Frumkin said.

Any birth defects caused by exposure to ethylene glycol would depend on the fetal stage of development, Frumkin said. The largest risk would be to unborn children ranging from four to eight weeks old, he added.

Only one study on the affects on unborn babies exposed to ethylene glycol has been done, Frumkin explained. In that study, birth defects were found in children whose mothers were exposed to the chemical when they worked in an electronics plant in Mexico.

Those babies had misshapen faces, bone abnormalities and neurobehavioral abnormalities, Frumkin said. But the study didn't include just how much exposure the mothers had to ethylene glycol, he added.