“Not one physical test was performed on a single person or animal in our community during the time of exposure or even now 11 months later.”
— Connie Biemiller
community task force chairman

“This document embodies the obsessive, inexplicable focus of several responsible agencies on mercaptan odor as if that odor, not the chemical that causes the odor and not the associated pesticide, posed the chief hazard to our population. These agencies could not more neatly fall into PSC’s capacious pockets.”
— Lois Speaker
retired chemist and task force science committee chair

“The report ... is totally biased and does not truly represent an evaluation of the impacts of chemical releases from the PSC plant in June 2006. ... This 30-plus page report reaches to the depths of bureaucratic gall, perhaps to the lowest level of irresponsible and condescending mistreatment of the public that has been witnessed in a long time.”
— Dennis Chase
retired wildlife biologist and environmental activist

“They’ve all chosen to believe the word of a company over the word of hundreds of citizens.”
— Earl Hindman
South Fulton resident

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The only ones buying the conclusions of the new state and federal health consultation over the “onion smell” illnesses reported last year may be the state and federal investigators who authored the study and the agencies that conducted it. Many of the affected residents contacted say they are far from satisfied with the answers.

Residents of north Fayette and south Fulton counties reported illnesses by the hundreds beginning in the spring last year and continuing into the fall after inhaling what they initially thought must have been wild onions growing in the area.

They later learned what they were breathing came from MOCAP wash water, a combination of the chemical odorant propyl mercaptan and the organophosphate pesticide MOCAP, or ethoprop, coming from the Philip Services Corp. (PSC) waste treatment plant on Ga. Highway 92 in Fairburn.

The public comment release Wednesday of a months-long health consultation study conducted by Georgia Division of Public Health (DPH) and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a division of U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, concluded that residents experienced a temporary health hazard but did not appear to suffer long-term health effects and that no public health threat exists.

Based on results from environmental data analyses, the epidemiological assessment of reported symptoms and the scientific data on the behavior of the chemicals involved, the odorant propyl mercaptan — not the insecticide ethoprop — was released into the air at the PSC plant in late June and most likely caused the symptoms reported by the community, the study said.

The report also recommended no further actions at this time.

A local citizens advocacy group formed last year as multiple symptoms and sickness occurred when the chemical-onion smell began to permeate the communities from Tyrone to Fairburn, across north and and central Fayette County and east to Clayton County.

Commenting on the health consultation findings, South Fulton/Fayette Community Task Force Chairman Connie Biemiller last week questioned the study’s lack of follow-through.

State and federal investigators examined community health surveys completed by affected residents but did no follow-up investigation, she said.

DPH and ATSDR relied instead on statements by PSC and the insufficient information and data gathered by the agency staff and Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD), Biemiller said.

“The state Department of Health, who is paid by the citizens of Georgia, has only reported what the PSC Corporation has told them with regard to exposure times and dates when clearly the citizens that they serve reported otherwise,” Biemiller said. “(DPH) is unwilling to go to the next step and admit that our community was exposed to a pesticide over a three-month period. Not one physical test was performed on a single person or animal in our community during the time of exposure or even now 11 months later.”

In its conclusions, the Health Consultation noted that “ethoprop does not readily evaporate and we have no evidence to suggest that the ethoprop got into the air. Therefore, we believe that the ethoprop posed no public health hazard to area residents. Ethoprop tends to break down rapidly in outdoor air (half-life of about 5.6 hours). In the breakdown process, some chemicals that have strong odors may be produced, such as mercaptans. These by-products are less toxic than the parent pesticide.”

“The release of propyl mercaptan at the PSC facility posed a public health hazard because it likely caused temporary adverse health effects during the time of release in some residents in communities near PSC,” the study continued. “For some residents, these exposures had a negative impact on their health and quality of life. Since exposures were below the action level (of 0.5 parts per million) and we do not expect any continuing or long-term adverse health effects from this past exposure, the site currently poses no apparent public health hazard.”

South Fulton/Fayette Community Task Force Science Committee Chair Lois Speaker, a retired chemist, also questioned the health consultation, both in terms of the absence of physical interviews or examinations of affected residents and the failure to consider a link between the symptoms manifested and potential for organophosphate poisoning.

“This document embodies the obsessive, inexplicable focus of several responsible agencies on mercaptan odor as if that odor, not the chemical that causes the odor and not the associated pesticide, posed the chief hazard to our population. These agencies could not more neatly fall into PSC’s capacious pockets. They have allowed their efforts and public positions to be diverted from identifying and quantifying the real hazards,” Speaker said.

“As I understand the epidemiological study, no one was actually examined by DPH/CDC/ATSDR physicians, only questioned through the (health survey) form the residents completed,” Speaker said. “It appears that no one was ever tested as soon as possible for organophosphorus poisoning. Did any of the government agencies analyze blood and tissue samples at any time? Diversity of symptoms is characteristic of organosphosphate poisoning, such as was reported last week by the New York Times in relation to Gulf War Syndrome.”

More than 750 community survey reports were completed by residents and compiled primarily through the efforts of Fayette County Emergency Management Agency and task force members. Survey results showed that during May through August 2006, several hundred people in Fulton and Fayette communities reported a foul odor and/or symptoms consistent with odor effects including eye, mucous membranes, and the upper respiratory tract irritation, the study reported, noting that “These symptoms are nonspecific, and neither the individual symptoms nor the case definition based on two or more symptoms can definitively implicate a specific source or exposure. However, the pattern of symptoms reported from late June through August is consistent with exposure to propyl mercaptan reportedly present at the PSC facility during that time. Symptoms with onset following the release at the PSC plant that were similar to those documented in the 1989 exposure in California, such as headache, burning eyes, etc., were likely due to propyl mercaptan exposure. These irritating symptoms have been highly annoying for many persons, and temporarily debilitating for some. It is also plausible that exposure to an odorous chemical irritant such as propyl mercaptan could have provoked or contributed to other acute adverse health events related to irritants; for example, asthma attacks or migraine headaches, in persons with predisposing conditions. Propyl mercaptan exposure cannot be definitively linked to some of the other reported symptoms and conditions.”

Long-time South Fulton resident Earl Hindman, one of the people living in the 40 square-mile hot zone around the plant, was not impressed with the study findings. Though he completed the health survey and has spoken with state officials about the deteriorating health condition of his wife, Hindman said he has never been contacted by anyone associated with the health consultation or any previous study efforts.

Hindman’s wife Clare began manifesting severe physical symptoms during the same time the chemical-onion smell began in May 2006. Today, with her condition continuing to worsen, including the loss of 60 percent of her lung capacity and a diagnosis of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Hindman has little faith in state and federal health and environmental agencies.

“They’ve all chosen to believe the word of a company over the word of hundreds of citizens,” Hindman said. “I’ve found medical reports linking ALS with pesticide exposure, where the conditions that came from the exposure had been misdiagnosed as ALS. I’ve also found reports suggesting that a genetic predisposition for ALS can exist in some people, but is not set off until an exposure to the pesticide occurs.”

Fayetteville resident Nancy Faulkner works in Fairburn and has traveled past the PSC plant daily for years. Her existing physical concerns ratcheted up exponentially during the same time the chemical-onion smell came into the area. Like Hindman and so many others, Faulkner insists the smell began in May, not late June.

Her ailments quickly transformed into neurological problems and those related to balance, memory and extreme pain. And like Hindman and others, Faulkner’s concerns that her condition might be linked to the chemical-onion smell were immediately dismissed by healthcare professionals, as was the lack of willingness by most physicians to believe that chemical exposure could function as an agent that triggered the onset of physical conditions they had never before experienced.

Affected residents have long been concerned about inconsistencies relating to the MOCAP wash-water and its presence at the PSC plant. Information obtained in 2006 by The Citizen showed that the 38 shipments of acceptable wash-water and the four shipments of unacceptable product that were turned away, both said to have entered plant property between June 20-28, does not agree with PSC documents provided to Fulton County.

In its monthly reports to Fulton County, PSC accounts for only four shipments, not 38, accepted for processing between June 20-28. Georgia EPD, on the other hand, cannot account for any shipments of any material ever processed by PSC or any other waste treatment company at the Fairburn location since 1990.

EPD officials last year could not account for the absence of required annual reports except to say that it was an oversight by state inspectors. Those discrepancies and others were not taken into account in the DPH/ATSDR study.

Also without explanation were the reports by numerous residents that the same chemical-onion smell was evidenced in their communities prior to June 20 and as far back as early May.

June 20 continues to be the start-date of the introduction of MOCAP wash-water into the plant that is referenced by all state and federal agencies.

EPD, DPH, ATSDR and others have continued to rely on information from PSC and appear to have treated contrary reports from residents as unreliable anecdotal evidence.

Assisting the community task force, retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife biologist Dennis Chase left no room for doubt in his assessment of the government study.

“The health consultation (report) is essentially an incident report which relies on several state and federal documents as accurate and adequate, and criticizes citizen statements on health surveys submitted to the Georgia Department of Health,” Chase said.

“The report, therefore, is totally biased and does not truly represent an evaluation of the impacts of chemical releases from the PSC plant in June, 2006,” Chase said. “This 30-plus page report reaches to the depths of bureaucratic gall, perhaps to the lowest level of irresponsible and condescending mistreatment of the public that has been witnessed in a long time.”

In its report on affected domestic animals and wildlife, the study went on to say that through the exposure surveys, emails and phone calls to DPH and other agency staff, and at public meetings, DPH received several reports of ill pets and wild animals.

In response, DPH developed an animal illness survey form, and contacted all residents who reported ill pets or wild animals and asked them to complete the survey. After analyzing the data from these surveys, there was no evidence of impact to wild animals, though there were a few reports of dead bees and birds, researchers said.

The report said grouping the animals by time of onset, location of residence, or amount of time spent outdoors did not identify a consistent pattern of clinical signs that would suggest common exposure to a toxic chemical.

The survey of pet illnesses was done to assess whether the animals had a set of clinical signs suggesting a possible common environmental exposure. Dozens of pets were reported with acute clinical signs, and several were reported to have died. The data did not show a consistent pattern of clinical signs that could be clearly linked to an environmental chemical exposure; however, it is plausible that some clinical signs could have been caused by exposure to propyl mercaptan, the study concluded.

Patterns notwithstanding, area residents like George Nicholson find little solace in the government study that did not include an explanation, or even a mention, of the simultaneous disappearance of bees, hummingbirds and butterflies that have been a fixture at his home for years. Those disappearances began occurring at the same time the chemical-onion smell began in May.

The many remaining questions confronting Fayette and Fulton residents are currently left to people like Hindman, Faulkner, Nicholson, Speaker and many others who continue to look for answers.

Those who suffered ALS, neurological problems, kidney failure, pleurisy, pneumonia, first-time diagnoses of asthma and many other physical illnesses live or work within the 40 square-mile hot zone that came to define their very existence a year ago. Some of them are still living with the effects that began this time last year.

“What few research articles that can be gathered on this topic clearly shows that this community will suffer ill health effects for years to come,” Biemiller said. “At present, we have many citizens that continue to suffer from this exposure, most recently one resident reaching a most critical stage where she will now need a breathing apparatus and a feeding tube. The South Fulton and Fayette Community Task Force will not be satisfied until answers are found and our community is restored to one of health and wholeness”.

The public comment period for the health consultation ends June 15. The health consultation study can be viewed at www.health.state.ga.us/programs/hazards.

ATSDR can be contacted at (800) CDC-INFO (232-4636) or at http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov.