The variety of illnesses reported by more than 750 north Fayette and south Fulton residents in mid-2006 after breathing chemicals emanating from the Philip Services Corp. (PSC) waste treatment plant on Ga. Highway 92 in Fairburn appeared to pose no long-term adverse health effects and no public health threat, according to a March 7 Final Health Consultation study by the Georgia Division of Public Health (GDPH) and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a division of U.S. Dept. of Health & Human Services.

Affected residents maintain that the state and federal agencies whitewashed the results of the comprehensive study, deciding instead to toe the party line that exists in the decades-long symbiotic relationship between big industry and big government.

The initial Health Consultation began in late 2006 and reported the following year that some residents did suffer short-term health effects from exposure to the chemical odorant propyl mercaptan.

The final report, one that included public comments and responses to them, reiterated the previous position that propyl mercaptan posed no long-term hazard and that the organophosphate pesticide ethoprop, known commercially as MOCAP, posed no short-term or long-term health risk.

Representing a large geographical area of which the 40 square-mile “hot zone” of exposure is only a part, South Fulton and Fayette Community Task Force (SFFCTF) Chairman and Georgia 66th District candidate Connie Biemiller said state and federal agencies failed to stand for affected residents and allowing the issues, instead, to be swept under the regulatory rug.

“The Final Health Consultation only further validates the fact that the ATSDR and Georgia Department of Health refuse to take into account any of the health claims of their citizens,” Biemiller said. “If they validated the citizens, they would have to go beyond their normal functioning and incorporate much needed changes to further protect the communities that they serve. It is beyond the South Fulton and Fayette Community Task Force’s comprehension as to how an entire community can be swept so easily under the rug. We refuse to be silenced and we will do everything in our power to make our voices heard. We expect to see changes made to our health and environmental laws so that all people are protected and put first in the State of Georgia.”

Biemiller and the task force have long called for a re-writing of the decades-old state and federal regulations, based originally on the 1948 federal FIFRA Act, that does not require that chemical companies prove their products are safe. The burden of proof is on the public to prove that chemicals are unsafe.

The public comments portion of the 99-page report included 242 questions and comments posed to investigators. Those questions and comments were received from members of the South Fulton/Fayette County Task Force (SFFCTF), attorneys, scientists, medical consultants and other community members.

The public release of the final public comments report presents a stark contrast to the initial, and in some cases, prolonged health effects that some in the two-county area maintain they have experienced.

Whether coincidental or not, numerous residents described serious, and sometimes long-lasting, health effects that entered their lives only after exposure during the spring and summer months in 2006 to the onion-like odor associated with the “wash water” containing propyl mercaptan and MOCAP.

Initially more than 750 residents reported experiencing one or more symptoms associated with significant, even chronic, exposure to the chemicals, according to Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for ethoprop and propyl mercaptan.

One of the central claims by residents concerned the presence of the same onion-like odor, with accompanying ill health effects, prior to the June 29, 2006, date when the report states that PSC received shipments of MOCAP wash water from the American Vanguard Corp. (AMVAC) plant in Axis, Ala.

Responding to that concern, GDPH and ATSDR said symptoms of illness noted prior to June 29 could not have been caused by propyl mercaptan. The report said that, “numerous community complaints about an intense odor and health effects were reported to government officials. 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. Many persons reported detecting the odor and experiencing symptom onset prior to the June 29 events reported by the PSC facility. Propyl mercaptan received and handled at the plant on June 29 could not have been the cause of adverse health effects before that date. PSC did not respond to our request for detailed information about materials received and processed at the plant in May and June 2006.”

Many of the 242 comments received during the public comments portion of the Health Consultation struck at the core of what many affected residents have stated for nearly two years.

A large quantity of residents have difficulty believing that the efforts of GDPH and ATSDR were forthright and free of compromise.

One of the comments suggested, “this totally inadequate effort to fool Georgia citizens be rejected and discarded as incomplete and a misrepresentation of the facts surrounding health impacts from the May 2006 chemical release. From beginning to end, it is clear that there has been no attempt to find the root cause, which is the goal of all troubleshooting.”

The response by investigators stressed that the health consultation is a result of all available information gathered from multiple sources.

Fayette County biologist and environmental activist Dennis Chase was involved in responding to the PSC incident from its onset. Previously with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Chase said the results of the Health Consultation fit the formula of twisted facts designed to reach a conclusion that government wants the public to believe.

“Disappointed is the mildest term I can associate with the final report from the Department of Health report on the impact of the PSC chemical releases in South Fulton County,” Chase said. “But for me, that disappointment is compounded, and multiplied, by the way this agency has twisted the scientific facts to suit someone’s perverted sense of what they want everyone to believe happened during this incident. I see some scientists (usually with consulting firms) for developers hedge their interpretation of sample results and, even though I rail against such actions, those twists of the truth are more understandable than what we received from this agency. In this case, an agency picks and chooses which data they like and ignore everything else so that the end result fits what they wish.”

Long-time south Fulton resident Earl Hindman and members of his family began smelling the onion odor and manifesting symptoms weeks prior to the officially stated date that PSC received the first shipment of MOCAP wash water at its Fairburn facility.

Hindman said the prolonged illness of his wife that began suddenly in May 2006, the blatant lack of concern shown by some area physicians in his attempts to get answers for her condition and the dismissive attitude of state and federal investigators whose language parrots industry jargon has left him with little respect for what is incorrectly regarded as government accountability and oversight.

“The recent publication ... is a perfect example of how well this and other agencies are able to follow orders,” Hindman said. ”In my opinion, they have been instructed to deny, deny, and never, ever, let the truth see the light of day. From the recent main stream media reports of the national debacles this and other agencies have been involved in, costing taxpayers millions upon millions, why should we expect anything other than what they have produced? They will hide information, manipulate data and tell outright untruths all in order to preserve or produce a desired result.”

The final report is in, but task force members and others vow to continue their search for answers in hopes that future communities can be spared similar problems.

They might have help in the Georgia Senate. The Government Oversight Committee chaired by Sen. Ronnie Chance held one hearing on the PSC issue and will likely hold others later this year.

To date, waste treatment activities at the PSC plant in Fairburn have essentially ceased.

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