State and local governments are saying little, but the number of residents in Fayette and Fulton counties who say they have been physically affected after exposure to pesticide component Propyl mercaptan has increased to a total of 218 persons, according to information tallied by The Citizen.

Coming on the heels of the weeks-long exposure to an onion-like odor traced to a chemical waste treatment plant and subsequent illnesses was a class-action lawsuit filed Monday in Fulton County Superior Court.

Conversations with neighbors in some of the affected areas during the weekend showed an increase from the 100 reporting symptoms and illness late last week to a total of 218 as of Tuesday morning.

Those numbers include 73 people with a variety of symptoms in north and central Fayette and 145 with similar symptoms in south Fulton.

Symptoms range from respiratory illnesses, headaches and dizziness to nausea and digestive system ailments.

Those numbers reflect a hot-zone of neighborhoods in both counties, primarily located within an estimated 40 square-mile area closest to the Philip Services Corp. plant that was the destination for shipments of Propyl mercaptan wash water last month.

The plant is located on Ga. Highway 92 in south Fulton. The onion-like smell of Propyl mercaptan has been detected over a much larger area in recent weeks. That area totals approximately 200 square miles in Fayette, Fulton, Clayton and Coweta counties.

Hot zone residents have signed petitions demanding action and have begun organizing their neighborhoods to respond to the sickening onion smell that will not go away. One facet of their response was obtaining representation from Atlanta attorney Scott Zahler, who Monday afternoon filed a class-action lawsuit in Fulton County Superior Court.

The civil suit alleges negligence in preventing the release of Propyl mercaptan, nuisance by endangering the health of the general public, violation of local ordinances and punitive damages, according to court documents.

“We recognized that it’s a wide-spread and far-reaching health problem,” Zahler said Monday. “It appears that the timetables relating to these health problems are consistent with the release and the (community’s) exposure to mercaptan.”

“Contrary to some who said it would quickly dissipate or not cause health effects, we’re finding that’s not the case. That’s why we’re filing this suit,” Zahler said.

The suit names plant owner Philip Services Corp. (PSC) and Propyl mercaptan maker AMVAC Chemical Corp. and others that may bear legal responsibility.

PSC was named as the facility that received the wash water containing less than 0.1 percent Propyl mercaptan and as a facility that stores, transfers and treats hazardous waste.

AMVAC, located in Axis, Ala., is named as having transported multiple shipments of MOCAP pesticide wash water (containing less than 0.1 percent MOCAP, the pesticide) to the PSC facility.

Propyl mercaptan is a component ingredient of MOCAP and is responsible for the onion-like smell experienced by residents.

Georgia Environmental Protection Division (EPD) had originally indicated that the Propyl mercaptan wash water came from a Bayer plant in Alabama. Court papers cited AMVAC.

The suit cites the various health problems experienced by residents after exposure to the odor emanating from those shipments.

AMVAC’s material safety data sheet on MOCAP wash water states that symptoms of acute exposure and overexposure to MOCAP water wash include headache, nausea, difficulty breathing, eye and respiratory tract infection and skin irritation. Ingestion of Propyl mercaptan may cause inflammation and possible fluid accumulation in the lungs.

Wash water is generated after an empty pesticide container is washed and the wash contents sent for treatment.

Another facet of the response by affected Fayette and Fulton neighbors was their July 13 attendance at a meeting of the Fayette County Commission. At the meeting, north Fayette resident Connie Biemiller presented a petition signed by 300 Fayette and Fulton residents demanding action by both counties. The petition read:

“We petition our government leaders to protect the citizens of south Fulton and Fayette counties from toxic odors: We request that toxic odors throughout these counties cease immediately so that no citizen shall suffer physically, mentally or emotionally another day. We demand that these chemicals be purged from the waste water site on Spence Road and that a thorough inspection of our streams and soil content be conducted. We also demand a public meeting held to inform the citizens within 15 days of this petition.”

[A related story is in this issue.]

A growing number of residents are calling for the plant to be shut down. This, they say, is the only way to be sure future releases will not endanger their health and that of their families. Zahler said resident’s calls to shut down the plant might be a legal option if there is a continuing problem.

While EPD is the lead agency in response to this incident, District 4 Health Department Public Information Officer Hayla Hall said Tuesday that the district epidemiologist is working with Piedmont Fayette Hospital in Fayetteville.

The local hospital has seen eight cases related to the Propyl mercaptan odor. Hall urged local doctors to contact the district health office if they see clusters of patients reporting symptoms associated with the onion smell.

Locally in Fayette County, Hall said no Fayette County residents had called the local health office to report symptoms. Calls had been received, she said, from some residents in Fulton County.

The Citizen has received a dozen or more e-mails from persons in both counties complaining of unexplained symptoms.

A meeting Monday night with attorneys and some of the area’s affected residents was an echo of what Fayette County Commission heard July 13. Residents say they are sick, they are tired of what they see as a weeks-long lack of responsiveness by state and local governments and they are demanding answers.

A public meeting called by Fulton County Commissioner Bill Edwards will be held tonight at 7 p.m. at Bethany United Methodist Church, located at Lee’s Lake Road and Rivers Road.

Fayette County Commission members along with Fayette Emergency Management and other county departments will be in attendance. Also invited are other Fulton County representatives, state elected officials, Georgia EPD and corporate representatives of Philip Services. Union City and Fairburn Fire Departments said Monday they will have representatives in attendance.

Though the heavy onion smell was widely reported June 29 and on subsequent days in Fayette and south Fulton, residents in the affected area had been smelling it for weeks.

Emergency management and fire officials from Fayette and Fulton, EPD and federal Environmental Protection Agency arrived at the PSC facility July 3 in response to complaints from both counties.

And though the odor was termed disgusting at least and sickening at worst, EPD Emergency Response Team Program Manager Gary Andrews said July 5 that representatives of his agency and EPA conducted air sample tests at the site July 3.

Those tests revealed no measurable presence of Propyl mercaptan even though some investigators on the site could smell the chemical, Andrews said.

EPD returned to the PSC plant July 14 to conduct further tests. Andrews said the multiple air samples taken did not register at the level considered to pose a health threat.

The level indicting a negative health effect for inhalation exposure is one-half part per million, a much larger level than the 600 parts per trillion that humans are able to detect as an onion-like odor.

Fulton County Emergency Management Agency Duty Officer William Smith said last week that PSC received shipments of wash water containing a small fraction of Propyl mercaptan beginning June 21. Containers of wash water were then shipped to PSC for treatment.

From June 21 through June 29, the plant received 20 shipments from the Alabama plant, Smith said. The first 16 shipments were accepted and treated at the PSC facility.

The final four shipments, all arriving June 29, were determined by plant operators to be unacceptable. The first container arriving June 29 had been transferred to a PSC tank when the determination was made.

The Propyl mercaptan was put back on the truck for return shipment to Alabama. When the other three shipments arrived later in the day, the dome lids on the wash water containers were opened and samples taken.

All three of those tanks were refused and slated for return to Alabama.

The only known way the chemical could have entered the environment was during those brief occasions when the transfer of one tank was made and the lid on three others was lifted during sampling, Smith and Andrews said.

The 16 shipments that arrived between June 21-28, however, were processed through the plant’s wastewater treatment system, Andrews said. That system, he said, is completely self-contained with runoff on plant property being cycled back into the treatment system.

Andrews said PSC is permitted by EPD to treat solid waste. Though wash water such as that containing Propyl mercaptan came to the facility as a liquid, it and other chemically-laden wash water shipments are eventually rendered into a small quantity of solid product during the treatment process.

The final solid waste product is transferred to another facility permitted to handle such waste while the final wastewater generated through the treatment process at PSC is deposited into the Fulton County sewer system.

The onion-like odor has been detected by residents in portions of Fairburn, the Union City area, unincorporated southeast Fulton, north Fayette, the Tyrone area throughout much of the central Fayette area and down to Peachtree City, in Sharpsburg, at I-85 in Newnan and at Hartsfield Airport and Clayton County.

The reason for such a large coverage area in Fayette was initially attributed to the north-south prevailing winds experienced during much of last week.

All the explanation from environmental officials does not explain why such a reportedly small amount of Propyl mercaptan vapor could be detected over an area estimated at 200 square miles and could remain so concentrated in an area covering 40 square miles.

Unexplained also is why the strong and sickening smell of onions is so evident at higher elevations rather than the low elevations at which officials say it should accumulate.

Unexplained also is why PSC sprays trees on its property even though the heavier-than-air Propyl mercaptan is supposed to settle to the ground and move along low-lying areas.

Yet to be explained is why a month of sunshine, breezes, rain, and nature itself cannot break down or remove the continuing strong smell in the hot zone.

Like an unwanted gift that sickens, it seems to be the smell that keeps on giving.