So real, the
federal government wants to cut exposure in half
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| Copar dust piles just inside its gate (photo by Tina Shea) |
By Sue Clayton
As a nurse, I have a duty to protect life, health and well-being.
One of the concerns about the three Copar Quarries in our area – Charlestown, Westerly
and Richmond – is the amount of silica dust that Copar’s irresponsible mining
methods throw into the air, despite the recent results from some short-term
monitoring done in and around the Westerly site.
Even though the results of the short-term testing of the area
around the Copar Quarry’s Bradford site did not show levels of silica that,
according to the report, “exceeded EPA’s standards,” that is far from the whole
story. It does not excuse Copar from the effects of long-term exposure to
children, the elderly and the chronically ill who live downwind, nor to the
exposure to its own workers – evidenced by violations issued against Copar by
the Mine Safety and Health Administration for worker exposure.
But that does not describe the average Copar neighbor. Over 50% of
them are women and we have a very high proportion of children, frail elderly
and disabled people, including many with COPD. They don’t work an 8-hour shift
at the quarry. The dust blows off the quarry and into our homes at all hours, day and night.
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| Solutions to silica dust exposure are not this simple |
Further limiting the value of OSHA’s current silica exposure limit is OSHA’s own initiative to cut exposure rates in half because their
own research shows that even for that average male worker, the current standard
is too high.
Proving there is a connection between exposure to hazardous
substances and illnesses is a difficult medical puzzle. However, silica
exposure has been studied for long enough for medical researchers and
government regulators to know that silica exposure is a serious health risk.
One of the illnesses it causes is silicosis. Silicosis
is a form of lung disease that is caused by the inhalation of crystalline
silica dust, and is marked by inflammation of the lungs, nodular lesions and
scarring in the upper portion of the lobes.
Symptoms can be shortness of breath, cough, fever and bluish skin
color [cyanosis]. The EPA was kind enough to issue a report to us on this
disease, and have confirmed that we are indeed being exposed to this. The report
can be found here. The Rhode Island chapter of the American Lung Association has also expressed its specific concerns about Copar's Bradford operation (click here).
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| More open piles of dust for the wind to blow into our community |
In addition, the federal Occupational Safety and Health
Administration has proposed new standards for silica dust in the workplace that
would cut worker exposure by approximately 50%. As you might imagine, the
industries that profit from silica products – in particular mining and
construction – are pretty upset about OSHA’s proposed standards and would like to kill those regulations.
They want to continue to kill their own workers and those of us who
live downwind from their operations without inconvenient new regulations that cut into their profits.
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| Copar was tied for 12th place among Rhode Island's worst air polluters. No other RI quarry made the list. Since 2011, Copar has increased production in Bradford and added two more sites (Charlestown & Richmond) so expect its ranking to rise |
Chronic simple silicosis is the most common form of silicosis. It is
characterized by chronic coughing, as my children and I are experiencing, now
for months on end, and shortness of breath upon exertion, and fatigue.
When X-rayed, the lungs of a person diagnosed with this will
reveal a profusion of minute fragments less than 10 milliliters in diameter
clustered in the upper lungs. This form of silicosis takes at least 10 years to
develop.
Accelerated silicosis is so named because it develops after 5
years, and causes greater risk for more complicated disease, such as massive
fibrosis, in which lung tissue can no longer expand. Those with already
compromised health and/or immune systems will exacerbate with this type of
silicosis.
Complicated silicosis is so named because of the development of
severe scarring, susceptibility to tuberculosis, mycobacterial inflammation [pneumonia],
autoimmune disease, and finally, devastatingly, lung cancer.
Most dangerous to those of us in Westerly and Charlestown is acute
silicosis, which can actually develop anywhere from a few weeks to up to 5
years after exposure to heavier amounts of silica. It is also is known as
silicoproteinosis.
Symptoms develop rapidly and include immediate severe shortness of
breath, chronic cough, extreme fatigue, and weight loss leading to death. X-rays
might show what looks like ground glass in the lung’s alveoli. Copar neighbors
report seeing these glittering crystals on our furniture, walls, windows and
curtains.
Logically, if you can see these crystals in the air and on our
belongings, how is it possible that we are not breathing them in?
For anyone with a strong stomach and a stronger backbone, there is
a picture of a lung removed from a miner who died of silicosis (right).
Remember, signs and symptoms of most toxic exposure problems may
not appear for years, but appear they will. When I was a teenager on Staten
Island, a pioneering science teacher by the name of Mr. Ahearn took us to Fresh
Kills landfill. Those were the days before parental permission was required,
especially in Catholic schools.
He piled us into his minivan, and off we went to take samples of
the marsh waters surrounding the dump. The samples were sent out and we tested
some - all contained illegal chemicals.
Now, these many years later, the residents of the island have been
informed that many of the cancers, profusion of childhood leukemia, and now
autism, may be the final result from the poison that was dumped into our
environment. While the dumping was happening, I remember many parents saying,
“Well, what can we do about it?”
When I was a young married, and 3 months pregnant, I was living in
Philadelphia when the Three Mile Island nuclear accident occurred. Contrary to
the prevailing government position, I heard three local Temple University
professors on the collage radio station say that they had test results showing
that radiation from Three Mile Island was drifting over Philadelphia.
They warned that women carrying fetuses were at terrible
risk. I left that very afternoon. My son graduated from Boston College on
scholarship, but many born in that time and area were not so lucky.
It’s funny the way we see people evaluate environmental risk. We
recently saw some Charlestown residents get all worked up over “wind turbine
syndrome,” which is the controversial claim that wind turbines cause a variety
of health problems. There is little scientific evidence for the existence of
this problem; the Massachusetts Department of Public Health noted that perhaps
the people who claim to be suffering from it are instead suffering from anxiety
caused by the power of suggestion.
At the same time that Charlestown is debating whether or not wind
turbine syndrome is real, at the other end of town in the Westerly and
Charlestown neighborhoods abutting the Copar Quarry in Bradford, we see a lot
of what I call "magical thinking." As long as people can’t actually
see, feel or smell silica dust, they are safe from it.
Silica dust is not confined. It drifts as the wind blows and our
local winds blow in all different directions, although the prevailing wind over
the Copar Quarry in Bradford just happens to blow the dust over our local
neighbors to the southeast, east and northeast of the quarry, and not in the
other direction which is less populated.
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| Copar also violated MSHA standards at its Charlestown facility (off Route 91) for dust and noise exposure to workers |
Perhaps years from now, some study might be done that
shows a higher than normal rate of lung diseases among people who were children
downwind from Copar when they were mining at their peak.
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| Town Administrator Mark Stankiewicz told me the town decided there was nothing they could do about Copar |
Don’t expect Copar to still be around or that their successors
will take responsibility for what happened to those young lungs. And don’t
expect the government to take responsibility either.
As a nurse in a long-term care facility, I see elderly people ill
with lung disease every night. Their struggle to breathe is heartbreaking. It
is a terrible way to die.
But all that said, I don’t expect to see Copar shut down because
of health concerns - certainly not when the attitude of Charlestown and Westerly town officials is that it's not their problem. That’s something that we will be living with for years to
come.
But I do expect that Copar’s terrible record will catch up with it. Those
of us in the community must carry on our struggle to bring about a just and
peaceful end to battle we have fought with this company.
Copar’s “landlords,” the owners of Westerly Granite, the Comolli
family – George, David and Richard - talk about wanting to leave behind a
"legacy" for little Ricky Comolli, a legacy based on their family’s
long history in the granite industry. I saw him climbing into a brand new white
monster truck barely being able to see over the steering wheel. Is the rent
money they get from Copar worth hurting their neighbors for? What kind of legacy
is that?
For the website of the Concerned Citizens of Bradford-Charlestown, click here.
For all of Progressive Charlestown's coverage of Copar, click here.
