The Velsicol Corporation began production in 1976 of another pesticide, EPN, which scientists suspect is twice as toxic as Phosvel. EPN and Phosvel have the same chemical base. The EPA has recommended the EPN be banned from the United States. At present, several major companies manufacture EPN, the largest being DuPont Chemical Company.
Velsicol is a subsidiary of Northwest Industries. The Michigan Chemical Company, the manufacturer of Firemast that began the PBB fiasco, is also a subsidiary of Northwest Industries. Both chemical companies are facing civil suits and criminal charges.
Another pesticide that kills humans as well as insects is Kepone, produced by the Life Science Products plant in Hopewell, Virginia. The plant began production of the highly toxic chemical in March, 1974. Within weeks, employees began to experience symptoms of tremors and ataxia (loss of control of some motor functions). Federal health inspectors found Kepone dust thick in the air of the plant, blanketing the floor, and covering tables where the workers ate their meals.
Plant employees carried the Kepone home with them and contaminated their families. The plant was closed in 1976, but the EPA has discovered that another firm, Allied Chemical (of which Life Sciences is a subsidiary) has been dumping Kepone in the James River in Virginia for over a decade. Fish samples taken during the '60s showed traces of Kepone, leading scientists to believe that many people have low levels of Kepone in their blood. The long-term effects of Kepone are unknown, but recent discoveries have enabled humans to rid their bodies of the substance quickly.
Other victims of industrial toxic poisoning have not been so fortunate. A Pittsburgh-Corning Corporation that uses asbestos to manufacture fire-resistant industrial sleeves was closed in 1972 for numerous health violations. Asbestos dust was so thick in the air that it was often impossible to see across the 200-foot wide plant interior. Asbestos covered the floor and the meal tables. Plant ventilators were clogged with the dust.
The asbestos has taken its toll among plant employees. Over 25 have died of lung cancer or asbesiosis. The death toll may reach 200 out of 900 plant workers.
Federal health inspectors examined the plant in 1967 and 1970, finding numerous violations of health standards. In 1971, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) fined the company. Inspectors did not wear protective equipment such as respirators for fear of alarming the plant's employees.
Over 400 of the plant's workers brought a $100 million suit against the company and the government in 1974. That suit has been settled out of court for $20 million, including a government payment of over $5 million. The government payments may mark the first time the government has been held liable in such a case.
Industrial toxic poisoning is on the rise in the United States. These cases are not isolated incidents; they represent merely a handful of known tragedies. More serious tragedies are inevitable unless the public recognizes the national scope of the problem, and acts now to confront the dangers toxic substances pose to human health.
For Stephen Soble, law school has not meant endless hours with the casebooks. For the past year, Soble, a third year law student at Harvard, has been pushing a model statute he authored that provides for compensation of victims of industrial poisoning.
Last October, Rep. William M. Brodhead (D-Mich.) introduced the bill in the House. Yesterday Soble testified about the bill before the House Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Finance. "Industrial toxic pollution is approaching catastrophic proportions," Soble said last week. "It has reached those proportions in Michigan with PBB. Nine million people in Michigan have PBB in their bodies, and we really don't know what it's going to do," he added.
Soble pointed out that PBB is only an isolated example of industrial poisoning. "Almost daily there's an instance reported in the newspapers," he said.
Soble's bill proposes to set up an Administrative Board for Compensation (ABC), which could order manufacturers to compensate victims more quickly and equitably than the courts do now. The ABC would decide cases on the basis of an epidemiological study to determine the origin of a victim's disorder.
Industry, as well as the victims, would benefit from the bill, Soble explained. The ABC would charge a slight pollution tax to cover its administrative expenses. Because the pollution tax would be graduated by the level of risk the manufacturer posed to human health, each manufacturer would know precisely how dangerous its product was. The proposed legislation would also set up an Office of Ombudsman, which would provide industry with the latest data and research on safer and less costly anti-pollution technologies.
"Industry would know that they would be held strictly liable for whatever injury did occur," Soble said. "Practically, manufacturers, in consultation with the insurance companies, would figure out ways of assessing the potential level of risk and reducing that risk to an affordable level. The manufacturer himself would be the hardest regulator around. There would be self-regulation."