http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/creosote Sat, 21 Nov 2009 07:28:41 -0800 pixel-app en http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/9193 Thu, 16 Dec 2004 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/9193
The $500 million lawsuit filed in Circuit Court in DeSoto County alleged negligence and claimed the site was a public nuisance. The plaintiffs said in the lawsuit that they and their relatives have either suffered cancer or a decline in property value because of contaminants from the facility.

The company preserved railroad ties and other timbers by treating them with a coal tar, creosote and arsenic mixture in two large pits on the 25-acre site. The pits weren't lined with protective barriers to stop the mixture from saturating the soil or leaching into the groundwater, according to the lawsuit.

The preservation process also created hazardous waste in the form of vapor condensate and sludge, the lawsuit said.

"It is difficult to believe that such a site can exist without some type of mandated clean up to protect families that, through, no fault of their own, find themselves living next to and drinking water that contains life threatening carcinogens," said Archie Lamb, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys.

But company spokesman Gary Sease said CSX has monitored the site since 1983 and that reports from the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the state Department of Health have shown no threat to public health.

"There are places where there are contaminants but we are confident that those have been isolated and do not pose an exposure hazard to the public," Sease said. "The attorney's statements today do not reflect the data or the company's proactive stewardship of the environment and community."]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/8164 Wed, 09 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/8164
The federal Environmental Protection Agency recognized creosote's perils in 1978, announcing its intention to phase out the coal-derived preservative's required registration.

That was more than 200 years after London physician Percival Pott's ground-breaking discovery of high cancer rates among British men who cleaned soot from chimneys.

Yet despite those well-documented risks, coal-tar creosote has been a timber industry staple for the past century. Each year, 825 million pounds of creosote are used to protect telephone poles, marine pilings and most of the nation's countless miles of railroad ties from wood-boring pests and foul weather, according to industry estimates.

When mishandled, it seeps into soil and groundwater. Its fumes permeate the largely poor and rural neighborhoods surrounding wood treatment plants. And its toxic chemical cocktail leaves behind a legacy of suspicious illnesses and premature deaths.

"These chemicals have been known to be hazardous," said Jay Feldman, executive director of Washington-based Beyond Pesticides, one of more than a dozen advocacy groups suing the EPA in an effort to stop the use of creosote. "We have a national problem with these contamination sites."

Coal tar creosote and two related wood preservatives have been found in at least 100 current or former sites on the EPA's Superfund National Priorities List or state contamination lists.

An industry besieged

In the nation's capital, the efforts by a dozen environmental and organized labor groups to ban creosote are part of a larger strategy to curtail two other popular wood preservatives, chromated copper arsenate, or CCA, and pentachlorophenol. Each are licensed as pesticides.

A quarter-century ago, the EPA announced its intent to not renew the three pesticides' registration.

But in 1984, health considerations took a back seat to monetary ones: the agency ruled that the absence of "economically viable alternatives" outweighed the risk to human health even as it chastised the wood preserving industry for relying on "bad science" to bolster its case.

On Dec. 31, 2003, a voluntary industry phaseout of CCA a staple of wooden playground equipment and backyard picnic benches took effect, removing those treated products from the marketplace but not addressing wood treated prior to that date.

Now opponents of wood preservatives are asking the courts to follow suit on penta and creosote.

Citing the federal agency's own data from 20 years earlier, environmentalists have lobbied the EPA since 1997 to not renew the required registrations. Tired of what they called foot-dragging by EPA, a 15-group coalition of environmental and labor groups filed suit in December 2002.

They cited a ban put in place last year on the sale and consumer use of creosote by the then- 15-nation European Union. The EU also ordered creosote manufacturers to significantly reduce the amount of benzoapyrene found in the wood preservative.

Feldman and his colleagues arranged meetings between federal regulators and business owners who had developed alternatives to treated wood products, including composite railroad ties made of plastics and other synthetic materials.

And they submitted scientific data showing how creosote destroys the lungs, burns the skin, shuts down kidneys and travels through the placenta into an unborn child's tissue.

Wood preservative opponents also have railed against what they consider an excessively collegial rapport between the government regulators and the industry those bureaucrats are paid to regulate.

Creosote industry leaders point to their own, industry-funded research to rebut the claims that the wood preservative in use for more than 130 years isn't safe.

Direct pipeline to the EPA notwithstanding, the five American companies that manufacture creosote and the countless smaller businesses that use it to treat wood are in many ways on their heels.

Faced with financial woes caused by a steady stream of lawsuits over health problems linked to CCA-treated playground equipment, the American Wood Preservers Institute, a leading industry advocate, shut its doors in late 2002.

That same year industrial giant Kerr-McGee - one of a handful of American creosote manufacturers and owner of six wood treatment plants - announced it was getting out of the wood products business entirely. ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/8165 Sat, 05 Jun 2004 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/8165
On Friday, Circuit Judge Ted Brousseau denied a motion by Collier Enterprises Inc. and Collier Development Corp. to toss out 50 separate lawsuits filed by current and former Jerome residents, mill workers and their descendants.

The plaintiffs allege that the two businesses and their corporate predecessors failed to adequately clean up groundwater contaminated by a 1956 fire at the C.J. Jones lumber mill in eastern Collier County. The group includes 19 people with Jerome ties who subsequently died of cancer or brain tumors and dozens more battling an array of ailments.

"From what I can see, it's a debatable situation at this point," Brousseau said at the conclusion of a one-hour hearing in an otherwise empty courtroom. "That's what jury trials are for."

With the denial, Collier Enterprises and Collier Development Corp. now have 15 days to file answers to the formal complaints, all but one of which were filed in September 2003. Another plaintiff whose creosote-related ailments worsened was added earlier this year.

Brousseau's rejection of the motion to dismiss echoes a similar ruling from December 2003 in which the judge tossed out part of the complaint but allowed the bulk of the toxic contamination case to proceed.

In his earlier ruling, Brousseau sided with a request by the Collier companies to disallow claims for "medical monitoring" of plaintiffs who were exposed to tainted water but aren't yet exhibiting symptoms of illness.

But on Friday, the judge apologized for that ruling and said he may reverse the decision after not fully understanding the legal arguments behind those claims.

Brousseau said he heard enough to let the lawsuits proceed.

"That's enough to get past a motion to dismiss," he said. "Whether they prove it is for another day."

While residents of Jerome long suspected their water was harmful, proof of contamination wasn't established until 1989, after a Jerome man's visiting sister alerted the Collier County Pollution Control Department.

Subsequent county and state tests found several residential wells with elevated levels of four chemicals that are found in creosote, two of which are considered toxic. Collier Enterprises responded by providing bottled water, free of charge, to Jerome residents. The company continues to do so.

State regulators with the agency now known as the Department of Environmental Protection began testing the water and oversaw a Collier company cleanup as part of a consent agreement reached in October 1990.

Officials with the two Collier companies say they have complied with the state's requirements from the outset.

Creosote, a popular wood preservative derived from coal tar, has been a timber industry staple for more than a century and can be found on railroad ties, utility poles and marine pilings.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency has long recognized the dangers of human exposure to creosote. In 1978, the agency called for an industry phase-out.

EPA reversed course in 1984 after ruling that the absence of "economically viable alternatives" outweighed the risks to human health. A coalition of environmental and labor groups is now suing the government in an effort to ban creosote.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7732 Tue, 10 Feb 2004 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7732
The extra cold weather puts a lot more heat up that chimney flue," said Topeka firefighter Dennis Bowser, who also owns and operates Countryside Chimney Sweep. "If people didn't get their chimneys cleaned in the fall before they started firing them up, then excessive build-up of creosote can cause them to ignite."

Bowser and Topekans Joe Steinbock and Rich Reed who also work as "sweeps" to clean out chimneys agreed this week that almost all chimney fires are sparked by the build-up of creosote, a black residue of burning wood that sticks to chimney interiors.

Reed, said fireplaces should be inspected for creosote every time they have burned a cord of wood, which he described as being "about a big pickup load." Steinbock, the owner and operator of Steinbock's Ye Olde Chimney Sweep, said chimneys should be cleaned whenever creosote build-up accumulates to one-eighth of an inch.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7735 Tue, 27 Jan 2004 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7735
When creosote from previous fires builds up inside a chimney, it clogs the chimney and can often cause the flue to get so hot it sets walls on fire, Princeton Fire Chief Ritz Villebrun said.

"At this time of year, when people stock the wood stoves, they normally don't clean their chimneys good enough," Villebrun said. "They use them over and over for years without cleaning. It builds up with creosote and the flames have nowhere to go. It just gets hot and bursts.''
]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7733 Wed, 03 Dec 2003 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7733
There is no evidence that the W.C. Meredith Utility Pole Treatment Plant has done anything wrong, but the residents, who sometimes wear masks around their homes, say they believe the proof is in the smell of Creosote, which the plant uses to treat telephone poles.

Residents said the smell is sometimes so thick that they can taste it.

"It has a taste and I have a 15-month-old. It concerned me then, it concerns me doubly now," said one resident at the meeting.

East Point City Councilman Greg Fann agrees with many that the plant has to leave the community. My eyes started running water, I ingested the smell and I started having breathing problems, he said.

Whats at stake is, without a doubt, our quality of life and we dont know what the health consequences are, said East Point resident Michelle Thomas.

Officials with Meredith were not at the meeting and did not return phone calls from 11Alive News, but have publicly said the plant is not the cause of the odor and that they are in full compliance of EPA laws and regulations.

The fire department has placed air quality monitors in the community around the plant, but state testing so far has found no danger.

Nonetheless, residents want the plant to stop using Creosote immediately.

As far as Meredith saying theyre going to stop it in March, stop it in April or June, I want them to stop it yesterday, said State Senator Vincent Fort.

The residents said they will form a task force to look into ways to put more pressure on the company and the Verizon company, which is one of its biggest clients. ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7736 Wed, 26 Nov 2003 00:00:00 -0800 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7736
The agreement was one of 29 settlements filed Wednesday related to the former Kerr-McGee plant.

The settlements stem from lawsuits, including some wrongful-death claims, filed by numerous families who lived near the plant, which made railroad ties since at least the mid-1940s.

The families said the plant spread three highly toxic substances, creosote, arsenic and benzene, into the air. The chemicals caused individuals to develop cancer, birth defects and other diseases.

Wednesday's settlements range from $2,700 to $457,360. Most of the settlements are under $20,000 and only two are higher than $100,000.

In the largest case, Mary Ann Trinovitch, administrator to the estate of her husband, John Gorzkowski, claimed her husband was exposed to the chemicals when they lived in Avoca. The chemicals caused Gorzkowski, who also had three children, to develop leukemia and die in 1988 at the age of 32.

In another case, James Manley, administrator to the estate of Gail Manley, was awarded $234,550 in a settlement. Manley said his sister developed liver disease from the chemicals and died in 2001 when she was 41.]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7734 Sat, 02 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/articles/read/7734
In a 10-page stipulation released by the state Public Service Department last week, Verizon settled with two local chapters of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, as well as with utilities Central Vermont Public Service Corp. and Green Mountain Power.

Verizon agreed to switch to poles treated with different preservatives and said it will also remove any existing creosote poles determined to be unsafe those that are wet, dripping or bleeding creosote.

The company can still use creosote poles in certain rare circumstances, such as for emergency repairs or when no other poles are available through distributors.

Creosote is a byproduct of wood and coal burning and used to preserve wood against rot. According to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, exposure to high levels of coal-tar creosote can cause a variety of health problems from skin rashes to kidney and liver disorders as well as increase cancer risk.

Utility technicians can come into contact with creosote when climbing on and servicing the poles. The ATSDR says creosote can also leech into groundwater, where its effects are currently unknown.

Verizons placement of creosote-treated poles in Vermont has led to many complaints from the technicians who climb them, according to Stephen Costello, a spokesman for Central Vermont Public Service Corp. CVPS was a party to the settlement.

We were having workers come in with creosote on their clothes. They had skin burns and were working on poles with dripping or wet creosote, Costello said. Our first concern was to see that the safety of the workers was protected. This has caused a lot of concern for our employees and we hope this is resolved now once and for all.

Telephone and electric utilities in Vermont share the responsibility of placing and maintaining poles, and use other companies poles for a fee. CVPS said they only place poles preserved with pentachlorophenol, and many of its workers were upset at having to service lines on Verizons new creosote poles.

What this settlement will do is require Verizon to remove the most problematic poles in the area, Costello said.

Verizon spokeswoman Beth Fastiggi said the negotiating process was a long one, but marked by cooperation.

It was a long process, but that was largely because there were so many parties, she said. But it was a cooperative effort and we are glad we could work to come up with a reasonable solution.

Verizon will shift to pentachlorophenol (penta) or copper napthenate poles for any future installations, and will replace any poles that have been recently erected but not yet strung with wires.

The shift to penta poles, however, may also bring health risks.

A lawsuit filed recently by the national environmental group Beyond Pesticides, and joined by the Communication Workers of America, alleges that the Environmental Protection Agency has known and ignored the health risks of penta and creosote for years.

Penta, a pesticide which doubles as a wood preservative, can cause high fevers, organ damage and even death at high levels of exposure, according to the ATSDR.

The lawsuit alleges that the EPA has overwhelming data on the effects on these preservatives both on workers health and the environment, but has failed to act.

Costello said his workers have never experienced adverse effects from penta-treated poles.

Weve been following that case he said. Weve used these poles for decades without any problems. They have good, long retention.

No long-term adverse effects from copper-napthenate poles have been reported.

Fastiggi said Verizon disagrees with many of Beyond Pesticides arguments against penta poles.

She said the energy costs and environmental impact of manufacturing alternative poles from materials such as Fiberglas make preserved wood a more reasonable and environmentally responsible choice.

Fiberglas poles, she said, are approximately three times more expensive than the $200 to $300 price tag for penta or creosote poles.

Fastiggi said her company follows the lead and the regulations of the EPA, which she says has shown no environmental or human risk from penta poles.

If the EPA says it is safe, we will go ahead and use it, following their regulations, she said. If they modify their regulations we will modify our use. ]]> http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/creosote Sat, 02 Aug 2003 00:00:00 -0700 http://www.yourlawyer.com/topics/overview/creosote Creosote Creosote is a wood preservative used to treat railroad ties, telephone poles and many wood products. Creosote is obtained from high temperature distillation of coal tar which itself a mixture of hundreds of organic substances. It is used as a fungicide, insecticide, miticide, and sporicide to protect wood and is applied by pressure methods to wood products, primarily utility poles and railroad ties. Each year workers are exposed to high concentrations of creosote and may face serious health consequences.

Hazardous waste sites represent a major source of creosote, coal tar, and coal tar pitch contamination. Individuals working in the wood-preserving industry make up the largest part of the population who risk exposure to coal tar creosote. Individuals who live in areas formerly used as sites for wood-preserving facilities may face exposure if the soil was never cleaned up.

The most common way for creosote to enter the body when present in soils is through the skin. In addition, children may ingest creosote if they put their unwashed hands in their mouths after touching soil or wood contaminated with creosote. The most common way that creosote enters the body for individuals in the wood-preserving industry is through the lungs.

Asphalt workers; rubber, aluminum, iron, steel, and tire factory workers; and people working in the coke-producing industries also risk potential exposure to coal tar pitch and coal tar pitch volatiles. They may breathe in vapors from or have direct skin contact with wood-preservation solutions, freshly treated wood, asphalt mixtures, or other products of coke-producing industries. Workers who work with creosote-treated wood in building fences, bridges, or railroad tracks or installing telephone poles may face exposure.

Those who inspect or maintain these materials, or apply asphalt or other coal tar pitch-containing materials, also risk exposure. Creosotes and coal tar products can enter the body through the lungs, stomach, intestines, and skin. The amount that enters the body depends on the type of contact (via air, food, water, skin), how much of the mixture is present, and the length of exposure.

Exposure to creosotes, coal tar, coal tar pitch, or coal tar pitch volatiles may result in minor to serious health effects. Eating food or drinking water contaminated with a high level of these compounds may cause a burning in the mouth and throat as well as stomach pain. Taking herbal remedies containing creosote bush leaves may result in damage to the liver or kidney. Reports describing poisoning in workers exposed to coal tar creosote, or in people who accidentally or intentionally ate coal tar creosote indicate that brief exposure to large amounts of coal tar creosote may result in a rash or severe irritation of the skin, chemical burns of the surfaces of the eye, convulsions and mental confusion, kidney or liver problems, unconsciousness, or even death.

Longer exposures to the vapors of the creosotes, coal tar, coal tar pitch, or coal tar pitch volatiles can also cause irritation of the respiratory tract. Skin cancer and cancer of the scrotum have also resulted from long exposure to low levels of these chemical mixtures, especially through direct contact with the skin during wood treatment or manufacture of coal tar creosote-treated products, or in coke or natural gas factories. Prolonged skin exposure to soot and coal tar creosote has been associated with cancer of the scrotum in chimney sweeps.

If you or a loved one suffered side effects and injuries from Creosote, please fill out the form at the right for a free case evaluation by a qualified pollutants attorney.]]>