Comments‘I DON’T WANT TO DIE’-As a veteran teacher of 25 years, I‘ve heard children say a lot of things. But, in 2010 one of my second-grade students said something no teacher should ever hear: “Ms. Lappin, I don’t want to die.” He wasn’t sick. But he was scared. The child’s haunting words impelled me to start asking questions. Specifically, why were so many children, teachers, and residents contracting cancer in the small city of Paramount?
I began calling regulatory agencies and contacting environmental and public health organizations. Three years later one of my students lost her brave battle with the disease at age eight. At her funeral, a parent whose nine-month-old baby was diagnosed with cancer asked me, “Help us, teacher.” At that moment, I knew I had to uncover why so many parents’ hearts are being broken by the unexplainable number of children getting seriously ill and even dying.
As my activism increased, so did the evidence suggesting something was deeply wrong with the air we were all breathing. I met a local teacher who had five children diagnosed with cancer in her kindergarten class over the past eight years. I learned that I had contracted the disease too – requiring the removal of my left lung three years ago. And then, in the summer of 2016, SCAQMD agreed to conduct a comprehensive air monitoring study of Paramount. Our deepest fears were realized: The agency informed us that our air had up to 350 times above normal levels of hexavalent chromium (hex chrome), a compound known to cause lung cancer, as well as asthma, allergies, anemia, and sperm damage. Hex chrome is the same chemical that devastated the town of Hinkley, California and was made famous in the film “Erin Brockovich.”
Metal forging, chrome plating, and anodizing industries are primary emitters of this dangerous chemical. Southern California is home to hundreds of such metalworking companies, and the highest percentage of industrial hex chrome emissions in the state.
Because of the growing public outcry of Paramount residents – further ignited by the disclosure that there were five metal forging companies within just five square miles - SCAQMD initiated a series of important actions. The agency identified the metalworking companies principally responsible for these dangerous emissions, required they reduce emissions or face temporary closure, forced metal forging companies located near homes and schools to install state of the art pollution controls, and prohibited metal grinding in the open air.
Since that time, SCAQMD has been holding public workshops to strengthen regulations aimed at reducing hex chrome emissions coming from the 117 chrome plating and chromic acid anodizing facilities in the state, most of which are located in low-income communities of Southern California. But the metal lobby and its big business allies are fighting back.
Industry lobbyists launched coordinated personal attacks, downplayed the public health threat posed by hex chrome, and portrayed themselves as unfairly persecuted “mom and pop” businesses, despite many typically earning between $5 and $50 million in annual revenues. SCAQMD has since conceded to industry demands, significantly weakening recently proposed regulatory improvements.
Southern Californians are paying a steep price for this regulatory about-face. Alarming rates of cancer continue to plague our communities. Most vulnerable to the ravages of hex chrome are children, whose immune systems are still developing.
No final regulatory decisions will be made until February 2, 2018. We have until December 15 to submit public comments to SCAQMD demanding the implementation of comprehensive, state of the art pollution controls and immediate long-term air monitoring on all chrome plating and anodizing plants. And, the companies emitting the chemical, not the taxpayers forced to breathe it, should pay for it.
Every person deserves to breathe clean air, especially children. For too long residents living in shadows of the metal industry have been disproportionately suffering from the health impacts associated with breathing hex chrome. The regulatory agencies given the responsibility to protect us must live up to California’s reputation as the nation’s unquestioned environmental leader – our health and futures depend on it.
(Lisa Lappin is a second and third-grade teacher who has been teaching in Compton and Paramount for a combined 26 years.) Prepped for CityWatch by Linda Abrams.
-CW
