PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT
EAGLE-PICHER INDUSTRIES, INCORPORATED/
BUNTING BEARINGS CORPORATION
(a/k/a EAGLE PICHER)
DELTA, FULTON COUNTY, OHIO
Foundry operations have been carried out at the former Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc./current Bunting Bearings Corp. facility in Delta, Ohio, since 1936 with the primary products being bronze alloys, bar stock, and metal bearings. Wastes generated by historical foundry operations included fugitive air emissions from melting and casting processes, baghouse dust containing metals, and scrap bronze stored on-site. Air monitoring was initiated at the site in 1985, and the facility has been in compliance of state and federal air quality regulations since that time.
Ohio Environmental Protection Agency investigations of the facility in 1985 and 1995 revealed lead at levels of up to 15,600 parts per million (ppm) in surface soil samples from residential yards immediately adjacent to the facility. Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. and the Bunting Bearings Corp. signed an administrative order by consent with the United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) in March 1998. The companies carried out an environmental investigation of the foundry property and surrounding residential areas June through August 1998. Lead levels up to 8,209 ppm were detected in residential and commercial areas immediately north and south of the facility. Lead up to 900 ppm was detected in Fewless Creek sediments southeast of the facility.
HAS determined that lead levels in adjacent residential yards and in sediments in Fewless Creek had the potential to pose a public health threat to area residents. The main exposure pathway identified was exposure to lead in surface soils or sediments through ingestion of lead-contaminated soils. The population of concern was infants and young children playing in the dirt in residential yards adjacent to the facility.
A free blood-lead screening of area children was carried out in the neighborhood of the Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc./Bunting Bearings Corp. facility October 26-27, 1999 by Fulton County Health Department staff and representatives of the Regional Childhood Lead Resource Center (Seneca County Health Department). Twenty-three children who lived in the area or spend significant time there were screened through venopunctures. All blood levels were below 10 ug/dl, the lead-risk screening level established by the Centers for Disease Control for children.
Based on the results of this blood-lead screening of area children, HAS has determined that the Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc./Bunting Bearings Corp. facility currently poses no apparent health hazard to area children.
HAS supports current cooperative efforts by US EPA, Ohio EPA, Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. and the Bunting Bearings Corp. to remove or mitigate the potential public health hazard posed by identified lead contamination in off-site residential surface soils and sediments.
Historical sampling records (Ohio EPA, 1985; 1995) and more current sampling data (ENSR, 1998) indicate lead levels up to 15,600 parts per million (ppm) in surface soils in residential properties adjacent to the former Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc./current Bunting Bearings Corp. foundry facility in the village of Delta, Ohio. The Health Assessment Section (HAS) of the Ohio Department of Health was asked by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Region V office to determine if lead in area soils currently posed a health hazard to adjacent residents, especially children. Specifically, HAS was asked to determine whether children living in residential areas immediately adjacent to the former Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. facility were currently being exposed to lead levels that could pose a health hazard to these children.
Description of Facility and adjacent Residential Areas
The former Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc./current Bunting Bearings Corp. facility (EPI/BBC) occupies 5.2 acres on the eastern edge of the Village of Delta in a largely rural portion of Fulton County, Ohio (Figure 1). The operational bronze foundry is east of Van Buren Street, north of Palmwood Street, west of Jackson Street, and south of Linwood Street in a mixed residential and commercial portion of the village (Figure 2). Most of the facility property is surfaced with either asphalt or concrete and is fenced, including some portions of Maplewood Street west of Jackson Street and east of Van Buren Street, limiting on-site access. The facility is bisected by the southeast-flowing Fewless Creek (Figure 2). In the vicinity of the foundry, the creek consists of a channelized stormwater drainage ditch. Access to the creek outside the fenced EPI/BBC property is unlimited.
The facility is surrounded on all sides by residential properties that are separated from the foundry property line by distances as little as 30 feet. Single family homes occur along Van Buren, Palmwood, and Jackson streets. A mobile home park abuts the facility property-line on the north (Figure 2). Prevailing winds are out of the west, from the southwest in the summer and northwest in the winter. No water supply wells are located on-site or in the immediate vicinity of the site. Seven wells occur within a one-mile radius of the site and obtain their water from sand and gravel beds separated from the ground surface by from 83 to 125 feet of clay-rich till (well logs, ODNR). The closest private well is roughly ½ mile north and upgradient of the site. Residents living in the vicinity of the facility obtain their drinking water from the village public water supply. The water supply obtains its water from a surface water source, Delta Reservoir, one mile northwest, upwind and upgradient, of the EPI/BBC facility (Figure 1).
The site of the EPI/BBC facility has been used for industrial purposes since the early 1900's. Foundry operations have been carried out at the site since 1936 with the primary products being bronze alloys, bar stock, and metal bearings (ENSR, 1998). Metal alloys at the facility contained copper (60-90%), lead (up to 24%), tin (2-16%), and zinc (up to 10%). Wastes generated by historical foundry operations included fugitive air emissions from the melting and casting processes, baghouse dust containing various metals, and scrap bronze (Ohio EPA, 1995). Ohio EPA initiated air monitoring at the EPI/BBC facility in 1985. The facility has been in compliance of state and federal air quality regulations since that time (Ohio EPA-Northwest District Office, pers. comm., 1998).
NATURE AND EXTENT OF CONTAMINATION
Initial Ohio EPA Investigations
Following up on citizen complaints regarding poor air quality due to excessive emissions from the EPI/BBC facility, Ohio EPA investigated the foundry in 1985. Sample analyses revealed lead to be present in off-site surface soils at levels as high as 2,024 parts per million (ppm). The highest levels of lead were detected in areas closest to the EPI/BBC fence line.
Ohio EPA performed an Integrated Assessment of the EPI/BBC facility June 6-7, 1995. Groundwater was sampled from wells within a one mile radius of the site, sediment and surface water samples were collected from Fewless Creek, and 12 surface soil samples were taken from the perimeter of the facility. Lead was detected in off-site residential surface soils at levels up to 15,600 ppm. These elevated lead levels were highest in vicinity of the mobile home park, immediately adjacent to the facility. Elevated lead levels (up to 360 ppm lead) were also detected in sediment samples from Fewless Creek, downgradient of the foundry complex.
Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. and the Bunting Bearings Corp. signed an administrative order by consent with US EPA in March 1998. The companies carried out an environmental investigation of the foundry property and surrounding residential and commercial areas June through August 1998, as part of the Engineering Evaluation/Cost Analysis (EE/CA) investigation of the facility. The investigation included sampling of off-site soils and sampling of Fewless Creek sediments and surface water to assess the extent of heavy metal contamination in adjacent residential and commercial properties. Soil samples were taken at 146 sample localities around the perimeter of the facility fence line. Samples of surface (depth of 0-4 inches) and shallow subsurface soils (depths of 6-12 inches) were taken at each sample site. Samples were screened using x-ray fluorescence (XRF) with 20% of these samples split and sent to an off-site laboratory for confirmation analysis.
Lead Levels in Residential Areas
The 1998 EE/CA sampling of surface soils in adjacent residential areas indicated the presence of lead levels up to 8,209 ppm in the vicinity of the mobile home park north of the EPI/BBC facility. Nearly 25% of the 68 surface soil samples taken in this area (N = 16) had lead levels above the 400 ppm Preliminary Remedial Goal (PRG) that US EPA proposed for lead in off-site residential surface soils (Table 1). This PRG was developed by US EPA to be protective of human health. Lead levels up to 985 ppm were detected in mixed residential and commercial properties south of the foundry facility, between Palmwood and Main Street (Figure 3). Nearly 20% of the 55 surface soil samples from this area (N = 10) had lead levels in excess of the PRG (Table 1). Residential areas west of the site along Van Buren Street and east of the site along Jackson Street had lead levels below the PRG except for two samples collected from the west side of Jackson Street, just east of the facility fence line (Figure 3).
In addition, on-site sampling of Fewless Creek indicated elevated levels of lead up to 6,500 ppm in sediment downstream of the culvert and just north of the EPI/BBC fence line (HAS, 1999b). Sampling of sediment from off-site portions of the creek downstream of the EPI/BBC facility indicated lead levels up to 900 ppm between the facility fence line and the culvert under Main Street (Figure 3). Access to the creek in this area is unlimited.
PUBLIC HEALTH CONCERNS AND DEMOGRAPHICS
Single family residences are along Van Buren Street to the west, between Palmwood and Main Streets to the south, and along Jackson Street to the east. A mobile home park is immediately adjacent to the facility to the north, south of Linwood Street and north of Maplewood (Figure 2).
Sixty-five residences are in the immediate vicinity of the EPI/BBC facility. These include 45 single family houses and 20 mobile homes. 1990 census data indicated approximately 169 people, including 19 children, live in these residences. A site visit by HAS staff in the fall of 1997 also indicated the presence of young children in a number of residences immediately adjacent to the facility, especially along Jackson Street to the east and in the mobile home park to the north, both downwind of the foundry facility. The unborn children of pregnant women are also of concern because lead can cross the placenta of exposed mothers and affect the fetus.
A public meeting was held at the Delta High School October 16, 1998 to inform residents of a proposed blood-lead screening for area children and to answer their questions concerning the extent of lead contamination in off-site soils and the potential health impact on their children. Community health concerns voiced at the meeting included:
These concerns were addressed by representatives of HAS, Seneca County Health Department's Childhood Lead Program, and public health nurses with the Fulton County Health Department.
Area residents have to come into physical contact with the lead released into the environment in the vicinity of the EPI/BBC facility in order to be exposed to this metal. In order for residents to come into contact with the lead in the environment, there must be the development of a completed exposure pathway. A completed exposure pathway consists of five main parts that must be present for lead exposure to occur. These include: 1) a source of the lead in the environment; 2) environmental transport which is a way for the lead to move from the facility to bring it into contact with the residents [soil, air, groundwater, surface water]; 3) a point of exposure which is a place where a resident comes into physical contact with the lead [on-site versus off-site]; 4) a route of exposure which is how the resident comes into contact with the lead [drinking it or eating it, breathing it, or touching it]; and 5) people who could be exposed which are people living near the facility who are most likely to come into contact with lead from the facility. Exposure pathways can also be characterized by when the exposure occurred or might occur in a past, present, and/or future scenario.
Physical contact with lead in the environment in the vicinity of the EPI/BBC facility in and by itself does not necessarily result in adverse health effects. Lead's ability to affect a resident's health is also controlled by a number of other factors, including:
It is very difficult, if not impossible to determine the extent of the residents' exposure to site-related contaminants in the past as the facility has been in operation since 1936. Reliable environmental sampling data only became available beginning in 1985.
As indicated above, area residents obtain their drinking water from the village water system. The water system obtains its water from a surface water reservoir one mile upstream and upgradient of the EPI/BBC facility and it is unlikely that lead releases from the facility have ever had any impact on this water supply. As a result of the location and source of the village's drinking water supply, the distance to the closest private well, and the nature of the local hydrogeology, ingestion of lead-contaminated drinking water was eliminated as potential completed exposure pathway, both in the past as well as currently and in the future.
Limited data indicate that, in the past, residents might have been exposed to lead via inhalation of lead dust in the air and through contact with elevated levels in surface soils in off-site residential properties. Release of lead into the air ceased at the facility in 1985 and the facility has been in compliance of state and federal air quality regulations since that time. Lead was detected at levels up to 2,024 ppm in soils in adjacent residential yards (Ohio EPA, 1985).
As a result of these detections of lead in off-site surface soils, the Fulton County Health Department and the Division of Epidemiology within the Ohio Department of Health (ODH) conducted blood-lead screenings of area children in April and December of 1986. The screenings focused on children six months to six years of age as children of this age range are most likely to suffer adverse health effects resulting from lead exposure (ATSDR, 1997). Twenty-eight children were screened in April and nine were screened in December. ODH concluded that, while the potential for lead exposure exists in the study area, no children had recently been exposed, and no evidence of lead toxicity was found in the children who participated in the screening clinics (ODH, 1987).
More recent investigations (ENSR, 1998) demonstrated that elevated levels of lead occur in surface soils (up to 8,290 ppm) and sediments (up to 900 ppm) in residential areas in close proximity to the EPI/BBC facility. Census data and observations made during a recent site visit by HAS staff indicated that approximately 19 children live in the area of concern, including a number of children less than six years of age (HAS, 1999a).
Potential Completed Exposure Pathways
HAS identified at least three potential completed pathways in which area children might be exposed to the elevated lead levels in surface soils in their yards (1999a, 1999d). These included the following: 1) incidental ingestion of lead-contaminated soil by children playing in the dirt; 2) incidental ingestion or inhalation of lead-contaminated dust generated by winds or vehicular traffic in the dry summer months; and, 3) contact with lead-contaminated sediments in portions of Fewless Creek downstream from the EPI/BBC facility. These potentially complete environmental pathways indicate at least the possibility that area children could be exposed to lead in the soil at levels that might pose a health hazard.
The ingestion of contaminated soils and sediments is a potentially important route of lead exposure, especially significant in residential areas where exposure may occur frequently as a result of outdoor activities of young children. Young children are the group most likely to ingest dust and soil, either via accidental ingestion of dirt through hand to mouth action or, less commonly, through the direct consumption of the soil. Older children are less likely to eat the soil or mouth soil-encrusted objects, but they may ingest quantities of dirt through their hands. Adults are less likely to be exposed by this route. The airborne dispersal of contaminated soils is another potential route of transport leading to the inhalation of suspended dust. However, in general, the total dose due to inhalation will be small (Paustenbach, 1989).
Children are also a population of concern because they absorb more lead. For example, about 99% of the lead taken into the body of an adult will leave in the waste within a couple of weeks, but only about 32% of the lead absorbed by children will be eliminated from the body in the same manner (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 1997). Children are also more sensitive to the effects of lead than are adults. At low levels lead can affect a child's mental and physical growth. The major effect of intake of excessive amounts of lead into the body is damage to the blood-forming and nervous systems. No threshold has been determined for the effects of lead on the blood system or on learning ability in children. Accordingly, these potentially complete environmental pathways indicate at least the possibility that area children could be exposed to lead in the soil at levels that might pose a health hazard. Also of concern was the fact that nearly 10 years had elapsed since the last blood-lead screening of area children was carried out (ODH, 1987).
1998 Blood-Lead Screening of Area Children
Ohio Department of Health, Fulton County Health Department (FCHD), representatives of Ohio's Childhood Lead Program, with the cooperation of the Regional Childhood Lead Resource Center (Seneca County Health Department), US EPA and Ohio EPA staff, representatives of Eagle Picher Industries, Inc. and the Bunting Bearings Corp., and Village of Delta government officials, provided free blood-lead screenings of area children to be carried out October 26-27, 1998 at a church close to the facility on the east side of Delta. Inter-agency meetings were carried out September 25, 1998 and October 2, 1998, in order to organize and facilitate the proposed blood lead screenings.
A team approach was used with HAS working closely with the FCHD and the Regional Childhood Lead Resource Center (RCLRC) to plan and carry out the blood lead screens. HAS originated and helped to coordinate the blood-lead screenings, prepared a fact sheet for the public meeting announcement, prepared the lead screening health questionnaire, answered questions from residents at the public meeting, and evaluated the testing results and the potential health implications. The FCHD facilitated the cooperative approach to the lead screenings, provided the consent forms for children's parents, provided the public health nurses who performed the venopunctures, served as the clearinghouse for questions from area residents, and undertook the responsibility to provide the results to the individual residents. The RCLRC (Seneca County Health Department) supervised the blood lead screens, provided all blood screening supplies, and provided general lead poisoning educational materials. The Village of Delta government facilitated distribution of information packets to the targeted residents and moderated the public meeting held on October 16, 1998 at the high school.
The public meeting held at the Delta High School the evening of October 16, 1998, was used to inform nearby residents of the blood-lead screenings and answer their questions concerning the off-site lead contamination and the potential health impact on their children. Prior to the meeting (October 8, 1998), residents living adjacent to EPI/BBC facility were hand delivered information packets prepared by HAS. These packets included a fact sheet describing the intent of the meeting and the need for the proposed blood-lead screening of area children, a consent form to be signed by parents or guardians of the children to be tested, a brief questionnaire to be filled out the parent or guardian, and an educational pamphlet put out by the RCLRC discussing health risks posed by childhood lead poisoning (see Appendix A). The meeting was moderated by the mayor of Delta and included presentations by representatives of US EPA, HAS, FCHD, and the RCLRC.
The blood lead screenings were held at a neighborhood church from 5:00 to 9:00 P.M. on the evening of Monday, October 26, and again from 9:00 A.M. to 1:00 P.M. the morning of Tuesday, October 27, 1998. The venopunctures were performed by the public health nursing staff of the FCHD with assistance from RCLRC staff. Prior to testing, each parent or guardian had to submit a completed consent form and health questionnaire. Each child tested was assigned a unique identification number. Each blood sample taken was labeled with that child's unique ID number.
A total of 23 area children was screened. The samples were sent to the Ohio Department of Health Laboratory for analysis. Participants from the targeted residential area included nine children from six residences along Linwood Street (mobile home park), one child from one residence on Palmwood Street, two children from a residence on Jackson Street, and two children from two residences on Maplewood Street. Additional children tested included three children from two residences in Delta located outside of the targeted residential area, three children whose babysitter lived on Jackson Street, plus three children who normally live in Fulton County outside of Delta, but who spend their summers with their cousins in Delta (HAS, 1999c).
Results
The results of the screenings were received back from the ODH Laboratory on November 2, 1998.
The individual results were sent to the parent or guardian of each screening participant by the
FCHD. HAS received copies of the completed health questionnaires and the lead screening results
from the FCHD on November 5, 1998. The FCHD also sent the lead screening results to the US
EPA Region V Remedial Project Manager the same day.
In summary, 23 children participated in the blood-lead screening with most (74%) either living or spending significant time in the identified residential area of concern. All blood-lead levels were below 10 ug/dl, the lead-risk screening level established by Centers for Disease Control (CDC) for children. These results are presented in Table 2. Analyses of blood-lead screening results by address did not indicate any obvious pattern with regard to blood-lead levels detected and proximity to known lead-contaminated surface soils.
These results indicated that area children either are not coming into contact with these lead-contaminated soils or are coming into contact with the lead but not absorbing it. The extent and rate of lead absorption from the digestive tract can be influenced by many factors, including the age and nutritional levels of calcium and iron typical of each individual. Characteristics of the lead, such as particle size, solubility, and the chemical form of the lead can also influence the body's ability to absorb it. An adult who has recently eaten may absorb only 3-15% of the water-soluble lead compounds that have been consumed. The presence of calcium and phosphate in a meal will depress the absorption rate for ingested lead. Children who are iron-deficient have higher blood-lead concentrations than similarly exposed children who are not.
The results of the October 1998 blood-lead screenings of area children matched up with results from the blood-lead screenings carried out by ODH and the FCHD in April and December 1986. The 1986 screenings also focused on area children six months to six years in age. Twenty-eight children were screened in April and nine were screened in December. ODH concluded that while the potential for lead exposure existed in the area, no children had recently been exposed, and no evidence of lead toxicity was found in the children who participated in the screening clinics (ODH, 1987).
ATSDR and HAS considers children in the assessment of all sites that pose a potential or real public health hazard. ATSDR and HAS use public health guidelines that are specifically developed to be protective of children. Children are often at greater risk than adults from certain kinds of exposures to hazardous substances in the environment. As indicated above, young children playing in residential yards adjacent to the Eagle Picher Industries, Inc./Bunting Bearings Corp. facility were identified as the population of concern in this public health assessment. Area children are the main focus of this health assessment.
This Public Health Assessment was sent out for public comment for a 30-day period in January 2001. Copies of the draft report were provided to U.S. EPA, Ohio EPA, the Fulton County Health Department, the Regional Childhood Lead Resource Center (Seneca County Health Department), the Village of Delta government, Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc., and to the Bunting Bearings Corp. A cover letter announcing the release of the draft Health Assessment, summarizing its results and conclusions, and providing instructions as to the public comment process for the document was mailed to 23 concerned citizens. No public comments were received other than instructions from Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc. and from the Bunting Bearings Corp. with regard to the correct spellings of the names of their companies.
The Eagle-Picher Industries, Inc./Bunting Bearings Corp. site currently poses no apparent public health hazard to off-site children. Blood-lead screening of 23 children, most of whom either live near or spend significant time in residential areas adjacent to the EPI/BBC Delta facility, were all below the CDC health risk standard of 10 ug/dL for children. Blood-lead results ranged from <2 to 7 ug/dL with a mean average result of 3.4 ug/dL. The results from the 1998 lead screening mirror results obtained by ODH in 1986 for lead screenings in the same neighborhood on the east side of the Village Delta. The conclusions reached are the same, namely, that while the potential for lead exposure exists in the targeted neighborhood, there is no evidence that exposure has occurred or any evidence of lead toxicity in any of the children who participated in the screening clinics.
The role of the Public Health Action Plan is to insure that this document not only identifies any current or potential exposure pathways or related health hazards, but also provides a plan of action to mitigate and prevent adverse health effects resulting from exposure to hazardous substances in the environment. The first section of the Public Health Action Plan contains a description of completed actions to mitigate exposures to environmental contamination. The second section lists public health actions that are still in-progress or that will be carried out in the future.
Public Health Actions Completed
Public Health Actions Planned or In-progress
AGENCY FOR TOXIC SUBSTANCES AND DISEASE REGISTRY (ATSDR). 1997. Toxicological Profile for Lead (Update). August, 1997. 483 p. + appendices.
ENSR. 1998. Data Report for EE/CA Support Sampling Program at the Former Eagle Picher Site, Delta, Ohio. October, 1998. 10 p. + appendices, tables, and figures.
HEALTH ASSESSMENT SECTION (HAS). 1999a. Health Consultation (Lead in Soils) for the Eagle Picher/Bunting Bearings Corp., Delta, Fulton County, Ohio. March 24, 1999. 6 p. + tables and figures.
HEALTH ASSESSMENT SECTION (HAS). 1999b. Health Consultation (X-Ray Fluorescence Screening values) for the Eagle Picher/Bunting Bearings Corp., Delta, Fulton County, Ohio. March 24, 1999. 3 p. + tables and figures.
HEALTH ASSESSMENT SECTION (HAS). 1999c. Health Consultation (Lead in Sediments) for the Eagle Picher/Bunting Bearing Corp., Delta, Fulton County, Ohio. March 24, 1999. 4 p. + tables and figures.
HEALTH ASSESSMENT SECTION (HAS). 1999d. Health Consultation (Lead Exposure Investigation of Residential Neighborhood), Eagle Picher/Bunting Bearing Corp. Delta, Fulton County, Ohio. May 5, 1999. 7 p. + tables and figures.
OHIO DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH (ODH). 1987. Lead Toxicity Screening in the Vicinity of Eagle Picher Bearings, Delta, Fulton County, Ohio. 33 p. + attachments.
OHIO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (Ohio EPA). 1985. Eagle Picher Company. Ohio EPA Information Sheet, 3 p.
OHIO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY (Ohio EPA). 1995. Integrated Assessment Report for Eagle Picher (a.k.a. Markey Bronze), Delta, Fulton County. September 22, 1995. 27 p. + appendices.
PAUSTENBACH, D. 1989. The Risk Assessment of Environmental and Human Health Hazards: A Textbook of Case Studies. John Wiley & Sons, New York.
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