LEFT OF DAYTON

DAYTON CHRYSLER/BEHR SUPERFUND SITE MAKES YOUTUBE

DAYTON RESIDENTS USE YOUTUBE TO HELP WITH A HUGE ENVIRONMENTAL PROBLEM AT A SUPERFUND SITE IN THEIR NEIGHBORHOOD.  A GROUP CALLED BVOCAL HAS MADE A SHORT VIDEO, “THIS IS OUR NEIGHBORHOOD!” TO TELL THEIR STORY WORLDWIDE AND TO ENCOURAGE STRONGER ACTION FROM THE U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY.

THEY WANT THEIR HOMES RETESTED FOR TRICHLOROETHYLENE, A DANGEROUS INDUSTRIAL CHEMICAL.

Here is the link to the video on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N8tXRg3-bEg

Three years ago, people who live in the McCook Field neighborhood of Dayton Ohio learned that the former Chrysler Airtemp plant at Leo and Webster Streets, now owned by Behr, had leaked trichloroethylene (TCE), into the ground and that toxic vapor from the chemical was coming up into their houses at unsafe levels.  Over 400 homes have been tested for vapors and elevated TCE levels were found in more than half. Contamination levels as much as 650 times the official “action level” have been found. One school has been closed due to contamination. The USEPA says this is one of the worst contamination sites in the country and has made it a Superfund site.

Mitigation systems, which are a patch but not a fix for the problem, have been installed in many homes but the TCE plume continues to move through the groundwater causing levels under the homes to constantly change.  For that reason, all of the homes need to be periodically retested in order to insure that they are safe, something the USEPA has not yet agreed to do.

BVOCAL spokesperson Jerry Bowling says, “We want to tell our story and to encourage the USEPA to retest all of our homes on an ongoing basis until the problem is resolved.”

The Ohio Department of Health has found that TCE exposure is linked to kidney cancer, liver cancer, non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and several other types of cancer including Hodgkin’s lymphoma and cervical cancer.  A cancer incidence study of the McCook Field area completed by the Ohio Department of Health in August 2008 found that for all cancer types, the neighborhood had a significantly higher than expected number of cancer cases and that for 4 types of cancer associated with TCE exposure; liver, non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and cervical cancer, there were more observed cases in the area than would have been expected.

TCE exposure can also cause other health effects such as headaches, lung irritation, dizziness, coordination and concentration difficulties, skin rashes, nerve and immune system damage and damage to fetal development. Many of these problems have been reported by residents of the neighborhood.

Chrysler discovered the TCE contamination on its property in 1989 or 1990.  Almost 20 years later, the site is still not being cleaned up despite the severity of the contamination and the number of people affected.

Now that Chrysler has filed bankruptcy, it appears that it may try to completely walk away from it’s responsibilities to this neighborhood.  The BVOCAL group is working to make sure that doesn’t happen and that the USEPA does everything it can to protect this community.

BVOCAL can be reached at, bo68chev@att.net , 937-224-5058, 522 Herbert St., Dayton, OH 45404.