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NIOSH IBM Cleanup
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IBM cleanup: 'Big issues behind us' in Endicott
Sep 26, 2016 | Press Connects (USA Today Network)
By Tom Wilber
Cleanup efforts have significantly lowered levels of a toxic solvent found in indoor air at the Huron Campus in Endicott, according to the most recent tests at the storied manufacturing site. -
FRUSTRATION: Inconclusive pollution study at IBM plant proves vexing
May 26, 2016 | Press Connects (USA Today Network)
By Tom Wilber
A federal study on birth defects of children of IBM workers carries at least one surprise and many unknowns. Children of men, rather than women, who worked at a polluted IBM plant in Endicott had elevated rates of certain heart defects, according to federal researchers. -
NIOSH Holding Teleconference on Birth Defects of Children of IBM Endicott Employees
May 20, 2016 | Occupational Health & Safety
NIOSH announced it will host a teleconference meeting to present the results of a study of birth defects in the children of former workers of the International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) facility in Endicott, N.Y. The meeting will be held on May 26 starting at 10 a.m. EDT. -
Former IBM site: Revised standard prompts more tests
Mar 7, 2016 | Pres Connects (USA Today Network)
By Tom Wilber
Metal canisters strategically placed in buildings on the Huron campus in Endicott represent the latest effort to capture information about an environmental hazard lurking out of sight for more than 35 years. -
IBM toxic pool defies cleanup
Apr 5, 2015 | Press Connects (USA Today Network)
By Tom Wilber
fter 35 years, IBM Corp. contractors have stanched the flow of industrial solvents into a commercial and residential district in the heart of the village, but they have yet to find a solution for the source of the problem at the company's former flagship manufacturing plant.
Traditional Media Coverage
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IBM cleanup: 'Big issues behind us' in Endicott
Sep 26, 2016 | Press Connects (USA Today Network)
By Tom Wilber
Cleanup efforts have significantly lowered levels of a toxic solvent found in indoor air at the Huron Campus in Endicott, according to the most recent tests at the storied manufacturing site.
While officials cited the results as a sign the 35-year cleanup at the plant — once a centerpiece to IBM Corp.’s global business empire — is heading toward the “home stretch,” critics warned against complacency.
Locations affected by trichloroethylene, or TCE, pollution at or above the state exposure guideline fell from 71 in 2005 to five, according to a report by Sanborn Head Engineering, an IBM contractor. The report was released this week by the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
Concentrations remained slightly elevated in four sampling spots in Building 46, used for loading and warehousing; and one location in Building 42, at an office where workers check in and out between tending to jobs around campus.
In Building 46, TCE concentrations registered at 2 micrograms per cubic meter in two locations and at 2.1 in two other spots. The state recommends action when levels reach 2. In Building 42, concentrations measured 3.1 in one area. Other samples collected in 14 buildings were below 2 or non-detected.
Exposure to TCE at levels measured at Huron are "unlikely to result in health effects," according to state Department of Health officials.
Overall, the tests reflected an 89 percent drop of average concentration of TCE since the last tests in 2005.
Results were welcomed by stakeholders at Huron, the DEC and IBM, which is responsible for cleaning the site under an order by the state.
After 35 years, officials are “in the home stretch” of the massive cleanup project, said Robert Schick, the DEC’s director of environmental remediation. “Most of the big issues are behind us.”
The TCE reduction inside buildings was from adjusting the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air condition) systems to dilute or vent chemical vapors entering from the ground.
In addition, IBM contractors are designing vacuum systems to pull TCE from beneath buildings 46 and 42, Schick said. The “soil extraction systems” should be in place next year and evaluated for at least a year after that.
For now, the site remains listed as “Class 2” on the state's hazardous waste registry, meaning it poses a "significant threat" to public health or the environment. If all goes according to plan, it could be reclassified to Class 4, meaning the threat is gone but continued operation and maintenance of mitigation systems is required.
“This was a very positive report,” said Huron President Chris Pelto. “Better than expected.”
IBM spokesman Todd Martin said tests show TCE levels “significantly reduced” and indoor air results “in all buildings tested are acceptable.”
Some stakeholders wondered why these steps were not taken years ago, and cautioned TCE levels in the ground below the buildings were still unacceptable.
Limiting TCE concentrations by continually adjusting ventilation and heating systems is far from foolproof, said Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight. The California-based organization has pushed for better understanding and regulation of TCE impacts, and Siegel has cited IBM's Endicott site as a bellwether for TCE policy.
“Relying on HVAC to protect against vapor intrusion is tenuous,” Siegel said. “It's difficult to rely on a building operator — owner or tenant — to maintain and operate HVAC systems at the level required to mitigate vapor intrusion, but it is possible.”
Officials are unable to provide figures on how much TCE remains, but the DEC has estimated more than 815,000 pounds of the solvent and other toxic chemicals have been extracted during the 35-year cleanup. Estimated costs to IBM exceed $60 million.
Huron, which bought the site from IBM in 2002, leases space to IBM, i3 Electronics, BAE Systems, Binghamton University and other tenants who collectively employ between 3,500 and 4,000 people.
TCE use has been phased out, but it was used liberally during the middle of the 20th century, when IBM built its global computer empire around circuit board manufacturing operations in Endicott.
While the solvent was long known to be acutely toxic in high concentrations, an assessment by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in 2011 found long-term exposure to even low levels increases risks of cancer and birth defects.
Taking the EPA assessment into account, the state Department of Health last year lowered its safety guideline for TCE exposure from 5 to 2 micrograms per cubic meter for residential and occupational settings.
Buildings 46 and 42 are in or near the “source area” of the TCE pollution, which spread from storage tanks near the plant's rail corridor into a 360-acre swath of the village, encompassing residential and commercial areas to the south.
Efforts to clean the pollution and eliminate exposure risks in residential areas adjacent to the plant also have been successful, although they are dependent on continuous operation of powerful pumps to control the flow of groundwater.
Pollution at the site has been the subject of national research. A $3.2 million study by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health released this spring found that children of former employees who worked at the plant when operated by IBM had elevated rates of heart defects attributed to chemicals carried home on their shoes and clothes. But it could not determine whether TCE pollution was a factor due to lack of data.
The first phase of the NIOSH study, released in 2014, found deaths from certain cancers were more frequent in some groups of former IBM workers than would be expected in the general population. Additionally, several types of cancer were relatively more common in workers who had more potential exposure to TCE and other chemicals or worked longer in certain production buildings.
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FRUSTRATION: Inconclusive pollution study at IBM plant proves vexing
May 26, 2016 | Press Connects (USA Today Network)
By Tom Wilber
A federal study on birth defects of children of IBM workers carries at least one surprise and many unknowns.
Children of men, rather than women, who worked at a polluted IBM plant in Endicott had elevated rates of certain heart defects, according to federal researchers.
But scientists with the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health point to exposure to chemical hazards workers encountered in daily operations at the plant from 1983 until 2001.
Highlights of the study published Wednesday by Wiley Periodicals:
• Certain heart defects were “significantly elevated” in children of male workers exposed to metals, lead and chlorinated hydrocarbons during daily operations.
• Harmful chemicals on clothes or footwear of male workers could be carried to homes and expose childbearing women. Chemicals could also harm the sperm of male workers exposed even for a short period.
• Though TCE was historically used in large volumes at the plant, the study could not account for exposure risks much before the chemical was phased out because statistics on statewide birth outcomes were unavailable prior to 1983.
• Due to lack of data, the study could not assess how ongoing exposure to TCE pollution at the site affected worker’s birth outcomes after the chemical was phased out.
Officials from NIOSH delivered the findings via Skype to about 25 residents, state and local officials and media gathered at the Endicott library Thursday. More parties, from California to Massachusetts, were connected by teleconference to the agency’s office in Cincinnati, Ohio.
According to the study, “No conclusion can be drawn about whether TCE or PCE exposures … conferred increased risk for birth defects.” PCE (perchloroethylene) is an industrial solvent similar to TCE, (trichloroethylene).
Though TCE was documented entering buildings from pollution in the ground after it was phased out of production in the mid 1980s, that exposure — called vapor intrusion — was not factored into the study.
“We just don’t have the data,” NOISH researcher Sharon Silver told the group. “Vapor intrusion varies with time and varies with weather. There are different parts of buildings with different levels.”
The unanswered question is a big one. The $3.2 million NIOSH study was initiated by Congress to learn more about health impacts of TCE pollution affecting some 450 acres at the factory and adjoining residential and commercial neighborhoods.
Lack of an answer proved frustrating for some, including Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight. Siegel, from the Silicon Valley area of California, has been following the evolution of TCE policy over the last 12 years, since the discovery of vapor intrusion in Endicott.
“I’m seriously disappointed that they didn’t come up with a way to study the questions that prompted the study in the first place,” said Siegel, who serves as a liaison with federal and state governments shaping policy and guidelines in communities polluted with trichloroethylene. “They gave no indication that they tried to evaluate exposures to TCE resulting from vapor intrusion. The data we have suggests that such low-level exposures may be continuing to this day."
Other critics found the study released this week to be a relevant piece to a bigger issue.Richard Clapp, an industrial exposure expert at Boston University's School of Public Health, said the study was “well done” and characterized findings as an “important” contribution to literature about lead exposure and male-mediated exposure. “The fact that the study did not take [TCE] vapor intrusion inside the plant into account is perhaps a limitation, but it wouldn't change the issue” of other findings.
Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, however, said the study failed to address "salient issues” in the community. “It took nine years and it’s inconclusive,” Lupardo said. “I was hoping it would bring some peace of mind to residents who are affected and concerned.”
Concerns driving the NOISH study came in 2005 after the New York State Department of Health documented elevated numbers of rare cardiac heart defects over a 17-year period in the area of Endicott polluted with TCE and PCE.
While the 2005 study did not make a causal relationship between exposure and disease, it found a “statistically significant” rate of birth defects, as well as kidney and testicular cancers.
Prompted by findings of people living over the Endicott plume, NIOSH embarked on an ambitious study of the health of people working there.
Silver, the lead author of the study, explained that exposure is not just a concern for pregnant women. “Reproductive effects may be associated with exposures to either parent,” she said. “For fathers, the exposure may affect the gamete directly or be carried home on work clothes or shoes.”
Exposure to an agent that could cause a birth defect would come during a short-term “critical period,” according to the study. For males that would be three months prior through one month after the estimated date of conception. For females, the period is one month prior to conception to three months after.
The IBM birth defects study included 27,700 workers of reproductive age, with twice as many men as women. Women who worked at the plant conceived far fewer children than men, and their rates of birth defects were within the normal range.
The rate for a specific type of heart defect — ventricular septal defect — was “significantly elevated” in children of male workers. Other defects were within the norm.
John Morawetz, who represented International Chemicals Workers Union in the study review, said the findings support previous studies showing elevated birth defects in areas where TCE exposure is a concern. But because exposure scenarios were so broad, varied and uncertain, the study is limited in pinpointing causes.
“It confirms that these health effects are there,” Morawetz said. “That’s a lesson that’s sometimes lost in all the gobbly-gook researchers have to sort through. It’s cause for worry even if it’s not a cigarette-smoking-lung-cancer conclusion.
The cohort of 27,700 workers vulnerable to birth defects from 1983 was part of a larger study including records for 35,000 workers employed at the plant from 1969 to 2001. Researchers cross-referenced employee data with the subject’s mortality and birth outcomes using records filed with New York state agencies.
The first part of the NIOSH study, published by the American Journal of Industrial Medicine in 2014, found people who worked at the Endicott facility had relatively high deaths rates from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, mesothelioma, and pleural, rectal and testicular cancers.
It also found a link between exposure to TCE and deaths from nervous system diseases and leukemia.
IBM spokesman Todd Martin said the study published Wednesday was on the mark.
“While we may differ as to certain specifics concerning the methodology, analysis and interpretation in the … study, we believe its overall results support the success of our efforts in Endicott,” Martin said. “Thirty-six different birth defects were assessed and only one was ‘more common’ when compared to the general population.”
IBM has been pumping TCE and other pollutants from the ground non-stop since they were discovered in 1979. To date, more than 80,000 gallons of TCE and other chemicals have been removed, with an unknown amount remaining.
It wasn’t until 2003, however, when people realized they were exposed to the fumes, which were found entering buildings through a process called vapor intrusion. IBM accelerated its cleanup efforts, and pollution in neighborhoods around the plant is no longer a health threat, according to state officials.
Though TCE has long-understood to be harmful, the federal EPA formalized risks in a 2014 assessment that declared the chemical to be an agent for both birth defects and cancer. Subsequently, the state lowered it's limit for TCE exposure from 5 micrograms per cubic meter to 2.
State health officials are working with IBM and the Department of Environmental Conservation to test indoor air at the former IBM plant, now owned by Huron Real Estate Associates. Results are expected later this year.
"The [NIOSH] study should mitigate any unwarranted fears regarding ongoing health risks," said Huron President Chris Pelto. "We look forward to reviewing additional data regarding the ongoing environmental restoration work being compiled by DEC and the Department of Health in conjunction with IBM."
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NIOSH Holding Teleconference on Birth Defects of Children of IBM Endicott Employees
May 20, 2016 | Occupational Health & Safety
NIOSH announced it will host a teleconference meeting to present the results of a study of birth defects in the children of former workers of the International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) facility in Endicott, N.Y. The meeting will be held on May 26starting at 10 a.m. EDT.
This is the second part of a study that previously presented findings on causes of death and testicular cancer cases among the former workers. This portion of the study has been completed by NIOSH in conjunction with the New York State Department of Health.
A 2008 study that analyzed death records and work experience of peoples who worked at the IBM plant and died between 1969 and 2001 identifiied potential worker exposure to several known and suspected carcinogens and found significantly increased mortality due to melanoma and lymphoma in men and modestly increased mortality due to kidney cancer and brain cancer in men and breast cancer in women.
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Former IBM site: Revised standard prompts more tests
Mar 7, 2016 | Pres Connects (USA Today Network)
By Tom Wilber
Metal canisters strategically placed in buildings on the Huron campus in Endicott represent the latest effort to capture information about an environmental hazard lurking out of sight for more than 35 years.
Each about the size of a bowling ball perched on a cylindrical base, the canisters will collect air samples in March and April in 14 of the approximately 60 buildings at the former Microelectronics Division of IBM Corp. Technicians will place them in occupied buildings where previous tests have found traces of trichloroethylene above 2 micrograms per cubic meter.
The buildings sit on land polluted with toxic chemicals before federal regulations prohibited the once-common practice of dumping them into the ground. The primary pollutant is trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial solvent widely used in the military and manufacturing in the 20th century.
Air tests were ordered by the state Department of Environmental Conservation in light of recent evaluations that show even short-term exposure to relatively low levels of TCE can increase risks of birth defects in childbearing women. Long-term exposure carries cancer risks.
As a result of this and other analysis from the federal Environmental Projection Agency indicating TCE is a more potent hazard than previously thought, the state last year lowered its TCE exposure threshold from 5 micrograms per cubic meter to 2.
The state Department of Health characterized the new tests as precautionary, and exposure risks to workers at the Huron site as "low." Efforts to locate potential hotspots are part of "reasonable and practical actions" to reduce TCE levels "to the extent that is possible," according to DEC records.
"Based on a review of the available data, there is not an immediate public health concern at the former IBM Endicott site," agency spokesman Jeffrey Hammond stated in an email.
Despite ongoing cleanup efforts since 1980, TCE concentrations remain stubbornly high under an area encompassing about a dozen city blocks crowded with large cement manufacturing buildings — some spanning hundreds of thousands of square feet. At the center of this is the source area, where chemicals were dumped, spilled or leaked into the ground over an unknown period of time, according to DEC records.
A dense network of tunnels, bunkers, crawl spaces, conduits and piping in and around the source area has hindered cleanup approaches that have worked elsewhere. Contaminated dirt can’t be dug out, nor can the networks of powerful pumps, vacuums, water injection wells and other machinery be easily and uniformly installed below the buildings to pull out the chemicals. So engineers are focusing on ways to prevent chemicals from entering.
A work plan by IBM contractor Sanborn Head Engineers, filed with state officials in January, calls for technicians to use handheld sensors attached to portable data banks to screen air in lower levels of buildings to find “potential pathways or sources for VOC vapor entry from the subsurface.”
IBM plans new round of pollution testing in Endicott
Prior to the collection of air samples, contractors will have a chance to fix problems by sealing cracks and joints in floors, and covering sumps, pits and trenches based on the screening results. The plan also calls for adjustments to heating and central air conditioning that control pressure and ventilation inside buildings, which can affect whether chemicals are drawn into basements and crawl spaces.
Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, serves as a liaison with federal and state governments shaping policy and guidelines in communities polluted with trichloroethylene. According to Siegel, it’s accepted practice to screen for problem areas before collecting air samples.
Siegel, from the Silicon Valley area of California, has called the cleanup by IBM and the DEC “a model for the country.”
Yet Siegel has some concerns about the current plan. He urged a system for continual testing at Huron rather than spot-checking because TCE levels can fluctuate seasonally and daily with temperature, precipitation, barometric pressure and other natural factors — a phenomenon known as “temporal variability.”
Though Huron bought the plant in 2002, IBM remains responsible for the pollution.
IBM spokesman Todd Martin declined to offer specifics about the expected duration and cost of the cleanup. “With regard to indoor air sampling, the project is ongoing and being performed in accordance with the work plan,” he said in a recent email. “In terms of the overall effort … IBM has been performing an effective cleanup of the former Endicott site.”
Lab work on the samples is expected in May, according to DEC records. A report with the results is scheduled to be done by the end of the summer.
Efforts to seal the cracks and other TCE pathways might have been done years ago. But, Siegel said, “it’s a hard problem to fix, and the standards were not as tight. They didn’t want to find a problem because they didn’t know what to do about it.”
The 140-acre Huron campus is home to BAE Electronics; i3, IBM's successor; and various other firms. An estimated 2,000 to 4,000 people work there, although there is no official count because the landlord is not obligated to provide information about tenants.
Huron president Chris Pelto welcomed the testing as part of a successful campaign to clean the site and ensure worker safety.
“We do not believe there are risks to employees or tenants currently working in the buildings being tested,” Pelto stated in an email. Employees and tenants have been informed of the work and will be kept current with a review and question-and-answer session when the results are in, he added.
In 2005 — the last time the state oversaw testing at Huron — indoor air samples collected in 42 buildings ranged from zero to 17 micrograms per cubic meter in some areas that tended to be occupied. Levels were much higher in other areas — often registering between 50 and 300 in tunnels and tank rooms below Building 18, for example. Concentrations in the soil directly below the buildings often exceeded 10,000 and sometimes were over 100,000.
At the time, the DOH determined that the TCE levels at the Huron campus present a "low" health risk to people working there. That means state health officials "do not expect to be able to associate health effects" from exposure.
Since those tests, the EPA has found risks for non-cancer illnesses, such as birth defects, from short-term TCE exposure in residential settings to increase statistically at levels at or above 2 micrograms per cubic meter. The agency has set the threshold for risks from short-term exposure in an industrial setting at 7, based on the assumption that people spend less time at work than in their homes.
Cancer risks become discernible for chronic exposure — the type people might experience in homes — at levels beginning at 0.43 micrograms, according to an EPA assessment.
The number of wells to pump contamination from the ground has grown in time from four to more than 22. To date, they have recovered more than 815,000 pounds of trichloroethylene and other toxic chemicals, with an unknown amount remaining beneath the village. Cleanup efforts — accelerated in 2003 — have minimized TCE levels in the ground around the fringes of the plant and in adjacent neighborhoods where underground infrastructure has been less of an obstacle.
Previous estimates have put the cleanup at about $70 million as of five years ago. Since then, IBM has spent an undisclosed amount to accelerate the effort. Officials say they don’t know how much pollution is left at the source area.
Exposure to TCE has long been known to be unhealthy. IBM phased it out from manufacturing in the 1990s. But the extent to which it causes problems when it gets into the ground was not understood until 2003.
Late last year, IBM agreed to a $14 million settlement divided among 440 plaintiffs for damages related to TCE exposure in the affected residential community adjacent to the plant. The case did not pertain to people who worked at the plant.
In 2014, the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health completed a study that found elevated mortality rates from certain cancers among 34,500 people who worked at the plant from 1969 to 2001, which includes an era when TCE and other toxic chemicals were widely used as part of the manufacturing process with fewer precautions.The NIOSH study made no causal link between the mortality rate and chemical exposure. The federal agency has yet to release results of birth outcomes of women who worked at the plant during the study period. Those results, originally expected in late 2014, remain under review by IBM and other stakeholders, according to Sharon Silver, a NIOSH researcher involved in the study.
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Apr 5, 2015 | Press Connects (USA Today Network)
By Tom Wilber
fter 35 years, IBM Corp. contractors have stanched the flow of industrial solvents into a commercial and residential district in the heart of the village, but they have yet to find a solution for the source of the problem at the company's former flagship manufacturing plant.
Officials recently reported that efforts to intercept and remove the subterranean flow of hazardous chemicals coming from the industrial complex — now owned by Huron Real Estate Associates — have been successful. Consequently, health risks to a nearby neighborhood have been eliminated.
Yet they have no remedy for a concentrated pool of solvents directly under the manufacturing site, where at least 1,500 people still work. It may take years before a proven remedy is found, according to Alex Czuhanich, an engineering geologist with the state Department of Environmental Conservation, although the agency has no timetable for the project.
The pollution, discovered in 1979, includes trichloroethylene (TCE) and other solvents used as industrial degreasers that have been linked to maladies ranging from cancer to birth defects. IBM used vast quantities of the solvents to manufacture printed circuit boards during the company's heyday from the 1950s through the 1970s.
The contaminated hot spot — known as "the source area" on DEC records — lies under an area the size of eight village blocks, and it was once bustling with the delivery, handling, storage, transport and liberal use of solvents. The source area encompasses a railroad corridor where chemicals arrived in bulk, loading docks where they were handled, and a network of tanks and pipelines that stored and transported virgin chemicals and chemical waste to and from various manufacturing lines throughout the campus, according to DEC records.
Situated over and near the source area, and blocking access to cleanup, are dozens of buildings, most of them massive, bunker-like, cement structures built during the Cold War era and some well before. The contaminated ground is dense with tunnels, boiler rooms, tank rooms, crawl spaces, cables, pipes and conduits.
"There is just so much infrastructure there," Czuhanich said. "Trying to get anything in there (to remedy the problem) is difficult, at best."
To date, nearly 70,000 gallons of solvent — more than 40 tons — have been pumped from the ground. Officials don't know how much is left, according to DEC spokesman Peter Constantakes. Court records filed by attorneys representing residents suing IBM for damages from the pollution put the solvent pool up to 1 million gallons "that had apparently collected over many years from leaking pipes and tanks."
Reluctance by IBM and the DEC to publicly discuss the source area has added to uncertainty about its status. IBM spokesman Todd Martin did not reply to phone calls or written inquires on the subject.
Safety debated
IBM sold the plant in 2002 to Huron Real Estate Associates, which now rents space to BAE Systems Electronics, i3 Electronics (formerly Endicott Interconnect), Binghamton University and other smaller firms that collectively employ between 1,500 and 2,000 workers.
TCE, the main contaminant under the campus, is not commonly used in bulk by industry in the U.S. anymore, though it is a pervasive contaminant at many Cold War-era industrial and military sites throughout the country. In addition to the former IBM site, notorious TCE legacy sites in the Southern Tier include the CAE Electronics site in Hillcrest, and the Morse Industrial site in Tompkins County, both linked to contamination of nearby residential neighborhoods.
The TCE problem is as stubborn as it is complex. TCE is one of a class of chemicals that tend to be heavier than water, so they sink through the water table and adhere stubbornly to soil particles. They also give off toxic fumes that rise from the ground, ending up in basements, crawl spaces and — ultimately — circulating into living spaces through a process known as vapor intrusion.
There is no national standard to limit TCE exposure in air, although there has been a political push to develop one since the federal Environmental Protection Agency determined in 2011 that the chemical was a carcinogen and a "non-cancer health hazard." Just how much exposure presents a risk remains a controversial topic. Levels that might not affect one person could make another seriously ill. Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable.
According to the latest EPA assessment — challenged by the chemical industry — risks for non-cancer illnesses, such as birth defects, from short-term TCE exposure in residential settings are found to increase statistically at levels at or above 2 micrograms per cubic meter. The agency has set the threshold for risks from short-term exposure in an industrial setting at 7, based on the assumption that people spend less time at work than in their homes.
Cancer risks become discernible for chronic exposure — the type people might experience in homes — at levels beginning at 0.43 micrograms, according to an EPA assessment.
New York state has set a broad guideline of 5 for residential and commercial exposure. But the agency often requires action at levels below the threshold when feasible.
Feasibility remains the issue at the Huron campus. Indoor air samples at 42 buildings collected in 2005 — the last time the state oversaw testing — ranged from zero to 17 micrograms per cubic meter in some areas that tended to be occupied. Levels were much higher in other areas — often registering between 50 and 300 micrograms in tunnels and tank rooms below Building 18, for example. Concentrations in the soil directly below the buildings often exceeded 10,000 and sometimes were over 100,000 micrograms.
In 2005, the state health department determined that the TCE levels at the Huron campus present a "low" health risk to people working there, according to a report at the time. That means state health officials "do not expect to be able to associate health effects" from exposure.
Health department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond said the guideline remains "under review" as more information comes to light "to ensure that previous decisions and recommendations continue to protect public health."
Some stakeholders are advocating more direct and immediate action. Assemblywoman Donna Lupardo, D-Endwell, represents the district that includes the Huron site. In January, she re-introduced legislation to lower the state threshold for TCE exposure to a level "based on the most protective underlying assumptions and cancer potency factor."
The legislation, Lupardo said, "is especially relevant to the ongoing cleanup on the Huron Campus" and related health concerns. She cited recent studies that, though falling short of establishing a causal link between TCE exposure and illness, raise flags.
A study of mortality rates of IBM workers, completed by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health last year, found people who worked at the Endicott campus when the chemicals were widely used had relatively high rates of deaths from certain cancers and nervous system diseases. The study took into account records from 34,494 workers beginning in 1969, before TCE was phased out of production.
In 2005, a health department study found elevated rates of testicular and kidney cancers, and birth defects that were "statistically significant" in an area affected by solvent pollution in the area south of the former IBM plant, and several blocks to the southwest of the plant polluted by an undetermined source. (The area has since been cleaned by the IBM remediation efforts.)
The results of a study by NIOSH and the health department evaluating birth outcomes of women who worked at the plant is expected to be released later this year.
Mixed messages
At the March 5 meeting with about 20 community members, Czuhanich, of the DEC, focused more on progress cleaning the off-site neighborhood than on the status of the source area.
A network of stations to flush and pump chemicals from the ground as they flow from the source area has effectively decontaminated the area south of the plant and eliminated risks to homes and businesses, Czuhanich said.
But messages from state health agencies are mixed. The entire 360-acre site — including the source area and the neighborhood to the south — will remain on the state's Superfund registry as "class 2," meaning that it poses a "significant threat" to the public health or environment. The designation will remain "until all areas have remedies in place," according to DEC spokesman Contantakes.
Questions remain about how clean the area is, whether it will stay that way as long as concentrated pollution remains under the plant, and whether there might be more effective long-term solutions than continually flushing and pumping the ground to remove pollution flowing from one area to another.
"There may be no regulatory requirement to consider alternatives, but it still may make sense to do something new," said Lenny Siegel, executive director of the Center for Public Environmental Oversight. The organization, based in California, has been at the forefront of a push for better understanding and regulation of the TCE, and Siegel has closely followed TCE policy, and the issues in Endicott and elsewhere in the country.
Siegel is asking the DEC to consider "in situ" remediation, which involves injecting agents into the ground that break down TCE. Officials have made strides in understanding the pollution and its impacts, but they mustn't become complacent, Siegel said. Studies "add to the body of evidence that used to set standards, but usually they provide little help to the people studied," he added.
Push for information
While IBM has made progress cleaning off-site pollution, development in the courts has shifted some attention away from a high-profile aspect of the story. In February, lawyers announced IBM had reached terms with more than 1,000 plaintiffs to settle claims of health and property damage related to the pollution.
Though the terms have not been disclosed, the settlement suggests that lawyers and their clients will put the issue behind them, at least publicly, leaving it in the hands of the DEC, the health department and IBM. In the meantime, a group of residents are continuing to press for more information and explanations.
"This doesn't seem to be getting as much attention as it has in the past," said Frank Roma, who has been involved as a community liaison with government officials overseeing TCE pollution in the Southern Tier through a citizens group called the Western Broome Environmental Stakeholders Group. "IBM needs to know that it is still being watched."
Roma, a former Endicott resident, now lives in Hillcrest. He has followed the issue in Endicott since 2003, when officials found residents faced exposure to TCE fumes coming from the ground. He credits IBM for its long-term commitment to cleaning the area and recent benchmarks that show it's succeeding. He also believes the community needs to stay on top of the matter and, like Siegel, wonders whether more can be done.
To that end, Roma and other members of the group are hosting a meeting Thursday featuring a presentation by Siegel. Their intention, Endicott resident Jim Little said, is to hear "a second opinion from an outside source" about the pollution.
"What I'm hearing is the coast is clear, and I'm not sure that's all there is to it," said Little, a former IBM worker and also a member of the stakeholder group. Some members of the group think the DEC's assessment is "sugar coated," he said. "Our job as stakeholders is to advocate for the full story."
By the numbers
•35: Number of years IBM has been cleaning the pollution.
•70,000: Number of gallons of concentrated chemicals removed so far.
•1,500: Approximate number of employees who work at the site.
•470: Number of structures off-site that have been fitted with vent systems to divert toxic fumes.
•5: Safety threshold, in micrograms per cubic meter, for TCE exposure in air in New York state.
•2: Level, in micrograms per cubic meter, at which risks associated with short-term TCE exposure increase statistically.
Stakeholder meeting
The Western Broome Environmental Stakeholders group will host a presentation on the status of the IBM site in Endicott at 6 p.m. Thursday at the First United Methodist Church, 53 McKinley Ave. in Endicott.
BAE testing
Before moving to the campus in 2012, BAE tested buildings 14, 18, 46, 48, 57, 257, the cafeteria and the North Street tunnel, according to records filed with the state Department of Health. TCE readings ranged from undetectable to 4.8 micrograms per cubic meter, with the highest reading in the lower level of the cafeteria. BAE re-sampled buildings 46 and 57 after making modifications to air and ventilation systems, and TCE concentrations fell in three samples: 4 to 3; 2.8 to 1.9; and 2.5 to 2.4.
The company retested buildings in 2014 and shared the results with employees but not the public, said Shelby Cohen, a spokesman for the company. The voluntary sampling is "for the benefit of our employees," he said.
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