Arsenic as a naturally-occuring environmental hazard?

[jmichalski]

Originally Posted by rcooke

Joe I would really like to think you are correct but he did say ( Sorry I haven't been posting to the board for a while… I've been slammed. However, feel free to share this info with the board, and let me know if there are any questions, and I promise I will respond directly.)
If you have any questions ( I will respond directly ) . That could be what led me to thing other wise.
Time will tell, Thanks for your thoughts Roy Cooke

I guess we will see, but I took the reply directly to mean that he did not have time to post online here, but was willing to answer any specific questions and remain helpful. Take care!

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

Originally Posted by jmichalski

I believe he has also been pretty outspoken regarding radon, challenging the conventional wisdom - which I have found VERY interesting.

Also, Roy, I may be incorrect in my reading of this, but I believe that Caoimhin used "slammed" in the sense of being very, very busy. It is possible that he may mean someone had vehemently argued with him, or verbally attacked him, but I think he may just be busy.....

He just meant that he's been very busy...

[jmichalski]

Good to know!

[Roy D. Cooke, Sr]

Originally Posted by kshepard

He just meant that he's been very busy...

Thanks for clearing that up . He is great in my openion . Roy Cooke

[Caoimhín P. Connell]

Hello Gents!

And thanks to Kent for his email concerning arsenic. Somewhere in some government archive are the Globeville arsenic studies done by Dr. Larson, Dr. Rasmuson and me.

“I’ve been slammed” means “I’ve been busy.” Which sometimes translates into being in a hurry and typing faster than the brain permits (thus “Homer”). I never mind someone who disagrees with me - in my business 50% of those who I contact don't agree with me - that is what forensics is all about.

Also, recent tragic events in our high school in our sleepy little town of Bailey has placed a temporary strain on me an my law enforcement brothers (and sisters) in addition to my consulting activities.

And at the moment, I’m on the verge of being late. I am an instructor for the State of Colorado, Division of Criminal Justice and I am supposed to be teaching all day today. (Now, if I can just find my noters….)

Cheers!
Caoimhín P. Connell

P.s. Practice Random Acts of Kindness for Emily

(The opinions expressed here are exclusively my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect my professional opinion, opinion of my employer, agency, peers, or professional affiliates. The above post is for information only and does not reflect professional advice and is not intended to supercede the professional advice of others.)

AMDG

[lcapaul]

Shoshone County of North Idaho is a Superfund Site, the ground due to uncontrolled lead and silver smelting over 100 year period is highly contaminated with lead, arsenic, antimony, sulfur, etc. Most of the yards around the homes in the county have had the topsoil removed and replaced, but the soil has not been removed in the crawlspaces in homes built while the smelter was operating. I definitly suit up in coveralls and a respirator when I inspect there, I've asked about any danger to the residents of those homes from the contamination, but have gotten no answers.

I worked at the smelter for a couple of years before I went back into the Army, the contamination then was even in the air, grazing animals like horses and cows were not allowed in the county, my oldest son attended the first grade there, he still gets a letter each year to go in for a State paid blood test to monitor the level of lead.

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

Originally Posted by lcapaul

Shoshone County of North Idaho is a Superfund Site, the ground due to uncontrolled lead and silver smelting over 100 year period is highly contaminated with lead, arsenic, antimony, sulfur, etc. Most of the yards around the homes in the county have had the topsoil removed and replaced, but the soil has not been removed in the crawlspaces in homes built while the smelter was operating. I definitly suit up in coveralls and a respirator when I inspect there, I've asked about any danger to the residents of those homes from the contamination, but have gotten no answers.

I worked at the smelter for a couple of years before I went back into the Army, the contamination then was even in the air, grazing animals like horses and cows were not allowed in the county, my oldest son attended the first grade there, he still gets a letter each year to go in for a State paid blood test to monitor the level of lead.

That's a scary story, Lewis. Especially the part where you can't get any answers. When you ask the county health department what's their answer?

[lcapaul]

Originally Posted by kshepard

That's a scary story, Lewis. Especially the part where you can't get any answers. When you ask the county health department what's their answer?

The County Health people just refer me to the EPA Superfund guys, who haven't replied or returned my call. I just did an inspection there the other day and got thinking about the contamination before I went into the crawl space. There was also a lot of black dust in the attic, the house was built in 62', when the Smelter was running wild. The Coeur d'Alene River back then used to run an ugly brown color, now its crystal cler and the fish have returned, I wouldn't eat them and I wouldn't wade in that part of the River because the mud and silt is still heavily contaminated, so is the lake bottom in Lake Coeur'd'Alene, one of the most beautiful Lakes in the World. The Superfund Guys came here 12 years or so ago and the big wheels bought houses on the Lake, we knew then it was going to be a long process, now they're trying to figure out how to extend their stay by attempting to clean up the river and lake bottoms without poisoning the Spokane River and the Columbia. The lead, antimony, and arsenic is all very heavy and is stable as far as all tests show, but the EPA doesn't want to leave.

Up until the late 60's the City of Coeur d'Alene pumped most of its domestic water directly from the lake, which still does not exceed Government Standards for lead etc. There is a warning about eating too many fish caught in the Lake, but that hold true for a Large portion of America's waterways every where. Only a few of the wells in the "Silver Valley" actually test high for lead or arsenic, and those are the shallow ones that are effected by ground water.

I don't believe there is any great danger to the residents of the Homes with crawl spaces in the valley, as long as they don't spend much time crawling around in them. The dust in the attic worries me more, I don't know if it has been tested or not. The big air contaminant when I worked there in the early 70's was Sulfur Dioxide, which the Bunker Hill Mine said was harmless, of course when you mix SO2 and H2O along with a little ozone O1, you get H2SO4 Sulferic Acid. You could look at the mountain sides back then and see just how high the "SMOG" from the smelter went, below that line very little grew, above it everything was green, now that the Smelter has been shut down for more than 20 years the Valley is recovering and turning green again, Kellogg even has grass on its football field, it used to be bare dirt because grass wouldn't grow. Silver Moutain, the Ski Lodge in Kellog was once know as Jackass, Ski Magazine did an article on it back in the early 70's saying how great the skiing and the views were, but the article also warned people not to look down because the Lodge overlooked the uglyist valley in the World.

The North Fork of the Coeur d'Alene River was never contaminated and the Fly Fishing for West Slope Cutthroat is better than it has ever been, we counted more than 160 Elk standing in a field on the North Fork last week, things in some ways are getting better, if we could get rid of about 75% of the people it really would be God's Country again. I'm a 4th generation Native Idahoan, a truly endangered species.

[Kenton H. Shepard, CMI]

Sounds like you need some help from the media.

[Caoimhín P. Connell]

Hello Lewis –

I was one of the many Industrial Hygienists on the Bunker Hill Mine Superfund Site at Kellogg, Shoshone County, Idaho. I actually wrote some of the SHERPs and HASPs for that site.

It’s interesting to note that the hotel where I was stationed was actually within the “exclusion zone;” (the contaminated area) a situation what was difficult to deal with from a traditional human exposure perspective since we typically restrict access to the exclusion zone to those who have been properly trained and who are wearing appropriate personal protection equipment. So it was a bit disconcerting to sit in the restaurant of the hotel and have breakfast served by a fashionably dressed waitress instead of someone in a Level C ensemble wearing a APR respirator.

I am not aware of ANY of the data or risk assessment information that is restricted from public access or that requires a FOI request. To my knowledge, ALL of the environmental assessments, risk assessments, and sampling data are freely available to anyone who has the time to wade through the literally 100’s of thousands of pages of information. Certainly nothing that I wrote, and none of the data upon which it was based, was restricted from public view. If I remember correctly, my SHERPs dealt with PCBs, (associated with massive Xformer carcasses, the likes of which I had never encountered before), Pb, Cd, Ag and As.

It can be difficult to locate specific information only because of the vastly huge amount of information that is available, and the fact that nobody is made available to help you find it. You could begin by searching the CERCLIS reference number IDD048340921. Also, visit http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/HAC/PHA/bun...0/bun_toc.html for beginning leads.

Cheers,
Caoimhín P. Connell
Forensic Industrial Hygienist
www.forensic-applications.com

(The opinions expressed here are exclusively my personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect my professional opinion, opinion of my employer, agency, peers, or professional affiliates. The above post is for information only and does not reflect professional advice and is not intended to supercede the professional advice of others.)

AMDG