CLAIRTON AIR WOES
Doctor: Pollution from plant fire may be aggravating asthma in students
Mon Valley residents may be feeling the first health impacts this week from elevated air pollution following a massive fire on Dec. 24 that destroyed a significant segment of the coke gas recovery operation at U.S. Steel’s Clairton Coke Works.
Dr. Deborah Gentile found that five of 14 Clairton High School students participating in asthma clinic exams on Monday were experiencing decreased lung function at a time of the year when such aggravated breathing problems do not usually occur.
Dr. Gentile said there appears to be a link between five students with aggravated asthma conditions and the six violations of federal sulfur dioxide standards by the coke works in the two weeks following the fire.
“Of course the sample size is small and we can’t 100 percent prove a link, but facts are facts and I do think there is a link,”
said the doctor whose school-based clinic has been operating for five years.
Allegheny County Health Department director Karen Hacker said information about health problems possibly triggered by the high sulfur dioxide emissions from the coke works is “helpful and important” to efforts to assess potential health risks as repairs at the plant continue over the coming months.
“We know air quality is a stimulant for respiratory conditions, and if a child has asthma it can get worse on bad air days,” Dr. Hacker said. “We expect such conditions might get triggered, which is why we suggested that some people limit outdoor activity.”
The health department announced Wednesday that it will provide daily public updates at 3 p.m. about air pollution levels from monitors around Clairton and weekly reports on air quality and the ongoing coke plant work, operation and repairs. All the updates will be posted on the department website and Facebook page, and the department said it will reach out to community advocates, elected officials and environmental groups for help in disseminating health notifications regarding the situation.
Dr. Hacker said the health department has not seen an increase in hospital emergency room activity for respiratory or heart disease cases in the weeks since the coke works fire.
Dr. Gentile said two of the students she sees were sick enough to be placed on oral steroids to control their worsening asthma.
She said the monthly, school-based clinic at Clairton found no lung function problems among clinic participants in November and December, and nine students enrolled in the clinic’s asthma program in Hazelwood also had no lung function problems last week.
“The children tested in Hazelwood had no problems,” she said. “They were rock stable. They were similar in terms of economic status and racial makeup. The only thing that changed, that was different, was that they weren’t exposed to the sulfur dioxide like those in Clairton were.”
To help reduce sulfur dioxide emissions, U.S. Steel has reduced use of coke oven gas for fuel in coke and steel making processes, substituting cleaner-burning natural gas; has extended baking times at all 10 of its coke batteries, which also reduces emissions; and is flaring the coke gas instead of burning it.
Dr. Hacker said county monitors show emissions of sulfur dioxide have been “near zero” in recent days, and monitors have registered no exceedances since Jan. 8, when two violations of the standard caused the department to issue an advisory urging Mon Valley residents with pre-existing respiratory and heart conditions, children and the elderly to limit outdoor activity.
Tina Napotnik, a special needs nurse, blamed the high sulfur dioxide emissions — including one reading of 145 parts per billion, almost double the federal standard — for the hospitalization of her 90-year-old mother, Peggy Sepcic.
Ms. Napotnik said the high pollution levels, measured near her mother’s home at the county’s air quality monitor in Liberty, aggravated Ms. Sepcic’s COPD and emphysema. She was diagnosed with pneumonia, treated in the hospital and released Jan. 9.
Ms. Napotnik said the pollutant emissions were bad, but she also was critical of the health department for not alerting affected residents more quickly following the fire.
“The fact that [her mother’s hospitalization] was preventable makes me beyond angry,” Ms. Napotnik said. “Years ago, you could see the pollution in the form of bad soot on our cars or heavy smog, but now it’s invisible.”
Sulfur dioxide is a colorless gas that smells like a match that’s been struck. According to the health department, high concentrations of the compound can affect breathing and aggravate cardiovascular and respiratory diseases like asthma, bronchitis or emphysema.
“The pollution standard was exceeded six times during a week where the weather was nice and people had their windows open,” Ms. Napotnik said. “Issuing a warning or advisory doesn’t cost anyone anything, especially since officials knew the situation wouldn’t get any better.”
But Dr. Hacker said the health department responded appropriately to an “evolving situation” at the coke works, issuing its health advisory the day after two sulfur dioxide exceedances were recorded Jan. 8. “The plant was implementing our requirements to make [operational] changes and the exceedances we were seeing were short-lived, in the morning and lasting only an hour. By noon, we weren’t seeing anything at all,” Dr. Hacker said. “We issued the alert out an abundance of caution.”