Benzene

Editor: I would like to clarify a statement attributed to me in the Oct. 28, 2011 article in The Aegis regarding the "Easing of gas station rules... " In the article, I was reported to have stated "…stations could leak benzene, a known carcinogen, while there has been no proof to date that MTBE is carcinogenic. " That statement, taken out of the context of preceding statements, may lead to the wrong conclusion. While MTBE has not been definitively classified as carcinogenic in humans due to the unavailability of studies in humans, MTBE still remains a likely carcinogen in humans and a proven carcinogen in animals.

Editor: I would like to clarify a statement attributed to me in the Oct. 28, 2011 article in The Aegis regarding the "Easing of gas station rules... " In the article, I was reported to have stated "…stations could leak benzene, a known carcinogen, while there has been no proof to date that MTBE is carcinogenic. " That statement, taken out of the context of preceding statements, may lead to the wrong conclusion. While MTBE has not been definitively classified as carcinogenic in humans due to the unavailability of studies in humans, MTBE still remains a likely carcinogen in humans and a proven carcinogen in animals.

Benzene fumes that leaked into the basement of a Manchester house last Monday were found to be many times over the safe limit set by OSHA, said John Goheen, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.Mr. Goheen said the occupants have been unable to live in their home in the 3400 block of View Ridge Circle since the smell became overpowering in the basement of the house.High levels of benzene, which Charles J. Ehrenfeld Jr. and his wife had been smelling for several weeks, were discovered leaking from a crack between the foundation and the floor of the 14-year-old house.

Decades of steelmaking and related activities at Sparrows Point have left a frightful legacy of hazardous waste. It's gotten so bad that some groundwater samples have revealed benzene levels at concentrations 100,000 times greater than what is considered safe. That means a manufacturer who needs benzene - a useful but cancer-causing chemical - could as easily use Point groundwater as buy the stuff off the shelf. Yet last week, when officials from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation and Baltimore Harbor Waterkeeper traveled to Sparrows Point to announce plans to sue state and federal agencies over their failure to address this toxic inheritance, there was little evidence of even the most basic pollution controls.

Wells for a half-dozen homes in the Randallstown area have been tested after gasoline contamination was detected in groundwater at a property with a long history of pollution problems, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment. The tests are a precaution - required because concentrations of benzene and MTBE were found recently in shallow groundwater near Charlie's Service Station on Liberty Road near Wards Chapel Road, said Herb Meade, administrator of the MDE's oil control program.

Hoping to solve the 2-year-old mystery of how several contaminants turned up in Fort Meade's ground water wells, Army officials are installing more monitoring wells near the base's boundary. Fort Meade's environmental office hopes the five wells it installed Thursday near Old Waugh Chapel Road and Piney Orchard Parkway will help determine why a well on the post documented elevated levels of benzene and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Benzene and PCBs are industrial chemicals that can pose a cancer risk to humans.

A controversial soil-recycling plant proposed for Rosedale would release dangerous levels of toxic benzene into the air of the eastern Baltimore County community, a Johns Hopkins University scientist said yesterday.Dr. Marc Donohue, chairman of Hopkins' chemical engineering faculty, said the company seeking to build the plant has seriously underestimated the amount of benzene that would escape into the air from gasoline-contaminated soil the facility would treat.Benzene, an ingredient of gasoline, can cause cancer if inhaled.

Benzene fumes that leaked into the basement of a home in Manchester yesterday forced the owners of the home to spend the night elsewhere.The county Health Department recommended that Charles J. Ehrenfeld Jr. and his wife not stay in the house, in the 3400 block of View Ridge Circle, said Lineboro Fire Chief John L. Krebs.High levels of benzene fumes were discovered leaking from a crack between the foundation and the floor of the 14-year-old, split-foyer house, he said.The toxic fumes are dangerous if a person breathes too much of it, Mr. Krebs said.

Hoping to solve the 2-year-old mystery of how several contaminants turned up in Fort Meade's ground water wells, Army officials are installing more monitoring wells near the base's boundary. Fort Meade's environmental office hopes the five wells it installed Thursday near Old Waugh Chapel Road and Piney Orchard Parkway will help determine why a well on the post documented elevated levels of benzene and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Benzene and PCBs are industrial chemicals that can pose a cancer risk to humans and cause other health problems.

A Fairfield chemical plant, the scene of two chemical emissions this summer that briefly closed the Harbor Tunnel, agreed yesterday to drastically cut its releases of two toxic chemicals, the state Department of the Environment said.Vista Chemical Co., in the 3400 block of Fairfield Road, makes chemical components of detergents and other chemicals, such as hydrochloric acid, and employs 190 people on its 70-acre site.According to the state, up to 29,000 pounds of the solvent benzene was evaporating from the company's wastewater treatment tanks into the air each year, and some 24,000 pounds of hydrochloric acid was escaping when the acid was loaded onto tanker trucks for shipment.

Wells for a half-dozen homes in the Randallstown area have been tested after gasoline contamination was detected in groundwater at a property with a long history of pollution problems, according to the Maryland Department of the Environment. The tests are a precaution - required because concentrations of benzene and MTBE were found recently in shallow groundwater near Charlie's Service Station on Liberty Road near Wards Chapel Road, said Herb Meade, administrator of the MDE's oil control program.

General Electric Co. agreed yesterday to sell its plastics division for $11.6 billion to the largest public company in Saudi Arabia, the Saudi Basic Industries Corp. The deal for the GE division, which has 11,000 employees in 20 countries, is one of the largest yet by the Saudi company, known as Sabic. Sabic prevailed in a sometimes crowded race, with other top bidders including Basell Holdings BV, the Dutch plastics maker, and Apollo Management, the American private equity firm led by Leon Black.

Test results released yesterday show that a residential well in the Jacksonville area of Baltimore County has been contaminated by significant levels of a gasoline additive, the first such finding since testing was ordered in response to a large gasoline leak there. That well, among 120 tested since a 25,000-gallon leak was reported in mid-February at the Jacksonville Exxon, shows elevated levels of the gasoline additive methyl tertiary butyl ether, or MTBE. Herbert Meade, administrator of the oil control program at the Maryland Department of the Environment, said yesterday the well on Hampshire Glen Court, about a quarter-mile east-northeast of the service station, is the only residential water source of those tested to show contamination levels above state guidelines.

Hoping to solve the 2-year-old mystery of how several contaminants turned up in Fort Meade's ground water wells, Army officials are installing more monitoring wells near the base's boundary. Fort Meade's environmental office hopes the five wells it installed Thursday near Old Waugh Chapel Road and Piney Orchard Parkway will help determine why a well on the post documented elevated levels of benzene and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Benzene and PCBs are industrial chemicals that can pose a cancer risk to humans and cause other health problems.

Hoping to solve the 2-year-old mystery of how several contaminants turned up in Fort Meade's ground water wells, Army officials are installing more monitoring wells near the base's boundary. Fort Meade's environmental office hopes the five wells it installed Thursday near Old Waugh Chapel Road and Piney Orchard Parkway will help determine why a well on the post documented elevated levels of benzene and polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Benzene and PCBs are industrial chemicals that can pose a cancer risk to humans.

Completion of a new Northern District police station is running at least seven months late because of contaminated soil on the site, where tests have found methane, benzene and other chemicals that can be hazardous in large amounts.The $4.3 million project, due to be done last month, is now scheduled to open in September, said Department of Public Works Director George G. Balog, who appears to be at odds with Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. over the source of at least part of the contamination.

It was reported incorrectly in The Sun yesterday that the Maryland Occupational Safety and Health agency was testing the blood of tunnel workers on the new Baltimore Metro extension for the presence of benzene. The agency is actually testing the air in the tunnels.Subway construction crews in East Baltimore, who halted work for more than a week in November after a tunneling mishap opened a crater on Orleans Street, have struck soil so contaminated with gasoline that some workers must use air tanks and the rest must wear breathing filters.

WASHINGTON -- The Food and Drug Administration's negligence in regulating the bottled-water industry has allowed contaminated water to reach consumers and has created confusion over product labeling, according to a House investigative report released yesterday.Last year's worldwide recall of Perrier products, brought about by the discovery of unsafe levels of benzene, focused attention on potential health problems, said Representative John D. Dingell, D-Mich., chairman of the Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee.

Benzene fumes that leaked into the basement of a Manchester house last Monday were found to be many times over the safe limit set by OSHA, said John Goheen, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.Mr. Goheen said the occupants have been unable to live in their home in the 3400 block of View Ridge Circle since the smell became overpowering in the basement of the house.High levels of benzene, which Charles J. Ehrenfeld Jr. and his wife had been smelling for several weeks, were discovered leaking from a crack between the foundation and the floor of the 14-year-old house.

Benzene fumes that leaked into the basement of a home in Manchester yesterday forced the owners of the home to spend the night elsewhere.The county Health Department recommended that Charles J. Ehrenfeld Jr. and his wife not stay in the house, in the 3400 block of View Ridge Circle, said Lineboro Fire Chief John L. Krebs.High levels of benzene fumes were discovered leaking from a crack between the foundation and the floor of the 14-year-old, split-foyer house, he said.The toxic fumes are dangerous if a person breathes too much of it, Mr. Krebs said.