By Corydon Ireland
/Staff writer
(November 12, 2004) — For 14 years at Kodak Park, from 1990 to 2003,
levels of the toxic solvent methylene chloride have exceeded state
guidelines, an activist report released Thursday said.
And fenceline air samples taken by volunteer citizen "bucket brigades"
give accurate snapshots of air pollution near Kodak Park — a contention
Eastman Kodak Co. has disputed since the informal testing started 18
months ago.
The report was released by the Albany-based Citizens' Environmental
Coalition and Kandid Coalition, a Rochester group.
Kodak measures two chemicals in the air near Kodak Park every six days,
at five air monitoring stations. Activists say that gives an inadequate
measure of air pollution at the largest chemical industrial site in the
Northeast.
Kodak does not dispute the higher-than-recommended methylene chloride
numbers but bristles at the implication that the emissions might be
harmful to human health.
"There's nothing in the report that we haven't told our neighbors," said
Kodak spokesman James E. Blamphin, referring to quarterly neighborhood
newsletters and annual environmental reports. "Few companies are as
transparent as Kodak when it comes to communications with our neighbors."
Blamphin also said that the three-minute air tests, conducted by
amateurs with bucket-like equipment costing less than $100, have little
scientific validity.
The state Department of Environmental Conservation, which tracks Kodak
Park pollution data and monitoring technologies, has expressed similar
reservations. DEC officials, not working on Veterans Day, could not be
reached Thursday.
The report, based on Kodak data, was written by chemist Wilma Subra, a
Louisiana environmental consultant who in 1999 received a MacArthur
Foundation "genius" award.
Her analysis shows that in 2003 alone, average annual concentrations of
methylene chloride at Kodak Park's fenceline ranged from 10.8 times
higher than the state guideline on Merrill Street to 1.4 times higher
near School 41 on Ridge Road.
Subra's report also shows that between 2000 and 2003, annual averages
for the solvent exceeded state guidelines at all five monitoring stations.
Methylene chloride is a suspected carcinogen.
The activist groups asked Kodak to expand the number of air pollutants
measured; to monitor air quality 24 hours a day, seven days a week; and
to publish the continuous air data online.
Air tests once every six days are enough, said Blamphin, and "present a
correct picture of exposures in the community."
CIRELAND@DemocratandChronicle.com
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