The following paper was written by Dr. Scott Emerson, M.D. for the
Upper Peninsula Environmental Coalition. It is reprinted in full with
permission by the author.
IN THE WAKE OF JAMES RIVER
Within the last decade our state lawmakers, business, financial
leaders, and planners have undertaken a major effort to attract and
expand the pulp and paper industry in Upper Michigan. The chant of
jobs, jobs, jobs along with renewable resource justifications have been
logical and powerful arguments supporting this economic development
plan. However, parallel with this effort over the last five to six
years a flurry of medical and scientific information has come to bear on
the pulp and paper industry’s significant health and environmental
problems. Additionally, within the last five years our solid waste
dilemma, global deforestation and global warming, and our generally
deteriorating air and water quality have become major concerns
nationally while at the same time locally, recreation and tourism have
become big business and our unemployment rate has declined. New
information and the realities of the 90′s, I feel, demand a new vision
along with a dramatic change and abandonment of the old pulp and paper
economic plan imagined for the U.P. by our leaders almost a decade ago.
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF BLEACHED KRAFT PROCESS
Currently bleached Kraft (sulfate) chemical pulp mills make
their product by converting trees into wood chips, digesting the
wood chips into a pulp with sulfur containing chemicals (sodium
sulfide) and caustics (sodium hydroxide) and then in a separate
process bleaching the tan or brownish colored pulp white with
chlorine gas or chlorine dioxide. Large volumes of very hazardous
material, (i.e. chlorine gas – easily as dangerous as low level
radioactive waste) is transported via truck, rail, or ship to the
chemical plant site. Air, water, and land pollutants are produced
both from the digestion process (sulfur compounds) and the bleaching
process (organochlorines). As pulp and paper mills have become more
complex in recent years, accidental spills due to human error,
automatic machine triggered spills, and deliberate dumps of
pollutants have made up a significant component of mill effluents (1
– Bonser, et. al.). The accidental spills historically and
typically go undetected for long periods of time (1).
RISK ASSESSMENT VS. EFFECT: A TOXICOLOGIST’S PERSPECTIVE
When politicians, regulatory agencies, media, business leaders
and the general public look at the extremely complex health and
environmental issues surrounding the location of a proposed huge new
pulp and paper mill on Keweenaw Bay, it is important to understand
two fundamentally different ways that scientists determine adverse
impact. Many studies can only be done by using risk assessment
approaches with complex mathematical modeling extrapolating animal
studies across specie lines to humans. These studies usually only
assess the risk of one disease like cancer, occurring. These types
of studies are the backbone upon which many decisions are made, but
they are also removed from the complexities and dynamics of the real
world. The second type of study looks back at the actual observed
effect of a given exposure on a population of humans and compares
that to a very similar group of humans who have not had such
exposure. This latter type of study looks at the complexity of the
real world much better. It measures real effects and looks at
multiple disease outcomes (i.e. cancer plus kidney failure,
emphysema, neurologic problems) in real people in the exposed group.
This second type or, epidemiologic study, is generally considered
much more accurate, powerful, and meaningful by scientists.
A NEW LOOK AT SOME HEALTH EFFECTS OF CHEMICAL PULP MILLS
Two recent studies of this second type on paper industry workers
(Henneberger 1989 and Schwartz 1988) both confirmed numerous other
similar studies showing a significantly increased rate of
gastrointestinal cancer (up to 3 times) and leukemia in these
workers compared to their cohorts in the general population or in
the sawmill and lumbering trades (2,3). The studies’ authors
collectively list at least 15 known suspected chemicals in the mills
which could be triggering the increase in cancer deaths, and the
paper industry admits that there are probably a large number of as
yet unidentified chemicals produced by the mills which may be
contributing to these observed effects (9). Further, a recent
Finnish study in 1986 (Jappinen and Tola) compared lung cancer and
coronary artery disease occurrence in two similar groups of
cigarette smoking workers in the pulp and paper industry and sawmill
workers. There was an excess of observed lung cancer and coronary
artery disease in the pulp and paper group (4). In addition,
Henneberger in his Harvard School of Public Health Study, discovered
that non-smoking mill workers lost lung power as fast as if they
smoked a pack of cigarettes per day for 20 years (9). Further,
Gottlieb in 1982 reported a definite increased occurrence of lung
cancer in non-worker residents living for 10 years within a one mile
radius of large (greater than 100 employees) Kraft pulp and paper
mills. Those persons living near lumber and sawmills and machine
manufacturing plants showed no increased cancer (5). At least two
groups of pollutants produced by the bleached Kraft mill process are
high on the list as causes of these above observed real effects; the
organochlorines and sulfur compounds. There remain many
unidentified others of uncertain toxicity.
DIOXIN IS BUT THE TIP OF THE ORGANOCHLORINE ICEBERG
There is good evidence from frozen tissue and lake bed studies
(Schecter et al and Czuczwa) that the organochlorine group of
compounds has only recently within the last 30 or 40 years begun to
build up in our bodies and environment (6). The concern with this
group of chemicals is that they tend to persist, once created, for
long periods of time (years) and become concentrated in the food
chain. Bonser, et. al. in 1988 report a 500,000 to one million
concentration factor from water to fish, and Stevens and Gerbec in
1988 describe bio-concentration in milk produced from cows downwind
from airborne release of these compounds (1, 7). Infamous recent
examples of this class of pollutant are DDT, PCB’s and chlordane.
2, 3, 7, 8 TCDD, or dioxin, currently the most talked about
chlorinated organic is probably relatively unimportant for human
toxicity compared to the thousands of as yet unknown and untested
organochlorine compounds created and released into our environment
daily by the pulp and paper industry (1). Using best available
current technology and strictly adhering to Michigan’s current
environmental standards, the James River Corporation’s new bleached
mill on Keweenaw Bay was projected to produce and release an
additional 1.8 million pounds of these chlorinated compounds per
year into the Lake Superior region. The health and environmental
effects of on going permitted accumulative low level releases of
organochlorines into our environment remains at the frontier of
science, but we definitely do know that this class of compounds
historically has had a bad environmental and health record and that
there are definite excessive unexplained real cancers in the pulp
mill work environment and in surrounding areas where they are
produced.
SULFUR COMPOUNDS: THAT URINE SOAKED NEWSPAPER AROMA
Sulfur compounds produced and released by the pulp and paper
industry include sulfur dioxide, methyl mercaptan, methyl sulfides,
hydrogen sulfide, and perhaps others. Sulfur dioxide, an acid rain
gas, is thought by Henneberger to be the chronic low level pollutant
responsible for the loss of lung power in mill workers mentioned
earlier (2). The sulfur class of pollutants are also considered
possibly responsible for the tainting of drinking water and fish
sometimes observed around pulp mills (1). The cleaner the drinking
water, the more easily tainted. Recently, commercial fishing
catches from Nipigon Bay near the Red Rock mill have been rejected
for market sale because of "off" flavors (1). When airborne, these
same compounds are also responsible for the rotten egg or rotting
cabbage odor typically noted by residents around pulp mills.
Hydrogen sulfide, or rotten egg gas, is heavier than air and causes
eye and respiratory irritation at low concentration and becomes
extremely toxic at higher concentration acting like cyanide as a
respiratory poison (Ellenhorn) (7).
PHILOSOPHY AND OUR ALTERNATIVE ECONOMIC FUTURE
The above brief discussion paints only a small part of the
picture of total adverse impacts of building new chemical pulp and
paper industries in northern Michigan. Clearly though, things are
not as rosy in this industry as some political and business leaders
with narrow agendas have stated to many of us now shaping our future
here. Many, if not most, of us live in the Upper Peninsula because
we like the quality of life it offers with abundant wildlife, clean
air and water and relatively low population density. Many of us
are asking with unemployment sharply down, how many more jobs and of
what type does the U.P. really need? Certainly we want some measure
of economic security, but not at the expense of the primary values
which keep us here. in the future, the quality of our environment
in northern Michigan will be our greatest calling card for the
growing number of diverse small value added businesses now leaving
industrialized urban areas. The communication revolution has taken
away the last incentive for living in an urban environment. In
contrast, continued expansion and concentration of economic and
political power in the hands of a few very large pulp and paper
companies spells danger for a balanced and stable U.P. economic
future and furthermore, does not necessarily create the best type of
jobs U.P. residents could have.
WHAT OUR LAWMAKERS SHOULD DO
1. The Swedish paper industry astutely recognizing the magnitude of
the organochlorine problem and responding to increasing
international market pressure for zero organochlorine production
in their processes within the next 10 to 15 years (1). Michigan
should join this effort by declaring a moratorium on new
construction on Kraft mills utilizing any chlorine bleaching
process. This would be in keeping with the spirit of the
International Joint Commission’s Great Lakes Water Quality
Agreement, which Michigan has signed and reportedly supports.
2. Actively encourage the new construction of 100% recycled
unbleached paper mills in our state located in geographic
proximity
to the recycled fiber resource base. Solid waste management is
the growth industry for the 90′s and this would help solve our
solid waste dilemma. Pulping more and more trees, as opposed to
paper recycling, contributes to our current landfill problems,
deforestation, and global warming.
3. Give tax incentives and mandate retrofits of existing mills for
oxygen delignification and high degrees of chlorine dioxide
substitution. This will decrease organochlorine emissions from
existing mills (1). Encourage Ontario, Wisconsin, and Minnesota
to do the same.
4. Require the DNR to institute at least meaningful monitoring of
pulp mill effluents. Their current focus on the expensive and
scientifically unsound measurement of concentration of only
dioxin (one of thousands of organochlorines) in bleach Kraft
mill effluents is misleading and of concern to those of us who
pay the State to regulate this industry. Total organochlorine
loading in effluent or sediment per dry ton of bleached pulp is
widely accepted as a more appropriate monitor.
5. Michigan should establish a long-term plan and goal for its
forest management centered around converting and aggressively
expanding its Northern hardwoods, red and white pine saw log
acreage everywhere soils are of adequate quality. Gradually
through sustained selection cut and site conversion sometime in
the next century, Michigan can once again achieve renown for its
quality saw timber. Global demand and price paid will be
exceptionally high for this type of product, but will be much
less for lower quality pulp wood. Consistent with this long
range investment, and inventory of our state forests’
sustainable selection cut saw log capacity should immediately be
made available to sawmill, lumbering, and furniture
manufacturing firms accompanied by an aggressive campaign by the
Michigan Department of Commerce to have them locate or re-locate
in Upper Michigan.
6. Promptly redirect the $300,000 in taxpayer’s money currently
being used by the Michigan Department of Commerce to attract
further chemical pulp industry here into other economic
development schemes which do not pose a direct threat to our
tourism lure. Improving our transportation systems (including
air service) and attracting further recreational development for
the Keweenaw is more appropriate than investment which
facilitates bad air, bad water, chemical plants, and excessive
clear cuts. Most tourists have had enough of that at home.
THE CONSUMERS RESPONSIBILITY
The consumer of paper products must bear significant
responsibility for the environmental degradation caused by the pulp
and paper industry because the industry typically responds with a
product to meet our demands. We can demand more unbleached paper
products such as coffee filters, tissue and toilet paper, diapers,
plates, towels, packaging, stationary, and computer paper. We must
ask, "Is a 90 brightness snow white quotient really essential for
the function of these products considering the risk to our
environment, food chain and health from the chlorine bleaching
process?" "Do we want to support more of our trees converted into
the flood of high quality paper used in junk mail?" We can
participate in paper recycling efforts and demand and use recycled
paper products. Since paper now constitutes 39% of our solid waste
stream, this will help resolve our current landfill dilemma
statewide. The state should aggressively support a public awareness
campaign addressing these consumer issues.
Sincerely,
T. Scott Emerson, M.D., F.A.C.E.P.
– Assistant Clinical Professor
Michigan State University, College of Human Medicine
– Co-Director Hyperbaric Medicine Program
Marquette General Hospital
– Attending Staff Physician, Emergency Department
Marquette General Hospital
– Board Certified Emergency Medicine
– Board Eligible Medical Toxicology
– Member of Michigan Forestry Association
REFERENCES
1. Bonsor, N., McCubbin, N., Sprague, J.: Stopping Water Pollution
at its Source, Kraft Mill Effluents in Ontario, a Municipal
Industrial Strategy for Abatement. April 1988, 260 page report.
2. Henneberger, P.K., Ferris, B.G., Monson, R.R.: Mortality Among
Pulp and Paper Workers in Berlin, New Hampshire. British
Journal of Industrial Medicine 46: 658-664, 1989.
3. Schwartz, E.: A Proportionate Mortality Ratio Analysis of Pulp
and Paper Mill Workers in New hampshire. British Journal of
Industrial Medicine 45: 234-238, 1988.
4. Jappinen, P., Tola, S.: Smoking Among Finnish Pulp and Paper
Workers – Evaluation of its Confounding Effect on Lung Cancer
and Coronary Heart Disease Rates. Scand J. Work Environment
Health 12, pg. 619-626, 1986.
5. Gottlieb, M., Shear, C., Seal, D.: Lung Cancer Mortality and
Proximity to Industry. Environmental Health Perspectives 45,
pp. 157-164, 1982.
6. Schecter, A., Dekin, A., Weerasinghe, N,. Arghestani, S., Gross,
M.: Sources of Dioxins in the Environment: A Study of PCDP’s
and PCDF’s in Ancient Frozen Eskimo Tissue. Chemosphere; 17 (4)
pg. 627-632, 1988.
7. Stevens, J.B., Gerbec, E.N.: Dioxin in the Agricultural Food
Chain. Risk Analysis 8, pg. 329-335, 1988.
8. Ellenhorn, M., Barceloux, D.: Medical Toxicology – Diagnosis
and Treatment of Human Poisoning, 1987.
9. Holer, B.: Interview with P.K. Henneberger. Boston Globe,
September 18, 1988.
Thanx! PEACE!!! M E J E D W A
"Traditional Law"
As wild things walk in beauty on the earth, let us walk trails of faith
and brotherhood with nature heart by heart.