Anger growing over day-care on tainted site

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Anger growing over day-care on tainted site

By Sam Wood

Inquirer Staff Writer

SHARON GEKOSKI - KIMMEL / Inquirer

Kiddie Kollege Daycare and Preschool, at Delsea Dr.and Station Ave.

linville, is sitting on ground that is contaminated with mercury.

Parents, environmental groups, and government officials were outraged

yesterday that a day-care center had been operating on the polluted site of

a former thermometer factory in Gloucester County.

More than 30 children - some as young as 8 months old - were exposed to

toxic mercury vapors at Kiddie Kollege, Delsea Drive and Station Avenue in

linville, where a state Department of Environmental Protection

contractor found " unacceptably high " levels of mercury during a random test

last month, state officials said.

State Attorney General Zulima Farber has ordered an investigation into what

she called an " outrageous " situation.

" It appears to be a major breakdown in the review of toxic-waste sites by

the state Department of Environmental Protection, " said Bill Wolfe, the

director of an environmental watchdog group called Public Employees for

Environmental Responsibility.

Wolfe, a senior DEP staffer for 13 years, said there were no laws forbidding

day-care centers or schools from locating on toxic sites, so there may be

other New Jersey child centers in dangerous locations.

The linville day-care center, in operation since 2004, closed July 28,

the day the owners were notified that dangerous fumes had been found in the

building.

" Everybody is wondering how this passed through the system without any

review of the environmental quality of the site, " lin Township Mayor

Ferrucci said.

The center's small brick building was not on DEP's 2006 list of known

contaminated properties, Ferrucci said.

" But our zoning office has copies of the 2001 report of known contaminated

sites, and the building was on it, " Ferrucci said. " So where did it go? How

did it fall off? "

DEP officials were unable to explain the mystery.

Wolfe said it is " extremely difficult " to remove a property from the list.

" The only way for it to get off is if the DEP let it off, " Wolfe said.

Mercury is toxic to humans and can cause damage to the central nervous

system. Symptoms of poisoning include loss of appetite, headaches, shaking

and memory loss. It is especially harmful to children.

Kiddie Kollege's children and five staff members have been asked to submit

urine samples to be tested by the federal Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention in Atlanta.

Dozens of additional children may have been exposed to the mercury vapors

during the three years the site has been used as a day-care center.

, who worked at Kiddie Kollege and is the mother of owner Becky

Baughman, said the center's records remained locked inside the sealed

building, making it impossible to contact former clients.

She said Baughman, who is pregnant, was too upset to be interviewed.

The thermometer company, Accutherm Inc. of burg, Va., went bankrupt

in 1994, DEP spokeswoman Elaine Makatura said.

In 1995, the DEP ordered the company to clean up any residual mercury at the

site, Makatura said. She said the DEP was investigating whether it ever

checked the cleanup. State officials later referred the case to the federal

Environmental Protection Agency, where officials could not immediately be

contacted for comment.

The building sat empty for seven years, until it was bought by the Navillus

Group L.L.C. in 2001 for about $44,000 in back taxes. One year later, the

deed was transferred for $1 to Jim Sullivan Inc., a real estate company

headquartered across the street from the former factory. A man named

W. Sullivan 3d was a principal in the Navillus Group, according to the

property records.

Makatura said Jim Sullivan Inc. " knew who the former owner was and what the

former owner manufactured. "

W. Sullivan 3d did not return multiple phone calls.

Workers hired by the state to test the property July 14 were stunned to

discover it was occupied. " We didn't even know there was a day-care center

that had set up shop there, " Makatura said. " We believed it was abandoned.

We don't know how this occurred. "

linville resident Sharon , whose 6-year-old daughter had attended

Kiddie Kollege for seven months, said she was afraid her daughter may have

been poisoned by mercury. She also was distressed that it would take two

weeks until the test results were returned by the CDC.

" They're great people, " said. " They even opened early for me since I

have such early hours. "

said she had lived in linville since 1994 and hadn't known about

the former thermometer factory.

She said her daughter, , was confused by the center's shutdown and

didn't understand why she couldn't see her friends and teachers.

" I had to take her there to show her it was empty, " , a mail carrier,

said. " She wouldn't believe me. I told her there's poison in the air - we

don't want her to breathe bad air. "

A Mercury Primer

Mercury is a naturallyoccurring element that is found in air, water and

soil. Elemental mercury - the kind used in thermometers, fluorescent light

bulbs and some electrical switches

- is liquid at room temperature. But it breaks into smaller droplets that

can lodge in cracks and adhere to certain materials.

It also evaporates to

become an invisible, odorless, toxic vapor.

Mercury also is found in coal and is released when coal is burned, such as

in a coal-fired power plant.

The mercury eventually falls back to the ground or in waterways, where it

combines with carbon to form the more toxic compound methylmercury. Most

humans become exposed to mercury by eating fish that contain methylmercury.

Symptoms of exposure to elemental mercury include tremors, mood swings,

irritability or other emotional changes, insomnia, neuromuscular weakness,

muscle atrophy, twitching, headaches, changes in nerve responses, and loss

of cognitive function. At higher exposures, there may be kidney effects,

respiratory failure and death.

SOURCE: Environmental Protection Agency.

For more information, visit the EPA's Web site:

www.epa.gov/mercury/index.htm

Contact staff writer Sam Wood at 856-779-3838 or at samwood@....

Jeanne

Director of Communications

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture)

412-258-6683 (direct dial)

412-736-6092 (cell)

www.pennfuture.org

Philadelphia Business Journal - August 4, 2006

http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2006/07/31/daily47.html

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South Jersey day care shut over mercury fears

Philadelphia Business Journal - 10:32 AM EDT Friday

A South Jersey day-care center on the former site of a thermometer factory

has shut down. Children and staff are being tested for mercury exposure, New

Jersey Attorney General Zulima V. Farber said Thursday.

Kiddie Kollege, on Delsea Drive in lin, Gloucester County, ceased

operations late last month after the Department of Environmental Protection

and the Department of Health and Senior Services discovered unacceptably

high levels of mercury throughout the building through air and surface

samples. Mercury is toxic to humans when inhaled or ingested.

" As soon as the DEP discovered that the formerly abandoned site was housing

a day-care center, inspectors moved in, took samples and shut it down, " DEP

Commissioner P. said. " We remain committed to working with the

AG's office and DHSS to get to the bottom of this egregious and

unconscionable situation. A day care center should be a safe haven -- not a

room full of toxic mercury. "

Farber said, " Through daily exposure to excessive levels of a known

contaminant, children and their care-givers potentially have been put in

harm's way, and that is unconscionable. There are many, many questions that

must be answered with regard to how this was allowed to occur. "

The single-story building was formerly the site of Accutherm Inc., a

manufacturer of thermometers and related instruments, which ceased

operations more than a decade ago. Kiddie Kollege subsequently leased the

site and, after renovating the property with paving and cosmetic

improvements, reopened it as a day-care center in January 2004, the Attorney

General's Office said. The site provided day-care services for children from

8-months to 13-years-old before it halted operations July 28.

NJHSS Commissioner Fred M. s said the department is working with the

center operators and local public health officials to test for mercury

exposure among children and staff to determine what, if any, additional

health measures should be taken.

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Jeanne

Director of Communications

Citizens for Pennsylvania's Future (PennFuture)

412-258-6683 (direct dial)

412-736-6092 (cell)

www.pennfuture.org