By:Scott Brinton
Did you know?
*In 1990, the State of California administratively listed diesel exhaust under Proposition 65 as a chemical known to the state to cause cancer.
*From the Proposed Identification of Diesel Exhaust as a Toxic Air Contaminant, by the California Environmental Protection Agency to the California Air Resources Board.
In addition to cancer, it may cause or irritate asthma and trigger allergic reactions
For almost 40 years, since moving to Merrick's Old Lindenmere section in his early 30s, Bill Wagner staved off chronic asthma with cortisone.
Now, the former CBS electronics technician suffers from osteoporosis and cataracts after taking the anti-inflammatory drug for four decades, he said. According to Wagner, cortisone "destroys your whole body" if used long-term.
Wagner now consumes a daily regimen of new anti-asthma medications and dietary supplements that have enabled him to get off the cortisone. But at age 71, Wagner said, "I'm in bad shape."
Asthma has stolen much of his life. "It was all the time. I was debilitated," he said.
Asthma proved so debilitating for Wagner that he had to retire early from CBS, at 58, because he could no longer handle the stress of the job. He has been rushed to area hospitals numerous times because of asthma. Twice, he's been intubated; that is, he's had a breathing tube pushed down his trachea to supply oxygen directly to his lungs.
Wagner is angry to learn that, for three decades, the Village of Freeport has generated electricity with diesel Plant No. 2 just across the Meadowbrook Parkway from his Central Boulevard home. And before that, the Town of Hempstead ran an incinerator at the former Merrick Road dump, which is now a nature preserve.
The incinerator closed during the 1960s, according to resident accounts. The Village of Freeport continues to run its diesel electric plant.
In recent weeks, the Herald has shown that, according to studies, diesel exhaust is a probable carcinogen, meaning that it is likely to cause cancer in humans. Cancer isn't the only illness that diesel exhaust can bring on, though. Asthma is as well, along with a host of other respiratory ailments.
Diesel exhaust, in fact, is a known asthma irritant, according to the California Environmental Protection Agency, which in 1998 recommended to the California Air Resources Board that diesel exhaust be declared a Toxic Air Contaminant.
According to the California EPA, "Longer-term exposure to diesel exhaust can cause chronic respiratory symptoms and reduced lung function, and may cause or worsen allergic respiratory diseases such as asthma."
Wagner noted that a severe asthma attack could be fatal, leaving him to wonder why Freeport continues to operate Plant No. 2. "They have a choice to pollute or not to pollute," he said. "I have to breathe. I don't have any choice."
Wagner never knew that Plant No. 2 existed, until the Old Lindenmere Civic Association recently began fighting it. "I knew there were smells, but I never went looking for them," he said.
Wagner said his asthma began when he moved to Merrick, as did Bonnie Stengel's.
Stengel, 48, came to Merrick in 1993. Since, she has been hospitalized twice for severe asthma attacks. During her most recent hospitalization, a chest X-ray revealed that a granuloma, or "bad" collection of cells, has lodged in one of her lungs. Her doctor said she need not worry about it, but she does.
"It's completely unexplained," she said. "It just came out of nowhere. I don't smoke. I don't drink. I live a clean life."
In addition to asthma, diesel exhaust may exacerbate other allergic conditions. This week, the Herald spoke with two mothers whose children suffer from severe allergies that they believe are made worse by the apparently high level of pollutants in local air.
One mother is from North Merrick, the other, Bellmore. The Herald is not revealing their names to protect their children's identities.
The mothers said they live far enough away from the plant that they cannot be sure their children's allergies are linked to it. The North Merrick mother would not say exactly what allergies her high-school-age child suffers from for fear that he might be identified. She would only say that he battles with "multiple food allergies and chemical sensitivities." She added that he has an "overall poorly functioning" immune system.
His allergies and sensitivities, she said, have become worse during the last two years, since Freeport Electric fired up Plant No. 2 after effectively shutting it down from 1996-1999.
Doctors have twice tested the boy's hair follicles, looking for heavy metals, which are known to make allergies like his worse. Laboratory tests showed that, in 1997, the boy had no arsenic or mercury in his system. By comparison, in 2000, he tested positive for high levels of both arsenic and mercury, two heavy metals that are given off during diesel combustion.
The boy has no mercury dental fillings and does not eat fish, two common sources for mercury poisoning, so discovering the heavy metal in his system is unexplainable, the mother said. She thus believes its origin must be environmental. She said, however, that it could come from many places in Nassau County, in addition to Plant No. 2. There is an incinerator along the Meadowbrook Parkway in East Meadow, she noted.
"I don't know if it's the diesel plant, but I have my suspicions," she said.
The Bellmore mother said she wanted to speak about her son to show that children who suffer from conditions like his and live near the plant could face humiliating, even tragic consequences from breathing in diesel exhaust.
Her elementary-age son suffers from Tourette's syndrome and multiple food and chemical allergies. Tourette's syndrome causes tics, which are involuntary habitual movements such as blinking, hair tossing and even swearing.
Her son suffers from a licking tic, which she believes is triggered by chemicals in the air. A household cleaner as common as Lysol can set it off, she said. She noted that, when her son took the bus to school, diesel exhaust given off by the bus likely set off his tic. When the tic begins, the child cannot stop licking his lips, which causes a rash of red sores to break out around his mouth.
The mother said she "can't imagine" what life for her son would be like if he lived closer to Plant No. 2. "It would send him way, way back," she said.
