by George Glasser

In the early predawn hours when the air is still and moist, phosphate fertilizer factories are often shrouded in an acidic haze. Temperature inversions form airy bubbles of noxious, acidic fumes. Lights from the factories seem to blaze through the hellish mist, and the lemony taste of sulfuric and hydrofluoric acid leaves the lips tingling with a slight burning sensation. Then the delicate tissues in the nostrils begin to tingle with a stinging sensation. Floating and sparkling in the still morning air, microscopic, acid droplets splash against the thin film of fluid protecting the eyes and subsequent burning and watering blur one’s vision. And finally, the full impact of inhaling the noxious smog causes choking and coughing. Sometimes, the misting hydrofluoric, fluorosilicic, phosphoric and sulfuric acids are so concentrated, they actually etch the windshields and eat the paint of cars passing through the acidic fog.

For those employed at the phosphoric acid factories, this is the work world they enter every day. Day-in and day-out, they eat, breath, and drink toxic pollution until they become too sick to work, or die.

Gary Owen Pittman was one of those people. While Gary and his coworkers worked midst the toxic, corrosive fumes, the corporate elite at Occidental Chemical Corporation sat safely in well ventilated, air conditioned offices some seven miles from the factory.

The emissions were so acidic at the plant, visiting secretaries complained of their panty hose being dissolved while on their legs. Reassuringly, management said they had come into contact with some chemicals, but there was nothing to worry about.

Gary’s first and last job was working for the Occidental Chemical Corporation phosphoric acid factories in Hamilton County, Florida. Gary Pittman was eighteen years-old and in excellent health when he started to work as a sample man in the analytical laboratory of the Occidental Chemical Corporation, Suwannee River Plant. He rose from a $4,000 sample man in the laboratory to supervising one third of Occidental’s Swift Creek plant, earning about $50,000 a year.

Today, Gary is unable to work and suffers from auto immune disorders, toxic myopathy, chronic obstructive lung diseases with emphysema, chronic bronchitis, blood disorders, chronic fatigue syndrome, liver dysfunctions, polyarthritis, swelling of feet and lower legs, muscle weakness, cardiac arrhythmia, reactive depression, and memory loss. He walks with waddling gate and suffers dizziness: the diagnosis is toxic brain syndrome.

Gary is afraid to take his children to Disney World. He becomes too fatigued, his lower legs and feet begin to swell from walking, and may suffer an episode of cardiac arrhythmia. Emergency room records show repeated visits for irregular heart beat problems.

Gary Pittman does little these days except surf the Internet to learn more about the toxic effects of chemicals to which he and his coworkers were exposed. The list reads like the top forty toxic chemicals on Superfund Priority List of hazardous substances that pose the most significant threat to human health. The chemical exposures left him unable to work at the age of 39, and five years later, Gary Pittman finds difficulty in enjoying the simple pleasures of life.

The adverse environmental and health effects from phosphoric acid production are well documented in newspaper articles from the 1970's, 80's and into the 1990's. But to the author’s knowledge, the USEPA and Centers for Disease Control (USCDC) have never commissioned any substantive studies.

Geology of Florida, 1997 reports: For more than one-hundred years, Florida has been a major producer of superphosphate fertilizer and phosphoric acid. In the phosphate producing regions, tell-tale environmental damage is the legacy of the industry. It is not uncommon to see ragged holes filled with low level radioactive water left from strip-mining operations.

Reclaimed land emits high levels of radon; people who have built homes on reclaimed land stand a greater chance of developing lung cancer and leukemia.

Phosphogypsum stacks are piled up to two hundred feet high and leach toxic chemicals into the aquifer and toxic dust into the atmosphere.

Spills from toxic waste-water ponds dump hundreds of millions of gallons of highly acidic water laced with toxic fluorides, radionuclides, heavy metals, sulfites and phosphoric acid into rivers and streams. Massive fish kills are not unusual when these spills occur. There are few regulations governing wastes from phosphoric acid and superphosphate fertilizer production.

Milky, lime green wash water is held in man-made ponds. Toxic wastewater evaporates in the searing Florida sun. Hydrogen fluoride is released with other contaminants. According to an article in the Florida Scientist, 1987, by Dr. Howard Moore (deceased), a series of reactions take place between suspended solids and hydrogen fluoride in the presence of moisture. The reactions create pollutants that can be carried far from the ponds on air currents (possibly hundreds of miles from the site).

USEPA New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) state: "The standard sets forth limits for total fluorides, the primary pollutant of concern, 40 C.FR., pgs. 60.200-60.204." This issue is discussed in Phosphoric Acid Waste Dialogue, Report on Phosphoric Wastes Dialogue Committee, Activities and Recommendations, September 1995; Southeast Negotiation Network.

The insidious problem with airborne fluorides are that they can be very reactive when they come in contact with moisture. When inhaled, many fluoride salts react with water (moist lung tissue) and break down into hydrofluoric acid and the component. The reaction of hydrofluoric acid with lung surface burns an tiny hole in the tisue, and the toxic component is left at the site of damage. It is like rubbing dirt into a wound or injecting a poison. The airborne fluoride salt can act to enhance the effect of the toxicant component.

Dr. Phyllis Mullenix, pioneer researcher on the neurotoxic effects of fluorides, said when toxic fluoride compounds are inhaled, it is like giving them (fluoride compounds) "running shoes." They enter the system uninhibited and can do more damage.

People living near phosphate fertilizer plants are twice as likely to develop lung cancer and osteoblastic leukemia. While high cancer rates for people living near phosphoric acid plants are noted in magazine and newspaper articles, little is ever said about workers and their families. If health problems are evident in people living near the phosphate plants, it is only logical that employees would be at a higher risk. The people who work at phosphoric acid plants are at ground zero. Workers have to go into acid reaction chambers filled with toxic fumes and scour scale from filters and walls.

The scale is so radioactive, up to 100,000 picocuries of radium per gram, that the only landfill in the country that accepts naturally occurring radioactive wastes will not accept the scale from phosphate fertilizer production. The radioactive wastes are either buried in the gypsum stacks or dumped into holding ponds.

Crystallized, radioactive silica tetra fluoride has to be chipped from pollution scrubbers. The residual is so hard that jack hammers must be used to remove the buildup. Workers are required to go into these hell holes and perform these dirty tasks, many times without adequate safety equipment. Workers are not only exposed to the naturally occurring toxic substances, but also manmade chemicals used as reagents, defoamers (possibly containing dioxins) and flocculants to more efficiently produce phosphoric acid.

The fluorosilicic acid produced in pollution scrubbers is sold as a water fluoridation agent. More than 50% of U.S. cities which fluoridate drinking water use some form of the highly toxic pollution. Neither the USEPA nor U.S. Public Health Service can produce one safety or clinical study using the highly toxic pollution.

A 1983 query to USEPA regarding the use of toxic waste for water fluoridation resulted in the following response: "In regard to the use of fluosilicic (fluorosilicic) acid as a source of fluoride for fluoridation, this agency regards such use as an ideal environmental solution to a long-standing problem. By recovering by-product fluosilicic acid from fertilizer manufacturing, water and air pollution are minimized, and water utilities have a low-cost source of fluoride available to the communities." (Rebecca Hanmer, Deputy Administrator, Office of Water, USEPA in 1983 correspondence to Dr. Leslie Russell stated USEPA position on water fluoridation).

Sulfuric acid is also essential to phosphoric acid production. The plants produce their own sulfuric acid. The acid is mixed with finally ground phosphate rock producing noxious vapors containing heavy metals, sulfates, fluorosilicates, hydrogen fluoride and other contaminants. Uncontrolled releases of highly toxic hydrogen sulfide gas are common place, especially during unloading in the molten state.

Only recently has the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP) required companies to place liners under phospho- gypsum stacks. Because of airborne fluorine pollution, manufactures were forced by USEPA to install pollution scrubbers in the late 1960's and early 1970's. But, in Florida, it is common knowledge that the phosphate companies set the environmental ground rules, and the USEPA and FDEP tend to turn a blind eye regarding the violation of environmental regulations.

There is speculation that preferred treatment for phosphate fertilizer manufacturers started when the first atomic bombs were being developed. It was discovered that uranium-238 could be extracted from phosphate rock. During the post WW-II and Cold War eras, 75% of the uranium oxide used to produce nuclear weapons and fuel for the nuclear power industry came from several Florida phosphate fertilizer plants. Today, the laxity on the part of EPA in enforcing federal regulations is probably a leftover attitude from the days when phosphate fertilizer plants were a national security asset.

Gary Pittman’s deposition for a lawsuit reads like a twenty-year sentence to hell. "When I first started working for Occidental, safety considerations were basically nonexistent. The only thing we were required to wear were safety glasses. Gloves, respirators and dust masks were not furnished.

"I remember one incident when I was assigned the task of cleaning the filter hood and the pollution scrubber. Powdery fluorosilicate dust was everywhere. As we were cleaning, the fluorosilicate dust covered us, and it was very hot; we were sweating profusely. When the fluorosilicate dust mixed with the perspiration, it would form fluorosilicic acid on the skin and blister us if we did not wash it off.

"I remember going home after one episode in the pollution scrubber. I started coughing and choking. My eyes started to burn. I realized that my clothes were fuming. I rolled the window down in my truck so I could see to drive home. Reaching home, I removed my clothes and gave them to my wife to wash. Well, the only things that came out of the washing machine intact were the zipper and a couple of buttons."

"It wasn’t uncommon to develop acid sores, rashes and blisters after those jobs. It also wasn’t uncommon to cough up blood after breathing the fluorosilicates and other fumes."

Silico tetra fluoride is a highly toxic fluoride compound. The autopsy on a man who died from several minutes exposure to concentrated fumes at a phosphate fertilizer plant revealed a coating of silica on the lungs. The cause of death, however, was determined to be fluorine poisoning. The fluorosilicates found in the pollution scrubbers contain heavy metals, radionuclides (including radium-226, radon-222 and uranium-238).

Gary also suffers with emphysema and has described classic symptoms of silicosis. In the phosphate industry, the older workers refer to the condition as "chemical pneumonia."

Where employees are exposed to toxic substances, most manufacturers require employees to take urine test for levels of chemicals exposure. This is basic risk management procedure to protect the company against future lawsuits. In the twenty years working for Occidental, Gary had never taken a urine test, even when he became ill.

In 1987, according to Gary, Occidental management decided to shut down a pollution scrubber stating that it was not needed. For almost three years, in spite of violating state regulations and in felony violation of the Clean Air Act, Occidental operated the facility with the pollution scrubber shut down to save money. The entire population of Hamilton County, Florida was exposed to toxic emissions from the plant, possible many times what is considered safe levels. However, workers were exposed to much higher levels than the average citizen.

In another incident, Occidental was fined for releasing ten times the safe levels of fluorides into the atmosphere. Over the years Gary worked for Occidental, he said that the company had been cited numerous times for OSHA and environmental violations.

By 1993, after almost twenty-one years of exposure to workplace toxicants, Gary was totally incapacitated. Suffering from degenerative muscle disease (toxic myopathy), heart arrhythmias, and emphysema, he was unable to walk up a flight of stairs and was replaced by Occidental management. He was never allowed the opportunity to try and return to work or offered another less taxing position.

None of the doctors treating Gary ever considered chemical exposure which included: Carbon tetrachloride, barium chlorides, hydrogen fluoride, fluorosilicates, sulfates, potassium cyanide, chemical solvents and many other damaging and carcinogenic chemicals. Early diagnoses included degenerative muscle disease, possible AIDS, Lyme disease, and non specific myopathy (meaning they did not know what was causing his problems).

Gary’s work history is littered with health problems and misdiagnoses by doctors who knew nothing about industrial exposure to toxic chemicals. With his numerous emergency room visits, the personnel should have put two and two together and called for toxicological testing. However, the tests were not done, not even a simple urine test. Gary’s medical profile is such that he should have been referred to an industrial toxicologist by competent emergency room personnel and doctors.

As documented in his medical and work records, with each episode of illness, Gary would take off from work and his health would improve, but after returning to work, the symptoms would return. That scenario is a text book example and typical of someone suffering from poisoning due to exposure to work place toxicants, especially fluorine poisoning.

Over the years, and despite numerous visits to doctors, Gary was never tested for industrial toxicants until he visited the Environmental Health Center in Dallas, Texas. Previously, his condition was attributed to non specific myopathy by doctors. However, Dr. Rea, the attending physician at the Dallas Environmental Health Center diagnosed Gary as having toxic brain syndrome from his previous medical records. Dr. Hickey, at the Dallas facility ran a brain spectrograph and discovered neurological damage from exposure to neurotoxins and heavy metals confirming the "toxic brain syndrome" diagnosis. Dr. Rea recommended several sessions of chelation therapy. For most people it would only take one session, but because of Gary’s poor health, normal therapy would have proven lethal, and he was unable to undergo treatment.

Numerous employees of Occidental suffer from similar medical problems including two other plaintiffs named in the lawsuit. According to Gary, employees who worked in the processing plants at Occidental "seemed to stay sick all the time. It was like they had a cold or the flu all the time. They were always taking over-the-counter medications so they could keep working." He names numerous people with heart arrhythmias and symptoms of toxic brain syndrome. Gary also mentioned cases of Occidental employees who developed stomach cancer, lung cancer, leukemia, brain cancers, benign brain tumors and bone cancer. Several of the people with brain cancers have died.

Aside from exposure to air pollutants, the employees were also exposed to contaminants in the drinking water at the facility. Gary felt that toxic wastewater from the ponds was leaching into the aquifer. Fluoride levels in the water were between 15-17 parts per million. These levels are four times the maximum allowable contaminant level for drinking water established by USEPA. Phosphoric acid levels in the water were also very high. The drinking water was so laden with corrosive chemicals, it caused the metal pipes to crumble and be eaten away, Gary related.

Shortly before Gary was disabled, the water had become so contaminated that employees complained that it was undrinkable. A reverse osmosis system was installed. Due to the amount of contaminants, there were problems with clogging and the system was rendered ineffective. Gary requested that the company buy bottled water for the employees, but his request was denied. Rather than drink the foul tasting, toxic well water, many of the employees brought their own water to work or drank soft drinks.

In the complaint written by Gary Pittman’s attorneys, they allege that Occidental failed to provide and/or destroyed product data safety sheets and warning labels on toxic chemicals to avoid the expense of purchasing adequate safety equipment.

In documents and tapes provided by Pittman, he states that ventilation in the work areas was also poor and the equipment often failed. At one time the air-conditioning in laboratories recirculated the toxic air. During analytical procedures, toxic gases were recirculated in the rooms. "We poured all sorts of chemicals down an open drain in the floor. Sometimes they would start boiling and fuming. All those noxious fumes were recirculated by the air conditioning system. We were continuously breathing that stuff, back then. We didn’t know any better."

The complaint submitted by Jacksonville law firms, Coker, Myres, Schickel, Sorenson and Higgenbottom and Boyer, Tanzler and Boyer state, "Not only did the Defendants fail to provide adequate and operational ventilation, but also, to further reduce costs, the Defendants, even on occasion when the toxic fume stacks were fully operational, simply turned them off to further reduce costs."

In fact, according to the U.S. Public Health Service/Centers for Disease Control publication, Occupational Diseases: A Guide to their Recognition, 1977, pgs. 319-321, Occidental ignored the most fundamental recommendations for worker safety with regards to exposure to toxic chemicals and especially fluorine exposure. "Attention should be given promptly to any burns from fluorine compounds due to absorption of the fluorine at the burn site and the possibility of absorption from burn sites. Gary and his coworkers were never given any medical attention much less provided with adequate protective clothing and equipment.

Of the eight original plaintiffs who were directly exposed to the chemicals, only six remain, but others are coming forward. Two have died: One plaintiff a non smoker from died from lung and liver cancer, and the other from one of bone cancer. Gary said the wife and daughter of one man suffering with similar health problems and the neurotoxic damage have developed similar symptoms. He went on to say that many people have died from what he now believes exposure to toxic chemicals at the Occidental phosphoric acid and fertilizer plants.

"I read in the paper that studies were done in Hamilton County, and they showed that Hamilton County has the highest cancer rate in Florida. Columbia and Suwannee Counties also have very high cancer rates compared to other counties in Florida. Those counties are right next to Hamilton. For me, the article rang a bell because I wondered, why here? Hamilton County is basically a rural, farming county. You would think the air is less contaminated. The overall environment is cleaner. You would think the people would be healthier than in the big cities. The only thing here that is not in some of the other counties is Occidental Chemical Company.

"I wonder whether the water we are drinking water contaminated with chemicals from the leaking gypsum stacks. I worry about the air quality because it’s a fact these chemicals travel great distances and other times, under different weather conditions, they settle over the community. All these things concern me. Now that I know how dangerous some of those chemicals are, I’m concerned for the whole county and the general public. I feel like more studies need to be done by scientists who are not paid by the phosphate fertilizer industry or those government agencies who have done little or nothing over the years."

After working almost twenty-one years in the phosphate fertilizer industry, Gary Pittman states: "If the facts were brought out in this case, the cat would be out of the bag. They (Occidental) know that I know where all the skeletons are buried. If we can get this information to the public, we could get some things done about the pollution. Not only for us, but for the general public. These phosphate fertilizer companies would have to clean up their act. I know the general public is at risk due to sulfur dioxide, radionuclides, fluorosilicates and other harmful fumes being emitted from the plants, holding ponds and gypsum stacks. People are being made sick from that pollution.

" All these things concern and worry me. I thought about reporting the illegal emissions to Florida Department of Environmental Protection, OSHA and the EPA. But I wonder, because you don’t want to report things to the people who already know what is going on. They know people are sick and dying because of Occidental. If they were really concerned and cared about the public, they would have done something about Occidental a long time ago."

Gary Owen Pittman is also concerned about the lawsuit because he knows that he is going up against a mammoth organization with much to lose. The parent company of Occidental Chemical Corporation, Hooker Chemical Corporation, is no stranger to litigation. Hooker Chemical was responsible for Love Canal (both companies are owned by Occidental Petroleum Corp.). Not only is he going up against Occidental, Pittman and the surviving plaintiffs in the lawsuit are taking on the entire phosphate fertilizer industry.

"It’s hard for us to trust anyone after what we’ve been through. I know Occidental has the power to buy and intimidate people. They could even cause my lawyers problems. They give money to political candidates, and I imagine they help the judges, who think their way, to get elected. All of us know that we’re alone and can’t depend on anyone, except one another."

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Preliminary deposition by Gary Owen Pittmen (chemical exposure history), audio tapes, medical records, correspondence to attorneys, complaint filed by Jacksonville, FL law firms, Coker, Myres, Schickel, Sorenson and Higgenbottom and Boyer, Tanzler and Boyer, against Occidental Chemical Corp. subsiderary of Hooker Chemical Corp. and Occidental Petroleum Corp.

1. Report to Congress on Special Wastes from Mineral Process - Summary and Findings, Methods and Analyses, USEPA, U.S. Department of Commerce, National Technical Information Service, July 1990.

2. Phosphoric Acid Waste Dialogue, Report on Phosphoric Wastes Dialogue Committee, Activities and Recommendations, September 1995; Southeast Negotiation Network, Prepared by Gregory Borne.

4. The Geology of Florida, University Press of Florida, 1997, pp. 141-144, 247-249.

5. Sinkholes and stacks, U.S. News & World Report, June 12, 1995, pp.53-56.

7. Correspondence from Joseph A. Cotruvo, Office of Drinking Water, USEPA to G.G. England, Aug. 12, 1986 (regarding the presence of radionuclides in fluorosilicic acid).

8. Correspondence from Thomas Reeves, National Fluoridation Engineer, USPHS to George Glasser, February 25, 1998 (regarding presence of radionuclides in fluorosilicic acid).

9. LCI, Ltd, Hydrofluosilicic Acid Specifications, H2SiF6, Commercial Grade, Oct., 1990.

13. Patty’s Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology, 1993, Fourth Edition, Vol. 2, Part A, G.D. Claton, F.E., Claton, John Willey & Sons, Inc

16. Chronic administration of Aluminum-Fluoride or Sodium Fluoride to rats in drinking water: alterations in neuronal and cerebrovascular integrity, Brain Research, 16 Feb. 1998, Vol. 84, Nos. 1-2, J. Varner, K. Jensen, W. Horvath, R. Isaacson.

17. Water Treatment with silicofluoride and enhanced lead uptake, Fluoride, vol. 31, No. 3, Aug. I998, R. Masters, M. Coplan.

19. International J. of Cancer, 1991, "Results and Conclusions of The National Toxicology Programs Rodent Study with Sodium Fluoride.

21. CRC Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 1996-97, The Chemical Rubber Co. (Fluorine, Polonium, Radium, Radon and Uranium).

26. Little, J.B., Radford, E.P., McCombs, H.L., and Hunt, V.R., Distribution of Polonium-210 In Pulmonary Tissue of Cigarette Smokers. The New England Jour. of Med., 272:25, Dec. 17, 1965.

27. Parsons, W.D., De Villiers, A.J., Bartlett, L.S., Becklake, M.R.: Lung cancer in fluorospar mining community. II. Prevalence of respiratory symptoms and disability. Br. J. Industr. Med.: 21:10, 1964.

28. Pharmacology and Toxicology of Uranium Compounds, C. Voegtlin, H. Hodge, McGraw-Hill, 1949.

29. Marier, J., Rose, D., Report for the National Research Council of Canada, 1977 (synergism of fluoride compounds).

30. Drinking Water and Health, National Academy of Sciences, 1977: Chapt. VII, Radioactivity in Drinking Water, pp. 857-903.

33. Toxic Properties of Inorganic Fluorine Compounds, R.Y. Eagers, 1969, Elsevier Pub. Co., NY.

36. Journal of Dental Research, volume 69, Feb., Pg. 883, International Symposium on Fluorides, researchers and scientists express a concern about fluoride interaction with various elements and food preservatives. Their concerns are not about the likelihood of adverse health effects, but that the substances may inhibit cariogenic ("cavity fighting") ability of the fluoride ion.

37. Toxic Properties of Inorganic Fluorine Compounds, R.Y. Eagers, 1969, Elsevier Pub. Co. NY.