Rise in asthma cases linked to fuel additive, lawmakers
told
By Daniel P. Jones
Copyright 1999 Hartford Courant
February 5, 1999
A controversial gasoline additive meant to clean the air has
had a dire,
unintended effect -- a dramatic increase in the number of people
suffering from
asthma -- a medical researcher told Connecticut lawmakers Thursday.
Citing statistical and anectodal evidence from clinics,
hospitals and schools
in the Philadelphia
area, the University of Pennsylvania scientist said there has been
"an explosion of asthma" since methyl tertiary butyl
ether, or
MTBE, was added to gasoline under a clean-air program in that area
in 1993.
"MTBE is not improving public health, but is actually
harming it," said Peter Joseph, a professor at the
university's medical school.
"I cannot prove it; I admit that up front," he
said of the apparent link between asthma and
MTBE use.
"But I
think the evidence shows it."
Oil and gasoline industry proponents of
MTBE countered that the additive poses no more health risks than
gasoline without
it. They said it helps reduce the amount of air pollution from
cars, and that
the federal Environmental Protection Agency agrees.
"Nationwide, reductions in
vehicle emissions -- including volatile organic compounds, nitrous
oxides,
sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide -- due to cleaner-burning
gasoline are
equivalent of removing over 7 million vehicles," said Charles
Drevna, director of government affairs for the Arlington,
Va.-based Oxygenated Fuels Association,
a trade group of fuel-additive makers.
Lawmakers on the General Assembly's public health and
environment committees
heard the differing views as they began to try to better understand
the pros
and cons of
MTBE. They also heard from a well-testing expert and the head of
the Connecticut
Petroleum Council.
Some lawmakers
want to ban
MTBE in Connecticut because of complaints that breathing car
exhaust or vapors at
the pumps makes people sick.
MTBE from leaking tanks and gasoline spills also is turning up in
drinking-water
wells in the state. The additive is more expensive and more
difficult to remove
from well
water than other gasoline compounds.
Philip Rusconi, managing member of Premier Laboratory, told
lawmakers that 8
percent of the wells his company tested had detectable levels of
MTBE.
MTBE is a man-made chemical that most oil companies add to
gasoline to comply with
clean-air rules governing
much of the East Coast and California. The program went into effect
in
southwestern Connecticut in 1992 and in the rest of the state in
1995.
Ethanol, derived from corn, is the additive used to comply
with the rules in
much of the middle of the country.
A December report by the Connecticut Academy of Science and
Engineering on
MTBE's effectiveness said the chemical would be expected to help
reduce ozone, or
smog, in the state, but that such improvement would be hard to
quantify.
But Joseph, the University of Pennslyvania scientist,
presented a chart of
Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection data that showed
MTBE has not improved smog
levels since the clean-fuels program began several years ago.
He said a survey of kindergarten students by Stamford's
health department in
1996, after several years of
MTBE use, found that 24 percent of the children had asthma, up from
7 percent found
in
a smaller survey in 1992-93.
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