State officials will test air quality in Grants Pass

Document text

State officials will test air quality in Grants Pass The Associated Press GRANTS PASS - The state Department of Environmental Quality will set up three air monitors upwind and downwind of the U.S. Forest Industries mill in southeast Grants Pass to determine if the city's air has unacceptable levels of formaldehyde. The weeklong check comes three months after businessman Paul True bought newspaper advertisements charging that DEQ had failed to assess the health risks of U.S. Forest Industries emissions even after concluding that the nausea, headaches, burning eyes and respiratory distress reported by 12 of his 19 employees appeared to correspond with emissions from the mill. The mill burns plywood waste containing phenol-formaldehyde resin in wood-fired veneer dryers. True, a 34-year-old former marathon biker who now suffers from shortness of breath, said more than 50 people with health problems contacted him after seeing the newspaper advertisement, including 45 who sent petitions to the DEQ asking that the mill's emissions be tested for potential health risks. Formaldehyde is listed by the federal Environmental Protection Agency as a hazardous air pollutant in a class known as volatile organic compounds, or VOCs. The actual amount of formaldehyde released from U.S. Forest Industries smokestacks is unknown.   Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.