DAVENPORT - The only complaint Cindy Escobar has had with living less than a half-mile from a cement factory is the constant cement dust that falls on the front deck of her Marine View Avenue home.
She took care of the nuisance earlier this year by painting the deck gray.
"Otherwise it's too difficult to keep clean," Escobar, 48, said Monday. "The gray blends in better now."
The Davenport native lives in what she calls the "drop zone" of Cemex dust, and dealing with it has always been a part of life on the North Coast.
She's never worried about environmental and health hazards from the plant. In fact, Escobar has worked in the Cemex cement laboratory for 18 years, mixing and testing various grades of cement before they go to market.
However, information released last week from the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District that high levels of a cancer-causing chemical agent known as chromium 6 have been detected at the elementary school and fire department has Escobar worried about the consequences of that exposure for her and her family, which includes two grown children, and her co-workers.
The levels of chromium 6 measured in Davenport were eight and 10 times higher than acceptable state standards, according to Ed Kendig of the Monterey Bay Unified Air Pollution Control District.
The chromium tests were conducted June 10-Aug. 5.
Escobar says she hasn't had any major health issues, but would welcome medical
testing specific to the carcinogenic material."My concerns are with the exposure I've had," she said. "I want to know how does a person get tested if they've been exposed. I want to ask my doctor."
Chromium in the air
Air monitoring of the area will continue 24 hours a day while the air district, Cemex and other state officials investigate the circumstances and determine a solution.
An air sample was sent to a lab in Pittsburg on Monday, though air district officials expect chromium levels to be low or nonexistent compared with samples taken earlier because the Cemex plant has been closed for more than a month due to the weak economy.
This is the longest the cement factory has stayed closed because of low demand in the marketplace, though employees say they usually have short closures during the winter rainy season.
The company has promised to remain closed until the chromium 6 problem is resolved.
The amount of chromium 6 detected in Davenport poses a cancer risk of up to 102 in 1 million people if continuously exposed for 70 years, according to California's strict chromium standards, Kendig said.
The same samples would measure 10 in 1 million people by the federal Environmental Protection Agency's benchmark. Kendig said.
"If the EPA risk factor were used, there would be no notice, no hubbub," he said. "The amounts of chromium 6 are very small, and the cancer risk, while elevated to a region that's unacceptable, it's not particularly high.
"You have a much higher risk of getting cancer living next to a freeway. Breathing in diesel exhaust makes this situation look like a day in the park."
Cemex officials believe the culprit for the chromium 6 is mill scale and steel slag, two cement-making materials of high chromium content that can easily produce chromium 6.
They say they'll find nonchromium materials, such as iron, to produce cement before the factory starts again.
Erin Brockovich
Chromium 6 is the same toxic substance that inspired the movie "Erin Brockovich" in 2000.
Brockovich helped investigate the leakage of chromium 6 in the ground water of Hinkley by Pacific Gas and Electric Co.'s compressor station in the mid-1990s and landed the town's 600 residents a tort injury settlement of $333 million.
Brockovich, who still works on environmental issues around the world, is aware of the Davenport case and plans to send a representative to today's Board of Supervisors meeting and tonight's Pacific Elementary School board meeting.
Her representative in Los Angeles said she might visit Santa Cruz County within the next week.
"I have received your e-mail and from others in the community," she wrote in an e-mail to the Sentinel on Monday. "I am looking into this situation and planning on sending someone to the area and having a community meeting."
Contact Shanna McCord at 429-2401 or smccord@santacruzsentinel.com.
What is chromium 6?
Chromium is found in many natural materials.
High-chromium content materials such as rocks and limestone can create chromium 6 when heated up to high temperatures.
During cement production, a 3,500-degree oven turns raw material to clinker, a rock that gets crushed to make cement.
Extreme heat in the kiln can cause oxidation and convert chromium to chromium 6.
Besides cement production, the toxic metal is often used in metal plating, the aerospace industry, stainless steel processing and dye manufacture.
IF YOU DELIVER TO CEMEX-OR CONSIDER YOUR WORK ENVIRONMENT TO BE EXESSIVELY DUST FILLED, CALL THE SAFETY HOTLINE SO THEY CAN POSSIBLY PREFORM TESTS!!!
