Muncie company violates EPA standards for lead

It is toxic for your heart, bones, intestines, kidneys, reproductive and nervous systems, and you probably inhale it every day.

It’s lead, and it’s one of the most common air pollutants.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency recently found 16 sites in 11 states in violation of its new air quality standards for lead, and Muncie is home to one of them.

The Clean Air Act passed in 1970, and amended in 1990, required the EPA to set standards for air quality with regards to lead, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter and ozone — a primary component of smog.

Robert Elstro, of the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, said the EPA recently made their standards much stricter.

He said the previous standard allowed up to 1.5 micrograms of pollutants per cubic meter, but the new standard allows only 0.15 micrograms.

Exide Technologies of Muncie’s south side had levels of up to 2.14 micrograms between 2007 and 2009, according to reports by the EPA.

“A part of Muncie does not meet that new air quality standard,” Elstro said. “The new standard required additional monitoring.”

Philip Stevens, chair of environmental science faculty for IU’s School  of Public and Environmental Affairs, said this pollution is caused because of battery recycling by the Muncie company.

“Lead acid batteries are commonly used in cars and other forms of transportation,” Stevens said. “There may be steps that involve melting parts of the battery that could lead to air emissions of lead.”  

Karla Johnson, administrator for the Marion County Health Department, said lead exposure can result in adverse health effects to both adults and children, but the effects are often irreversible in young children and the unborn.

“There are learning difficulties for children that are exposed to lead,” Johnson said. “There has been some suggestion that it is connected to ADHD.”

Johnson said lead exposure has also been shown to cause problems with impulse control and aggression in children, which may lead to delinquent behavior.

“Those kinds of things can happen at lower level exposure,” Johnson said. “The higher the lead levels in the liver and the body, the more devastating the effects, but serious damage can occur even at lower levels.”

Johnson said lead exposure can cause neurological damage as well as damage to other tissues to both children and adults, and high levels of lead inhaled can prove fatal.

The violation could cause the EPA to label Muncie as a “nonattainment area.”

When an area is labeled as “nonattainment,” it is published on the EPA’s website as failing to meet air quality standards. The state is then expected to work with local businesses and organizations within that area to fix the problem.

Elstro said IDEM has already made plans to work with facilities in the area, and EPA enforcement will bring improvements.

“We will bring that facility back into attainment,” Elstro said.