Text Box: AK Steel Update page 4 Text Box: When Lies Kill For Addyston residents and the general public, making healthy lifestyle choices is made more difficult when industry misleads the public. For decades the tobacco industry lied about the deadly consequences of tobacco use. Following the 1964 report released by the Surgeon General which definitively linked cigarettes to cancer, the tobacco industry came up with a new lie by claiming that a switch to low tar cigarettes was a healthy lifestyle choice. Internal industry documents have revealed that the tobacco industry knew full well that tar and nicotine levels were linked, that smokers of “low tar” brands would just smoke more deeply or heavily to get their nicotine fix, and that a switch to “low tar” offered little or no health benefit to smokers. Tragically however, in the mid 1970’s and 1980’s, many health-conscious people made the switch. Those seven cases reviewed in the Addyston Health Study revealed those folks had made healthy lifestyle choices for diet, exercise, alcohol use, and middle age weight. Were they among the many Americans tricked into the false “healthy lifestyle choice” of low tar cigarettes by tobacco industry lies?

Over the past year AK Steel has done more sampling for PCBs, toxic chemicals which US EPA classifies as probable human carcinogens, in the Dicks Creek flood plain.  The testing so far has shown both high and low levels of PCBs at various soil depths in the flood plain.  Sierra Club, USEPA and Ohio EPA all agree that more sampling is needed to fully delineate the extent of contamination.   AK has also reported water pollution violations for oil and grease, and zinc.

Residents near the steel mill were compensated for property damage and cleaning services during the last quarter of 2006 to the tune of $224,207.  AK Steel is continuing to pay claims at this time.  Hamilton County Department of Environmental Services reported to us that some of the complaints they are continuing to get may be due to problems with the coke operation. Also, they reported that AK Steel worked on the coke quenching operation last year and that may have generated complaints. 

The continued issues at AK Steel show the need for continued citizen involvement even after AK Steel was required to install pollution controls which reduced soot by over 300 tons / year from the blast furnace alone. (Marilyn Wall reporting)

Lanxess Air Study (Continued from Page 1)

Statistical analysis indicated that the elevated incidence of cancer, of lung and bronchus cancer, and of colorectal cancer were more than  likely not due to chance; the differences were statistically significant.  Was this the result of local air pollution? Tim Ingram of the Hamilton County General Health District was quoted by the Enquirer, “This study does not rule in Lanxess, and it does not rule it out.”

Later in the year, the Hamilton County General Health District undertook a case review of the 23 cases of lung, bronchus, and colorectal cancers to “identify common factors among the cases that may have played a role in the development of cancer.” (2)  Unfortunately, they were only able to gain additional information on 7 of those 23 cases. 

The information collected by the General Health District “to determine exposure to commonly known risk factors” revealed the following about those factors:

à Lifestyle choices: Most had made many healthful lifestyle choices: 7/7 were not sedentary, 6/7 did not have a high fat diet, none abused alcohol, and 5/7 had a normal weight during middle age (35 to 64).

à Cigarettes:  5/7 smoked and had smoked, on average, for 36 years (range 10-55 years) and 6/7 were exposed to second-hand smoke.  According to the American Cnacer Society (ACS), 87% of all lung cancer cases involve tobacco and smoking is linked to 12% of deaths from colorectal cancer.

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