Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 15:11:25 -0700

To: Recipient List Suppressed:;

Published: Tuesday, April 18, 2000

DNR may classify silica as hazardous material

ASSOCIATED PRESS

MILWAUKEE

Businesses that deal with a powdery form of one of Earth's most common minerals object to new state rules that would classify it as hazardous to public health.

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources plans to expand its 1988 list of toxic airborne substances and wants to include crystalline silica.

Silica is found throughout the world. It is the basic ingredient of quartz, which commonly occurs as beach sand, is used as glass and can often be found in granite.

The DNR proposal would regulate airborne or breathable silica, referring to tiny particles that get loose when rock is crushed or a grinder is applied to a silica product in a foundry.

Inhaled silica is suspected of causing a disease known as silicosis that can lead to cancer.

Gregory Wagner of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in Morgantown, W.Va., says nearly 2,800 people died of silicosis between 1987 and 1996.

They included 109 in Wisconsin, giving the state the eighth-highest death rate in that period, Wagner said.

The DNR regulation would not apply to the workplace. However, the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration is considering strengthening its silica regulations, OSHA Milwaukee director George Yoksas said.

Crystalline silica is among about 200 substances the DNR proposes adding to the 450 currently identified in its toxic air regulations, DNR toxicologist Jeff Myers said.

The rules are known as NR445 and have not been brought up to date since 1988, he said.

An advisory group representing health, environmental, labor, industry and other organizations has been formed to discuss the changes.

Public hearings could be held next spring. The department could announce a decision by autumn 2001, Myers said.

In January, some employees and retired foundry workers sued Badger Mining Corp. of Berlin, Wisconsin's largest producer of silica sand.

They argue they suffered lung disease because they were exposed to silica dust.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer and the National Toxicology Program calls it a carcinogen, leading the DNR to propose adding it to the list, Myers said.

Opponents say there is no evidence that silica is hazardous to the general population.

``Requiring industry to cut down on silica emissions will have no appreciable effect on the silica in the air,'' said Joe Shapiro, a vice president of Unimin Corp., a New Canaan, Conn., industrial mining company.

``That's the problem,'' said Linda Sturnot, vice president of the Mining Impact Coalition of Wisconsin. ``I don't think quarry operators and owners understand the seriousness of silicosis.''

The DNR has not announced what an acceptable exposure limit might be. Businesses fear the department will select a guideline that would make compliance impossible, said Gary Mosher, vice president of environmental health for the American Foundry Society.

``The technology doesn't exist to comply with these levels,'' Mosher said of those that some states have.

``They don't do a risk assessment. They don't do a hazard analysis. It's an accounting exercise, not a health effects risk exercise,'' Mosher said.

``None of these regulatory agencies (has) done any studies to determine if silica is a danger to those who live around these quarries,'' Sturnot said, ``and until they prove it's not a hazard to the general public, we're taking the position that it is.''