Problems with the LTV Mill are Old and Bad

Hotline, Winter 1998

A letter from Susanne Robb to GASP on February 11, 1998:

The air is foul and soot heavy from the LTV Mill in Hazelwood. Still reporters give us the EPA view.  The view holds that pollution levels do not violate EPA standards or pose any health threat.

I disagree with these disclaimers.  If clean air standards are not being violated, they are set too high.  Impacts on health are far greater than we are led to believe by accounts in the media.

No one in my family ever had asthma.  Parents and grandparents lived to be 76-91 years of age. They were from Cleveland where steel mills were either closed or non-polluting by the time I was born.

Development and progression of my asthma parallels my move to and within Pittsburgh.  I came to Point Breeze in 1964 when I was 23 years old.  In my early 30s I experienced the first mild symptoms of asthma.  In 1976 I moved to Greenfield.  Within a year, I experienced the first asthma attack that required emergency room treatment.  Occasional use of bronchodilators kept me out of emergency rooms until 1994 when I moved to a new house above the LTV mill. In 1995 and 1996 I had two attacks that again sent me to the emergency rooms.  The second of these attacks resulted in a respiratory arrest.  Since that time, I have had to use anti-inflammatory medication in addition to bronchodilators.

I know the mill is responsible for my asthma because when I travel to other cities, all asthma symptoms go away.  Fortunately, work-related travel takes me out of Pittsburgh two to three times each year.  When I arrive, I can give up all medication within a day.  I do not have to resume medication until I return to Pittsburgh.  Cities such as Indianapolis; Washington, DC; Phoenix; and Cleveland have their share of automobile emissions.  However, there is no comparison between the impact of automobile versus LTV Mill pollution on my asthma.

I am certainly not the only resident of the Greenfield-Hazelwood area with asthma linked to mill pollution.  The little boy across the street is from Hungary and has been here for two years.  At age six, he has mild asthma.  No one else in his family has this problem.  His mother notices children at little league games and kindergarten who cough, wheeze, and use inhalers in far greater numbers than she ever saw as a school teacher in Hungary.  Review of chronic obstructive lung disease prevalence in Pennsylvania indicates that rates are higher in counties surrounding Pittsburgh than counties around Philadelphia or Harrisburg.  In debating the mill-closing issue, no one seems to consider costs borne by area residents for health care and wages lost due to illness and premature death.  Surely alternative uses exists for the mill site that would provide jobs without pollution.

The LTV Mill needs to close immediately before our health is damaged beyond recovery.  We can not tolerate a prolonged process of mill-closing or a decision to keep the mill operating and polluting.  If the “protection” in EPA means job protection for mill-owners and/or workers versus protection for area residents, then the EPA needs to go away too.

by Susanne S. Robb, PHD, RNC
GASP Member