
Google workers at Superfund site exposed - sheri
http://www.sfgate.com/business/article/Google-workers-at-Superfund-site-exposed-4368421.php
======
nlh
The HN headline for this story is a bit misleading. Kind of subtle, but it
implies, as written, that Google had secret workers at a Superfund site and
that their identities have been revealed. I was expecting something much odder
when I clicked the link :)

~~~
carlob
I thought so too, but the original title is the same.

~~~
JshWright
While that's true, I think a little additional context in the title wouldn't
hurt.

... exposed [to hazardous chemicals]

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uvdiv
It seems higher levels of trichloroethylene than this are/were common, even
outdoors: (note this data is 10-20 years old)

 _Reported worldwide background levels vary from <17 to 109 ng/m3. In rural
areas levels of 0.10–0.68 µg/m3 have been reported (4,5). In urban areas
levels are higher. In European cities, the reported range is 0.04–64.1 µg/m3
(mean concentrations 0.8–18.5 µg/m3). For Germany, 5–15 µg/m3 is reported as
the typical concentration range for urban areas (4). In the United States,
concentrations in municipal areas ranged from 0.03 to 13.5 µg/m3 (mean
concentrations 0.5–2.1 µg/m3) (4); the average for urban areas of 2.5 µg/m3
(0.46 ppb) that resulted from a compilation of data in 1982, is in agreement
with more recent measurements (3). Mean concentrations (24-hour composite
samples averaged over 1–12 months) in 11 Canadian cities ranged from 0.7 to
0.96 µg/m3 (5)._

 _The median value for indoor air from the 2031 entries in the United States
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data base on volatile organic
contaminants (VOC-AMBI) is 0.68 µg/m3 (0.125 ppb); the average value was 7.36
µg/m3 (1.347 ppb) (6). In Canada, mean indoor air concentrations of up to 165
µg/m3 with an overall mean value of 1.4 µg/m3 have been reported (5).
Concentrations measured in several western European countries varied from 0.76
to 1200 µg/m3 . Concentrations are generally higher in indoor air than
outdoors (4). An important source for trichloroethylene in indoor air is
volatilization from contaminated water (7)._

[http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/123069/A...](http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0003/123069/AQG2ndEd_5_15Trichloroethylene.pdf)
(from 2000)

This article:

 _The problem at Google was discovered when routine air sampling found TCE at
a level of 7.8 micrograms per cubic meter in a hallway of one building on Nov.
21. The EPA was notified as required. It is unclear how long the levels had
been above the danger threshold. The previous sampling in September 2010 found
nearly undetectable levels._

 _In an effort to reduce the vapors, workers sealed cracks in floors and walls
where TCE might get in. But despite their efforts, samples collected on Dec.
29 found the problem was getting worse: TCE exceeded the 5-microgram safety
threshold in five locations in two of the four buildings._

~~~
nolok
Yeah but that headline wouldn't have sold.

~~~
omd
A better title would've been: Breaking Hacker News: Building defect detected
at Fortune 500 marketing firm.

------
ghshephard
If they are referring to the Ellis/Middlefield campus - I used to work at that
site, and I can remember around 1998/1999, when they added a huge honking
water fountain spraying water against a ventilator of some kind.

It was a bit nerve wracking seeing all of the various environmental teams
walking around Ellis for a couple weeks wearing full on HazMat suits while we
were just strolling around in Shorts and T-Shirts...

~~~
mtviewdave
It is the Ellis/Middlefield campus. Here's the link to the EPA's page on the
Superfund site: <http://1.usa.gov/WUc0CA> And a map of the contaminated area:
<http://1.usa.gov/10b3Wxc>

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jpdoctor
Background missing from article: Trichloroethylene was in widespread use
during the early days of silicon fab, and was part of the "RCA clean" that was
used in order to remove everything from the surface of a silicon wafer.

It's scattered through a great deal of SV, many of the Santa Clara county
superfund sites are from former fabs:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_Cali...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Superfund_sites_in_California)

Naturally, no jail time was ever served because of these.

~~~
_delirium
On the plus side, unlike the common case in the mining industry, the Valley
companies involved are mostly at least paying for the cleanup of their
associated sites. Granted, it might just be because they have no choice, since
the sites are clearly theirs, while in mining the sites seem to frequently end
up attributed to some tiny company that promptly goes bust, leaving taxpayers
paying for the cleanup.

~~~
jpdoctor
> _attributed to some tiny company that promptly goes bust, leaving taxpayers
> paying for the cleanup_

If there was ever a reason to disallow the boundaries of incorporation, that's
it.

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DannyBee
The best part of this article is the typical "TCE, an industrial solvent used
in making computer chips, is known to cause cancer and birth defects" part
they use to try to scare people. Roughly everything that does not kill you in
sufficient quantities can cause cancer or birth defects. They then cite really
really odd studies that don't support anything in particular, or are
completely irrelevant for the topic at hand.

Let me give this a try: "Workers at the site were exposed to tap water, a
chemical known to cause birth defects[1] and death[2]"

Not that i'm claiming TCE is great for you, but articles like this are almost
completely content free in terms of actual science.

[1]
[http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/2012/0...](http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/2012/05/2012-0620-birth-
risks-babies-water-disinfection/)

[2]
[http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&...](http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10834669)

------
pasbesoin
_One Google employee who was visibly pregnant was asked if she was aware of
risks associated with TCE exposure.

"We're really not allowed to talk about it," she said. "Sorry." _

This is a very shameful part of such incidents. Without transparency and
communication, we will never resolve these issues.

If _transparency_ and communication had existed from the start, that
ventilation would not have been disabled or certainly not have remained so for
such a period of time.

In my opinion, the entities that create such messes should be examined fully
and, where appropriate (particularly in cases of willful neglect), drained of
their resources in order to correct the problem.

And, once such problems exist in the public environment (including employment
settings), _nobody_ \-- upon threat of criminal prosecution -- should have the
ability to constraint communication and dialog about them.

~~~
Evbn
The employee was declining to discuss the situation with a reporter. It isn't
a coverup of a whistleblow, nor was the reporter their to help the employee.
If the reporter was concerned for health more than story, the reporter would
have made more of an effort to separate the woman from the TCE.

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ChuckMcM
When I worked at 1600 Plymouth and Google was looking for more space I was
surprised they weren't building on the empty lot across the street. Then I
walked over there between a gap in the fence and walked around. About ever 15
- 20 yards was a test well. Looking at the superfund data it was in the
process of being 'remediated' which was a program where steam gets pumped into
the ground to migrate chemicals out.

Part of the legacy of the 'silicon' part of silicon valley.

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swalling
"The site is now home to about 85 businesses, including the software firm
Symantec, the insurance company eHealthInsurance, a patent law firm, a baby
ultrasound center, an adoption service, a restaurant and a cafe."

Anybody else a little depressed that Google employees took precedent in this
story, over an _ultrasound center_ housed on a site with chemicals that might
cause birth defects?

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DanBC
> _Pregnant women who are exposed to low levels of the chemical during a
> crucial three-week period in their first trimester face an increased risk of
> having a baby born with holes in the heart_

This is going to scare many pregnant women and their partners, but it's almost
worthless information. What is the baseline rate of babies born with holes in
the heart, and what is the rate of babies exposed to TCE? And what's the
consequence of hole in the heart - is it a problem for every child born with
it? Without that information you've just got a scary soundbite but nothing
else.

~~~
carlob
weird methodology if you ask me but there it is:

The proportion of mothers who were both older and had presumed TCE exposure
was more than six-fold greater among case infants than among control infants
(3.3% [8/245] versus 0.5% [19/3780]). When adjusted for other variables, CHD
risk was over three-fold greater among infants of older, exposed mothers
compared to infants of older, nonexposed mothers (adjusted OR, 3.2; 95% CI,
1.2-8.7). Older maternal age, alcohol use, chronic hypertension, and
preexisting diabetes were each associated with CHDs (adjusted ORs, 1.9, 2.1,
2.8, 4.1; 95% CIs, 1.1-3.5, 1.1-4.2, 1.2-6.7, 1.5-11.2, respectively), but
residence close to TCE sites alone was not.

<http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15390315>

~~~
uvdiv
_"[...] were each associated with CHDs [...] but residence close to TCE sites
alone was not."_

So, they actually found _no_ correlation with TCE exposure. There found a
correlation with one of the subgroups [TCE + other variable], one out of many,
that they selected _after_ examining the data.

There's an XKCD about this:

<http://xkcd.com/882/>

Or did I misunderstand something?

~~~
carlob
As far as I understand only women that were older (≥ 38) had a significant
effect from being exposed (on top of the increased risk due to being older).

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dfgdfgfd
Well f __* me, I used to work on this toxic waste dump site...

