Man grabs, tries to 'force his way' into Memphis Mayor Paul Young's car outside restaurant, city says

Protect our aquifer from politics, other contaminants

Donna Brigham
Guest columnist
A crew conducts soil boring at the former site of Custom Cleaners, which has been added to the national priority list for cleanup under the federal Superfund program for hazardous waste sites.

I can’t stop thinking about all the pregnant women, babies and young children who may have been exposed to a toxic chemical discovered this year in the Memphis Sand aquifer that supplies our drinking water.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, low-level exposures to this chemical — perchloroethylene (known as PERC) — can result in problems with attention, memory and mood. 

As director of special education for Capstone Education Group schools in Memphis, I am all too familiar with the challenges faced by children with learning or attention disorders.

That’s why I have traveled several times to Washington D.C., joining hundreds of parents, teachers, nurses and doctors to ask Congress to pass legislation to protect children from toxic chemicals and pollution that can put them at greater risk of disease and disability. 

Thankfully, Congress listened. In 2016, Tennessee’s Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker joined in passing a long-overdue, bi-partisan reform of the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), our country’s main chemical safety law. 

The revised TSCA directs the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to assess chemicals to determine if they are safe, especially for babies’ developing brains and bodies. EPA is then required to regulate chemicals found to be harmful. 

That achievement ought to mean we can all breathe a sigh of relief, or pour a big glass of water and drink a toast to healthy pregnancies and healthy kids. But it turns out the people put in charge of carrying out the new chemical safety law do not have our children’s best interests in mind. Instead, they seem to be working on behalf of chemical industry interests. 

Michael Dourson, a man with a long history of working for tobacco and chemical companies to downplay their dangerous products, has been nominated to head EPA’s office of chemical safety. Dourson is known for producing studies that consistently find toxic chemicals to be safe even at high exposure levels.

PERC, the chemical found in the Memphis Sand aquifer is among the 10 chemicals EPA has selected as most urgently needing scrutiny. Let’s think about that: out of thousands of chemicals in line for assessment, EPA singled out PERC as among the 10 posing the greatest concern.

But in 2016, Dourson published a chemical industry-funded paper that argued PERC was safe at an exposure level 12.5 times less protective than the standard set by EPA. Now this man is poised to head the office charged with protecting Americans from this and other harmful chemicals. 

In addition to being neurotoxic, PERC is also a "probable" human carcinogen. And here in Memphis, the chemical mgith be responsible for sickening a local resident and killing animals. 

Michael Dourson at his confirmation hearing, Oct. 4, 2017

The owner of a local art supply store near the site of the PERC contamination was diagnosed with autonomic nervous system disorder, which causes difficulties with breathing and other functions. She blamed it on breathing perc fumes oozing contaminated soil at the site.

Now that this chemical has been found in the source of our drinking water, it is all the more urgent that we address this dangerous contamination before more people are hurt.

Both Republicans and Democrats have voiced grave concerns about Dourson’s nomination. I hope that we see the same leadership from Tennessee Senators. 

Meanwhile, Dourson has already taken up residence at the EPA, appointed without confirmation to a special adviser position. It is imperative that we keep our drinking water and our children safe, and send Dourson packing. 

Donna Brigham, M.Ed., is director of special education for Capstone Education Group schools in Memphis, a volunteer with the Learning Disabilities Association of Tennessee, and a mom.