Published in the Asbury Park Press
By KIRK MOORE
STAFF WRITER
TOMS RIVER -- A chemical compound that's been found in small amounts in United Water Toms River wells showed some toxicity in tests on laboratory rats, but not enough "to indicate a high degree of alarm," according to a report released yesterday by researchers for Union Carbide Corp.
Results from the final two tests in a first round of toxicology studies on styrene acrylonitrile trimer -- a chemical compound related to plastics production -- indicates "that SAN trimer has a low potential to cause genetic defects or to be toxic to any specific organ in the body, especially the brain or reproductive systems," the study reports.
However, the first round of tests needs to be followed up by testing for longer periods of exposure to the trimer, the report notes.
"We believe it is appropriate to discuss low-dose, long-term studies to assess the chronic effects of the SAN trimer, if any," the report says.
"It doesn't tell us if the stuff is carcinogenic and it's not a long-term study," said Linda Gillick, who heads the Citizens Action Committee on Childhood Cancer Cluster here. "Everything's preliminary and it means we need to move along on more studies," she added. "This is what it takes to build a base line of information."
Sens. Frank R. Lautenberg and Robert G. Torricelli, both D-N.J., said they were encouraged by progress in the testing.
But the tests "only tell us how potent it is in the short term as an acute poison," Lautenberg said. "The next step is to design tests to determine the long-term cancer causing potential of" the trimer.
Traces of the trimer have been found in United Water wells 26, 28 and 29 in the company's Dugan Lane well field near the Garden State Parkway. It's one possible factor being examined by investigators looking into the higher-than-usual incidence of childhood cancers in the area.
The well field was polluted by a groundwater plume extending from the Reich Farm Superfund site on the west side of the parkway. Carbon filters are used to remove contaminants from the water before it goes into the public supply.
Union Carbide Corp. has taken responsibility for the Reich Farm pollution, which was caused after drums of chemical waste from the company's Bound Brook plant were dumped at the farm site in the early 1970s.
In a two-page summary issued yesterday, Union Carbide researchers said they established a "median lethal dose" of pure trimer, when 50 percent of the rats fed trimer orally would die.
Expressed as milligrams of chemical per kilogram of animal body weight, the median lethal dose was 450 mg/kg for male rats and 590 mg/kg for female rats, they said.
In terms of acute toxicity, the trimer falls just within federal standards for declaring a substance toxic. It's less so than pure caffeine, which is 50 percent lethal at a dose of 192 mg/kg, the report says.
For a human adult, it would take 8 million gallons of water containing 1 part per billion of trimer -- the maximum detected level before filtration -- to reach a median lethal dose, the report added.
In a second test of repeated trimer doses, rats tolerated 75 mg/kg per day without adverse effects. At twice that dose, rats exhibited lethargy, weight loss, increased liver weight, and in female rats, increased heart weight and "a slight hint of anemia."
Source: Asbury Park Press
Published: January 16, 1999
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