Experts Make a Call to Action at 'Safe Drinking Water for All' Panel
By Helen Quinn Pasin
Polyvinyl chloride plastic (PVC) is a commonly used thermoplastic polymer that is widely used to make pipes, wire insulation and window frames. By-products of the vinyl lifecycle contain dangerous chemical additives, including phthalates, lead and cadmium, which are highly persistent and toxic, making them of great concern.
Last month, the Plastic Pollution Coalition hosted an expert panel discussion, Safe Drinking Water for All: Protecting Communities from Plastic During U.S. Lead Pipe Replacement, for the UN 2023 Water Conference. It highlighted the need to keep plastic out of water systems because of its toxic impacts. Plastics are a health threat at every stage of existence and an environmental injustice issue disproportionately harming rural, low-income, and communities of color.
Panelists included: Judith Enck, founder and CEO of Beyond Plastics and former regional administrator of the EPA under President Obama; Brandi Williams, Director of Civil and Human Rights, Good Trouble Department Field Campaigns for the Hip Hop Caucus; Sharon Lavigne, founding director of Rise St. James and Louisiana environmental justice activist; and Dr. Terrance Collins, Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry and Director of the Institute for Green Science at Carnegie Mellon University.
Judith Enck is the Founder and CEO of Beyond Plastics and former Regional Administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama, where she oversaw environmental protections in New York, New Jersey, eight Native Nations, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands
"I spend a lot of time trying to educate policymakers that plastic is not cheap. We pay a high price at every level," said Judith Enck during the panel discussion. Enck warns that PVC contains 50 distinct toxic materials, and when it burns, it releases dioxin and other hazardous chemicals and carcinogens. This is especially dangerous at the manufacturing level, and in the recent increase in wildfires, buildings constructed with PVC materials are burning.
Following the derailment of a train carrying toxic materials in East Palestine, Ohio, vinyl chloride (used to make PVC) was the problematic chemical in five train cars. Two days later, close to 116,000 gallons of vinyl chloride were purposely drained into ditches and then set on fire to avoid an explosion in the tanker cars. "I'm sure you saw that giant black plum traveling for miles through Pennsylvania, Ohio, and the region depositing pollution along the way. That is the face of plastics in the United States," said Enck.
Human Rights Watch reported the risk of PVC and other plastics like BPA and PFAS in the jarring 2022 report "It's As If They're Trying to Kill Us," which examined the health impact of plastic recycling. Phthalates are the group of additives commonly found in PVC; they are endocrine-disrupting chemicals linked to early menopause in women, low birth rates, and higher rates of miscarriage.
Brandi “Bea” Williams serves as the Civil and Human Rights, Good Trouble Department Field Campaigns Director for the Hip Hop Caucus. She is an award-winning and accredited public relations professional turned broker for change who uses her diverse public relations background to negotiate opportunities, equity, and liberation for Black people.
"According to the EPA, 40% of public water systems are violating the Safe Water Drinking Act, and the violations that are occurring are more likely to be in communities that serve people of color," said Brandi Williams during Safe Drinking Water for All panel discussion.
Last year, Hip Hop Caucus worked with Operation Good, a nonprofit in Jackson, Miss., as they were experiencing their own water crisis. They found that Jackson failed an EPA inspection in March 2020 because raw water from the Pearl River was being introduced and pushed into the pipes and, thus, the drinking water for Jackson residents. The plant facility's water pumps stopped working due to poor maintenance and understaffing. While they replaced the pipes, it only served as a band-aid solution. It didn't address the more significant issue of unclean water, sewer backups, outdated pipes, and the flooding of the Pearl River, which is the primary way water gets pushed into the drinking water system. Jackson's mayor has been raising these issues for years, but the governor does not support the funds needed to overhaul the water system.
Sharon Lavigne is the Founding Director of Rise St. James, a faith-based organization focused on preventing worsening pollution from and expansion of the petrochemical industry. An environmental justice activist based in Louisiana, Lavigne’s work focuses on combating petrochemical complexes and their negative health impacts on local populations in her state as well as others that comprise Cancer Alley.
"Racism and party affiliation have been named as reasons for the conflict between the city of Jackson and the state of Mississippi," Williams said.
"We have benzene, formaldehyde, and other chemicals in our water," said panelist Sharon Lavigne during Safe Drinking Water for All. "If you could come to St. James (Parish, Louisiana) and see the river, the river is brown, the water is brown. They're making our area from Baton Rouge to New Orleans like a dumping ground," Lavigne said.
Most PVC is manufactured in Louisiana, Texas, and the Appalachian region of Pennsylvania and Ohio. There are 150 petrochemical plants between the 85-mile stretch between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
In 2016, Lavigne was shocked to be diagnosed with autoimmune hepatitis because she had always been healthy. She lives in an area surrounded by industrial plants, both "Cancer Alley" and "Death Alley" are in her neighborhood, in the predominantly Black fifth district of St. James Parish. She recounts many loved ones lost to cancer or currently suffering. It is common for local pregnant women to miscarry or deliver prematurely. Neighbors, including herself, have rashes requiring medical treatment due to showering with the water. "Lives are being sacrificed, and we don't think that we should be sacrificed for these industries, but these industries make a profit off of us," said Lavigne.
Dr. Terrence Collins is the Teresa Heinz Professor of Green Chemistry and Director of the Institute for Green Science at Carnegie Mellon University. The Institute is dedicated to “the intellectual growth and technical education of a new generation of ethically aware professionals who understand and practice science in the pursuit of sustainability—from the molecular level on up.”
"Chemical corporations have been blocking the government from doing the right thing for a very long time. And PVC is especially problematic," said panelist Dr. Terrance Collins during Safe Drinking Water for All. Collins predicts that chemicals coming out of PVC piping will be a threat to water systems for the next 100 to 150 years.
Over the last five decades, there's been a decrease in more than 50% of the sperm count in males from westernized countries. Collins said the slope of the line is very steep and continuing, and by 2045 it's expected that the mean sperm count will be asymptotically approaching zero. "We can see the chemical concentrations that produce these effects in everyone's urine. We're finding them in human blood. We're finding them in the placenta. We're finding them in the mother's blood. We're finding them in the fetus's blood. They shouldn't be there."
The Safe Drinking Water for All panel stressed that plastic is not the solution for replacing the toxic lead pipes that currently deliver water into the homes of 22 million people in the United States and encouraged everyone to contact their elected officials about the importance of avoiding PVC replacement service lines. President Biden has designated $15 billion to the EPA for lead pipe replacement over the next five years; however, the materials used to replace lead have not been specified. Enck recommends using copper, recycled copper, or stainless steel. It's time to influence how the federal and local governments use these funds to provide toxic-free drinking water without plastic.
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