MTBE: The Harmful Chemical in Your Backyard

Oven and window cleaners. Drano. Mr. Clean. Ajax. Carpet Shampoo. Toilet bowl cleaner. Laundry detergents and bleach. 

We all know about the dangers these household chemicals pose to growing bodies, which is why we child-proof our bathroom and kitchen cabinets well before curious little ones are mobile. But your children's developing neurological systems could be put at risk everyday from something as seemingly harmless as the water they drink and bathe in.

“All of [my and my neighbor’s] kids had breathing problems. My husband and I would get rashes occasionally that we just relegated to the laundry detergent or soap,” says Rena Meyer, a mother of two who used to live in a trailer park in Orange County, New York. She says that many people in her neighborhood have experienced strange rashes, unusual blood blisters and respiratory illnesses since about the mid 1990’s. 

Not much was made of the illnesses in the park until about 1997 when an interesting discovery was made: the water supply had somehow been contaminated with a methyl tertiary butyl ether or MTBE - gasoline additive that helps boost the fuel’s octane, causing it to burn cleaner.

MTBE is a colorless, man-made liquid that has been added to gasoline since the 1990 Clean Air Act which mandated that the chemical be mixed with all gasolines sold in the US. to help reduce the amount of pollution emitted from the nation's automobiles.

Unfortunately, MTBE-treated gasoline - stored in gas tanks that are buried underground - often leaks out of the tanks and into ground water supplies. Having been found in lakes, streams, creeks and an estimated 20% if the nation’s urban wells, it has also been detected in the ground water of 49 states. Unlike other gasoline additives, MTBE adheres to water molecules and does not break down into less harmful chemicals which causes ground water contamination. As a result, it has become the second-most common water contaminant in the country (lead is number one). 

In laboratory tests, MTBE was shown to be extremely toxic in high doses, causing lymphoma, leukemia and testicular cancers in laboratory rats. It is also known to cause headaches, nausea, dizziness, eye, nose and throat irritation in humans following short-term exposure and is believed to possibly cause central nervous system, liver, kidney, adrenal gland and reproductive system disorders as well. Because of the studies, some have suggested that MTBE be classified as a carcinogen and banned from use in the US entirely.

In July of 1999, a congressional blue-ribbon panel recommended that a phase out of the chemical be planned and last November, New York Gov. George Pataki signed a bill that reduced the “acceptable” levels of MTBE in state drinking water from 20-40 parts per billion to 10 parts per billion, guidelines which are the most stringent in the nation. In May of 2000, Pataki signed another bill banning the use, sale and importation of fuels containing MTBE which will begin in 2004. But because the Environmental Protection Agency warned about the dangers of MTBE as early as 1987 the gradual phase out of the additive may be a case of too little, too late.

“We are not being protected by our government at all,” says Deborah Palmentari, vice president of Oxybusters of New York, USA, a grass-roots organization formed to make people aware of the health risks associated with MTBE and get the chemical banned from use nationwide. "People are saying that we should be happy because MTBE has finally been banned, but...can’t they see how far 2004 is away?”

Her family has had a rash of health problems in recent years which she attributes to the MTBE detected in her home’s well water. Almost every member of her family has come down with out-of-the-ordinary illnesses, including the physical, behavioral and emotional delays suffered by her youngest son, Jimmy; the treatment for teen depression and psychiatric disorders for her son, Nick; extreme forgetfulness, stomach aches and diarrhea for husband, Jim, and two dogs who had to be put to sleep because of advancing cancers.

Palmentari says that MTBE was first detected in her family’s water by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation in November of 1995, although they never located the contamination source. “But, that doesn’t mean that is when it first came here,” she says, adding that her sons, who drank lots of water straight from the tap, started exhibiting physical and emotional problems, including constant congestion, sever stomach aches, weird rashes and violent, aggressive behavior when they were 18 months and 10-year-old respectively - just months after the family moved into their Orange Lake home.

The DEC installed two four-foot carbon filters that work to rid the water of the contaminate and she has installed other filters on the kitchen and bathroom sinks. Although the DEC tests the water every two months and the levels are well below US Environmental Protection Agency safety levels, Palmenteri says that when she changes the kitchen and bathroom filters every week, they smell like turpentine, the distinct odor associated with MTBE.

Putting their money where their mouths are, Palmentari and Oxybusters president Diane Atkins of Liberty have has begun a letter-writing campaign to state assembly members and senators asking for their help in getting MTBE banned sooner. They have begun soliciting testimonies from people who think their families have been effected by the chemical. 

Currently, there is a class action law suit being filed in New York State for homeowners whose water has been contaminated by MTBE, but, Palmenteri says the maximum amount recoverable is only for the value of the effected home. “I doesn’t cover medical costs or anything like that,” she said.

For now, Palmenteri said she will keep working to get chemical banned while making others aware of the hazards of MTBE. She has designed a bumper sticker that she hopes will prompt a lot more people to get their water tested for the chemical.

“People have to know what a horrible nightmare this is,” Palmenteri says. “It is everywhere and most people don’t even know it.”

“Every single child that I know that was exposed to it got sick," Meyer adds. "All of our kids had breathing problems that they’d never had before. It might have been a coincidence, but you don’t know what it will do to any of us down the road.”

            

For More Information:

Oxybusters of New York, USA

P.O. Box 10541

Newburgh, NY

e-mail: Debpalm6@yahoo.com.

Get information on water testing, the latest nation-wide MTBE ban and how you can protect your family from harmful affects of MTBE.       

SIDEBAR:

Fast Facts

It is estimated that Ritilan use has increase by 600% since MTBE was first introduced.

For every 10 gallons of gasoline pumped, one is pure MTBE.

75-100 million people live in areas where MTBE is used.

Nationwide monitoring by state municipalities for MTBE contamination will not be required until later this year.

Boiling water for drinking doesn’t rid it of MTBE because heat converts the chemical into formaldehyde and acetone, the vapors of which should not be inhaled for an extended period of time. 

Although they have no idea how to actually de-contaminated water supplies, the EPA estimates that it may take years to make sure that contaminated water is MTBE-free.

Felicia Hodges is a writer/editor from Upstate, New York.

Baby Wearing: The Emotional Benefits for Mom and Baby

You’ve seen them on the department store shelves. Maybe you’ve even thought about getting one for your girlfriend’s baby shower. And why not? Baby carriers are cute, convenient and on-so-reasonably priced, but did you know that the Snugli® you tossed into your cart has a history that dates back several hundred years?

Way before the modern playpen or the baby carriage were invented (and being a stay-at-home mom was what every mother was), moms had a bevy of chores to do that took a great deal of time and energy. When there was laundry to be done, no Kenmore machines were around yet to toss a load into. Washing clothes - done by the edge of a river or creek or in tin tubs with washboards - was an all day affair. And, since we humans need our mamas almost constantly while we are infants, mothers kept their babies close at hand so they could be fed, changed and comforted while the chores got done.

The brightly-colored harnesses of today started simply as nothing more than a type of sling designed to keep baby near mama’s breast for nursing. Worn over the neck and shoulder, the baby carriers of old were made of old, soft fabric from somebody's no-longer-used quilt or stitched together from pieces of  material from too-small clothing.

Americans of African decent used them not only in the motherland but here in America, while doing tasks ordered by their masters. Necessary to keep working and keep the little one alive, baby slings were used until the child no longer nursed or was able to walk on his or her own. 

In this country, the Industrial Revolution came along and moved more and more Americans from the farmlands and into the factories. Although women were still responsible for the bulk of  the child rearing tasks, gone were the days of schlepping laundry to the river or cooking over a huge, outdoor open flame, thanks to the invention of creature comforts like the oven, washing machine and icebox. As a result, the baby sling sort of lost its appeal. Later in the 50s and 60s, when formula feeding virtually replaced breastfeeding, baby wearing sort of  became a thing of the past.

But now, thanks to the resurgence of nursing and all the buzz about parent-child bonding, baby wearing is making a strong comeback, much to the delight of  experts in the field of  infant development. 

According to pediatric professor Dr. T. Berry Brazelton in his book Touchpoints,  pediatricians Marshall Klaus and John Kennel were the first to talk about the bonding that takes place between parents and their infants. “As a way of enhancing the new parents' closeness to the baby, they recommended a period in the delivery room during which each parent could touch, hold and communicate with the newborn,” Dr. Brazelton writes, adding that such contact was not always encouraged in modern hospitals. 

Although Klaus and Kennel emphasized the importance of such contact during the first few days of the baby’s life, additional research has shown that the feelings of love that a parent feels for his or her child develop over time as the parent and child get to know each other, not only in the first few moments or hours after birth. Baby wearing today may simply be an offshoot of the need for parents - many of whom work full-time and spend a whole lot less time with their little ones than their parents may have - to better connect with their children.

How Holding Helps

Grab any infant-rearing book from the bookstore or library shelf and, if it has a section on baby bonding, chances are, it will discuss the need for contact between caregiver (mother, father, grandmother or other) and baby. But is human contact absolutely necessary to raise an emotionally secure individual? 

Science seems to say that it is. Research has shown that babies who are carried a great deal are less fussy and may even cry for shorter periods of time when they are in distress (i.e. wet diaper, hungry, etc.) A study done in early 1997 suggests that infants who were held a minimum of three hours a day cried considerably less than children in the study who were not held as long, as often or nearly at all. The carried babies not only cried less when they were in the arms of or worn by a caregiver, they also cried less when they were put down.

Other studies, like those done by Dr. George Engle in Rochester, New York, show that if interaction with an infant is limited during feeding, he or she will not digest food properly. But, when a child is held, and talked to and played with while feeding, nutrients will be better absorbed by the body.

The most convincing argument about the need for human contact by babies began in 1997 at the St. Christopher Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. The hospital’s “Kangaroo Care” program began by using simple skin-to-skin, chest-to-chest contact in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for premature babies. 

The program places the new mother and her baby in a quiet area with low lights and a blanket which helps keep them warm. Infants in the Kangaroo Care program not only sleept longer and deeper but they also maintained their body temperature, moved onto oral feeding sooner, gained weight faster, came off ventilators sooner and left the hospital earlier than other pre-mature infants.

Touch is also something that fathers can provide. For those feeling left out of the “getting to know you” stage if their partner is breastfeeding, baby wearing allows dad to connect with baby in ways an hour of watching the little tike sleep cannot.

So go ahead and encourage a little human contact. Buy that Snugli® or make your own using a bit of quilted Kente cloth. It may help get the new family off to an emotionally healthy start.

Sidebar:

With all the attention being paid to baby bonding, baby wearing has become popular once again. There are so many different brands of baby carriers that in specialty stores like Babies “R” Us, the selection takes up an entire wall. Here are a few of the more unique finds:

1. NoJo’s Original Baby Sling - Developed by Dr. William Sears, the sling allows for parent and child to connect in a variety of different carries, including the kangaroo carry, the chest-to-chest snuggle or the over-the-shoulder cradle hold. Fits newborns to children weighing up to 30 lb. Sells for about $29.99.

2. Fisher-Price Deluxe Perfect Support Carrier - Allows for carrying a 5-26 lb. baby facing towards parent or away to view the world. Comes with a removable weather protector that converts to a shoulder sling to cradle the little one. Also has padded shoulder and back harnesses with wide, adjustable straps for comfort. Retails for about $39.99.

3. Snugli Comfort Supreme - A division of Evenflo, Snugli has been around for 35 years. This carrier features a special lumbar support pad so the weight of the baby does not cause too much discomfort for the carrier. Designed for infants from 5-26 lb., it allows for rear (towards parent) or forward-facing positioning. Sells for about $49.99.

4. Graco 3-in-1 Infant Carrier - Parent can either use it on their bellies or on their backs. Features adjustable leg and arm openings for baby, a padded head bolster, detachable infant head support and adjustable belt clips. The padded lumbar pad also doubles as a zippered storage pouch for small items like keys. Retails for about $49.99.

5. Infantino 6-in-1 Carrier - Made for infants up to 35lbs., this carrier not only lets the caregiver use it as a forward or rear-facing front carrier, but it easily converts to a backpack carrier, chair attachment or grocery cart seat attachment. It also fits in most infant car seats and includes an instructional video. About $19.99.

© 2000 Felicia C. Hodges

Felicia Hodges is a freelance writer/editor from upstate New York.

 Originally appeared in Black Family Digest magazine Winter 2000.