Industrial Lead Poisoning in Los Angeles: Anatomy of a Public Health Failure

Overcoming barriers to improved decision-making for battery deployment in the clean energy transition

Decarbonization plans depend on the rapid, large-scale deployment of batteries to sufficiently decarbonize the electricity system and on-road transport. This can take many forms, shaped by technology, materials, and supply chain selection, which will have local and global environmental and social impacts. Current knowledge gaps limit the ability of decision-makers to make choices in facilitating battery deployment that minimizes or avoids unintended environmental and social consequences. These gaps include a lack of harmonized, accessible, and up-to-date data on manufacturing and supply chains and shortcomings within sustainability and social impact assessment methods, resulting in uncertainty that limits incorporation of research into policy making. These gaps can lead to unintended detrimental effects of large-scale battery deployment. To support decarbonization goals while minimizing negative environmental and social impacts, we elucidate current barriers to tracking how decision-making for large-scale battery deployment translates to environmental and social impacts and recommend steps to overcome them.

Does Hazardous-Waste Testing Follow Technical Guidance, Thus Help Protect Environmental Justice and Health?

Does representative hazardous-waste-site testing tend to follow or to violate government technical guidance? This is an important question, because following such guidance promotes reliable risk analysis, adequate remediation, and environmental-justice and -health protection. Yet only government documents typically address this question, usually only when it is too late, when citizens have already exhibited health harm, allegedly from living or working near current/former hazardous-waste sites. Because no systematic, representative, scientific analyses have answered the preceding question, this article begins to investigate it by posing a narrower part of the question: Does representative US testing of volatile-organic-compound (VOC) waste sites tend to follow or to violate government technical requirements? The article (i) outlines US/state-government technical guidance for VOC testing; (ii) develops criteria for discovering representative US cases of VOC testing; (iii) uses the dominant US Environmental Protection Agency method to assess whether these representative cases follow such guidance; (iv) employs the results of (iii) to begin to answer the preceding question; then (v) discusses the degree to which, if any, these results suggest threats to environmental health or justice. Our initial, but representative, results show that almost all US VOC-waste-site testing (that we investigated) violates government technical requirements and systematically underestimates risks, and this may help justify less expensive, potentially health-threatening cleanups, mostly in environmental justice communities. We outline needed future research and suggest two strategies to promote following government technical guidance for hazardous-waste testing.

Taurine-Derived Compounds Produce Anxiolytic Effects in Rats Following Developmental Lead Exposure

Lead (Pb2+) is a developmental neurotoxicant that disrupts the GABA-shift and subsequently causes alterations in the brain's excitation-to-inhibition (E/I) balance. Taurine is a well-established neuroprotective and inhibitory compound for regulating brain excitability. Since mechanistically taurine can facilitate neuronal inhibition through the GABA-AR, the present study examined the anxiolytic potential of taurine derivatives. Treatment groups consisted of the following developmental Pb2+-exposures: Control (0 ppm) and Perinatal (150 ppm or 1,000 ppm lead acetate in the drinking water). Rats were scheduled for behavioral tests between postnatal days (PND) 36-45 with random drug assignments to either saline, taurine, or taurine-derived compound (TD-101, TD-102, or TD-103) to assess the rats' responsivity to each drug in mitigating the developmental Pb2+-exposure and anxiety-like behaviors through the GABAergic system. Long-Evans hooded rats were assessed using an open field (OF) test for preliminary locomotor assessment. Twenty-four hours later, the same rats were exposed to the elevated plus maze (EPM) and were given an i.p. injection of 43 mg/Kg of the saline, taurine, or TD drugs 15 min prior to testing. Each rat was tested using the triple-blind random assignment method for each drug condition. The OF data revealed that Control female rats had increased locomotor activity over Control male rats, and the Pb2+-exposed males and females had increased locomotor activity when compared to the Control male and female rats. However, in the EPM, the Control female rats exhibited more anxiety-like behaviors over Control male rats, and the Pb2+-exposed male and female rats showed selective responsivity to TD drugs when compared to taurine. For Pb2+-exposed males, TD-101 showed consistent recovery of anxiety-like behaviors similar to that of taurine regardless of Pb2+ dose, whereas in Pb2+-exposed females TD-101 and TD-103 showed greater anxiolytic responses in the EPM. The results from the present psychopharmacological study suggests that taurine and its derivatives are interesting drug candidates to explore sex-specific mechanisms and actions of taurine and the associated GABAergic receptor properties by which these compounds alleviate anxiety as a potential behavioral pharmacotherapy for neurodevelopmental Pb2+ exposure.

Emerging investigator series: Aramid amphiphile nanoribbons for the remediation of lead from contaminated water

Self-assembled nanoribbons from small molecule amphiphiles with chelating head groups and a structural domain to impart mechanical stability are reported for the remediation of lead from contaminated water. The nanoribbons' remediation capacity is affected by pH and the presence of competing cations, and can be modulated by head group choice.

Metal-mixtures in toenails of children living near an active industrial facility in Los Angeles County, California

BACKGROUND

Children residing in communities near metalworking industries are vulnerable to multiple toxic metal exposures. Understanding biomarkers of exposure to multiple toxic metals is important to characterize cumulative burden and to distinguish potential exposure sources in such environmental justice neighborhoods impacted by industrial operations. Exposure to metal mixtures has not been well-characterized among children residing in the United States, and is understudied in communities of color.

METHODS

In this study we used toenail clippings, a noninvasive biomarker, to assess exposure to arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd), mercury (Hg), manganese (Mn), lead (Pb), antimony (Sb), selenium (Se), and vanadium (V). We used nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) to identify "source" signatures and patterns of exposure among predominantly working class Latinx children residing near an industrial corridor in Southeast Los Angeles County. Additionally, we investigated the association between participant demographic, spatial, and dietary characteristics with identified metal signatures.

RESULTS

Through NMF, we identified three groupings (source factors) for the metal concentrations in children's toenails. A grouping composed of Sb, Pb, As, and Cd, was identified as a potential industrial source factor, reflective of known airborne elemental emissions in the industrial corridor. We further identified a manganese source factor primarily composed of Mn, and a potential dietary source factor driven by Se and Hg. We observed differences in the industrial source factor by age of participants, while the dietary source factor varied by neighborhood.

CONCLUSION

Utilizing an unsupervised dimension reduction technique (NMF), we identified a "source signature" of contamination in toenail samples from children living near metalworking industry. Investigating patterns and sources of exposures in cumulatively burdened communities is necessary to identify appropriate public health interventions.

Prenatal Metal Mixtures and Birth Weight for Gestational Age in a Predominately Lower-Income Hispanic Pregnancy Cohort in Los Angeles

BACKGROUND

Reduced fetal growth increases the risk for adverse health outcomes. Growing evidence suggests that metal exposures contribute to reduced fetal growth, but little is known about the effects of complex metal mixtures.

OBJECTIVES

We investigated the impact of a complex mixture of metals on birth weight for gestational age (BW for GA) in the Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors study, a predominately lower-income Hispanic pregnancy cohort in Los Angeles, California.

METHODS

Cadmium (Cd), cobalt (Co), mercury (Hg), nickel (Ni), molybdenum (Mo), lead (Pb), antimony (Sb), tin (Sn), and thallium (Tl) were measured by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) in maternal urine samples collected in early pregnancy (median GA: 13.1 wk). Speciated urinary arsenic (As) (inorganic+monomethyl+dimethyl As) was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography coupled to ICP-MS. Primary analyses focused on a mixture of seven metals that have previously been associated individually with fetal growth (i.e., As, Cd, Co, Hg, Ni, Pb, Tl) (n=262). In exploratory analyses, we additionally examined three metals that have been less studied in relation to fetal growth (i.e., Mo, Sb, Sn). Covariate-adjusted Bayesian kernel machine regression was used to investigate metal mixture associations with BW for GA z-scores.

RESULTS

In primary analyses, Hg and Ni ranked highest as predictors of BW for GA. An inverse linear association was estimated for Hg, whereas a positive association was estimated for Ni at low-to-moderate concentrations. A potential interaction between Hg and Ni was also identified. In our exploratory analysis, Sb ranked highest as a predictor of BW for GA, followed by Hg and Ni.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings suggest that in this understudied population, Hg may reduce fetal growth, whereas Ni may promote fetal growth. We also identified Sb as a potential metal of concern for this population, which merits additional investigation. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP7201.

A Collaborative Approach to Assess Legacy Pollution in Communities Near a Lead-Acid Battery Smelter: The "Truth Fairy" Project

Advocates for civil rights, environmental justice, and movements promoting social justice require data and may lack trust in public authorities, turning instead to academic scientists to help address their questions. Assessing historical exposure to toxic chemicals, especially in situations of a specific industrial source of pollution affecting a community, is critical for informing appropriate public health and policy responses. We describe a community-driven approach to integrate retrospective environmental hazard exposure assessment with community organizing to address concerns about the extent of exposure to toxic metals in a predominantly working-class, Latinx community living near a now-closed lead-acid battery smelter facility. Named the "Truth Fairy Project" by leaders of the community organization East Yard Communities for Environmental Justice, this community-university partnership aimed to assess prenatal and early-life exposures to toxic metals through biomarkers of exposure in baby/deciduous teeth. This partnership integrated community mobilization with empirical research, informing residents about toxic metal exposures and improving the community's capacity to respond to a public health crisis.

Chemical Exposures, Health, and Environmental Justice in Communities Living on the Fenceline of Industry

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Polluting industries are more likely to be located in low-income communities of color who also experience greater social stressors that may make them more vulnerable than others to the health impacts of toxic chemical exposures. We describe recent developments in assessing pollutant exposures and health threats posed by industrial facilities using or releasing synthetic chemicals to nearby communities in the U.S.

RECENT FINDINGS

More people are living near oil and gas development due to the expansion of unconventional extraction techniques as well as near industrial animal operations, both with suggestive evidence of increased exposure to hazardous pollutants and adverse health effects. Legacy contamination continues to adversely impact a new generation of residents in fenceline communities, with recent studies documenting exposures to toxic metals and poly- and perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). Researchers are also giving consideration to acute exposures resulting from inadvertent industrial chemical releases, including those resulting from extreme weather events linked to climate change. Natural experiments of industrial closures or cleanups provide compelling evidence that exposures from industry harm the health of nearby residents. New and legacy industries, coupled with climate change, present unique health risks to communities living near industry due to the release of toxic chemicals. Cumulative impacts from multiple stressors faced by environmental justice communities may amplify these adverse effects.

Commentary health risks from climate fix: The downside of energy storage batteries

Energy storage is the key component to almost all technologies arising in response to climate change. Although most lead batteries are recycled, the process as employed in the majority of recycling plants around the world is highly polluting. Lithium ion batteries, considered the most advanced battery for climate solutions, are employed in electric vehicles, solar lanterns, and increasingly in other energy storage applications. These are generally not being recycled as there are no available technologies to economically extract metals in a form that can be used to make new batteries or other high-value products. As the energy storage market is projected to grow rapidly in coming years, we must consider the impacts of increased mining, milling, smelting and recycling of these metals. Much of these materials will be extracted and processed in low and middle-income countries and eventually be recycled in these same jurisdictions with few regulations to protect public health and the environment. Technological responses to climate change must take account of potential health risks inherent in such products.

Lead and Arsenic in Shed Deciduous Teeth of Children Living Near a Lead-Acid Battery Smelter

Lead (Pb) is a potent neurotoxicant with no safe level of exposure. Elevated levels of Pb and arsenic (As) are found in the air and soil near facilities that recycle lead-acid batteries in the United States. In urban Los Angeles County, California, a facility processed ∼11 million batteries per year and operated for decades without proper environmental review. Measuring Pb and As in shed deciduous teeth is a promising technique to assess prenatal and early life exposure. In this pilot study coined the "Truth Fairy" Project, 50 shed deciduous teeth from 43 children living their entire lives within 2 miles of the smelter were analyzed to understand retrospective exposure to toxic metals using a community-driven research approach. Concentrations of Pb and As in teeth were assessed using laser-ablation-inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Soil Pb concentrations were determined using spatial kriging of surface soil measurements. The mean prenatal calcium normalized Pb levels in teeth samples (reported as a ratio 208Pb:43Ca) was 4.104 × 10-4 (SD 4.123 × 10-4), and the mean postnatal 208Pb:43Ca level was 4.109 × 10-4 (SD 3.369 × 10-4). Adjusted for maternal education and batch, we observe positive significant relationship between prenatal teeth Pb per 100 ppm increase in soil Pb (β = 3.48, 95% CI 1.11, 5.86). The Truth Fairy study suggests prenatal and early life exposure to toxic metals is associated with legacy soil contamination in an urban community near a smelter.