[CPEO-BIF] "ARE HAZARDOUS VAPORS SEEPING INTO YOUR BASEMENT?"

[Lenny Siegel]

ARE HAZARDOUS VAPORS SEEPING INTO YOUR BASEMENT?
The movement of underground contaminants into buildings is attracting increased scrutiny from health experts, advocates and agencies

by Lynn Peeples
Ensia
September 5, 2017 

When Jane Horton bought her dream 800-square-foot farmhouse in 1975, she thought little of the semiconductor manufacturing plant across the street. Even after the company’s buildings were demolished and a chain-link fence went up around the campus, she still had no knowledge of the toxic dangers lurking beneath her feet — let alone of the fact that they were invading her home.

...

Meanwhile, similar stories of toxic vapors intruding into buildings continue to surface around the country — from a mobile home park near San Diego to sites throughout Minnesota.

The implicated contaminants — most notoriously chlorinated solvents, such as TCE and tetrachloroethylene (known as perc), as well as benzene — can migrate through soil and groundwater from where they have seeped into the earth from a leak or a spill. Common sources include dry cleaners, gas stations, auto repair shops, military bases and industrial sites, even those whose doors closed decades ago.

…

For the entire article, see
https://ensia.com/features/are-hazardous-vapors-seeping-into-your-basement/

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Lenny Siegel
Executive Director
Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
P.O. Box 998, Mountain View, CA 94042
Voice/Fax: 650/961-8918 
<lsiegel at cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org