In its permit request, TXI is asking to dramatically increase the amount of toxic waste it burns, including the amounts of arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, mercury, and lead, to name just a few. Under the permit, TXI would be allowed to emit 52 tons of metals a year--metals that studies have linked to an array of health problems including cancer, lung disease, birth defects, nervous system problems, and organ failure.
A growing number of doctors who work in communities downwind of TXI say they are seeing an increase in respiratory illnesses, including lung disease, allergies, and asthma. One of those doctors is D. Lee Walters, a family practitioner who has worked in Duncanville for 13 years.
"More people in this area seem to have these problems than in the past, and they seem to be more serious and more frequent," Walters says. "My concern as a family-practice doctor is not just respiratory problems, but if these are toxic wastes that are being pumped into the environment, what will ultimately arise is the risk of cancer in the area."
Dallas physician Richard Wasserman concurs with Walters' diagnosis that respiratory illnesses, particularly asthma, are on the increase.
"Anything that increases the amount of pollution will increase respiratory disease, emergency room visits, and medication requirements for children and adults with asthma. I am very concerned about that," Wasserman says.
While other factors, like auto emissions, are a big part of the problem, Wasserman says the state shouldn't make a bad situation worse by allowing TXI to increase its burning.
"Anyone who has any kind of lung problems--asthma in a child or emphysema in an adult--or even heart patients who have breathing problems, may have problems that come from inhaling these particles," Wasserman says.
Instead of squabbling over what are presumed to be safe levels of exposure, Walters says, the state officials should pay attention to common sense in deciding the future of TXI's emissions.
"One has to ask how much toxic substance is OK to breathe, and the answer should be none," Walters says. "It's like, how much arsenic is a bad thing?"
A 1937 advertisement that appeared in Life magazine hangs on a wall of the Cedar Hill office of Downwinders at Risk. In the ad, and old woman is laughing, as a wisp of smoke twists and bends about her. She is clutching a Lucky Strike cigarette.
The woman's apparent age and hearty laugh are supposed to be a testament to the cigarette manufacturer's claim that its product offers "throat protection."
Next to that ad is another, showing a pair of U.S. soldiers atop a tank, dousing an African-American boy with DDT, a colorless insecticide that in 1945 was advertised as a "miracle product"--safe enough for direct human exposure. The lethal carcinogen was banned in the United States in 1972.
The advertisements are a haunting reminder of how ignorance thrives in the absence of knowledge: Today, DDT isn't for sale, and everyone knows that cigarette smoking causes lung cancer, heart disease, and emphysema.
Seated on a fraying blue love seat underneath his collage, Schermbeck says he's confident that someday a third advertisement will belong in this corporate hall of shame.
The advertisement was produced by TXI's public relations department. It features a sleek photo of the Morton H. Meyerson Symphony Center, which the company proudly reports is made with its "quality cement"--a safe product that's building a better environment.
Government officials, Schermbeck says, continue to discount real health problems occurring downwind of TXI, while clinging to dangerously thin scientific evidence.
In the meantime, he says, citizens can only hope that government officials aren't repeating the same mistakes they made 50 years ago, when they believed that products like DDT and cigarettes were safe, too.
"I'm convinced that we're doing the right thing," Schermbeck says, thumping his forehead with the palm of his hand. "I'm convinced that 20 years from now, people will say, 'Burning hazardous waste in cement kilns? That's crazy!'"
Readers with comments can e-mail staff writer Rose Farley at rfarley@dallasobserver.com.
