In its Order of Emergency Suspension and Notice of Opportunity for a Hearing issued by the State of Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on March 13, 2008, the following statement is made by DHS:
"DHS further finds that due to the unaccepable performance of Coffey Laboratories, Lab No. OR 100028 as noted above, the lab poses a serious danger to the public health and safety should it be permitted to continue to analyze drinking water samples and report laboratory results for drinking water analysis. Given the current practices at the laboratory, no drinking water system, for example, can be assured that it is delivering safe drinking water to the public. There could be elevated levels of bacteria, metals, and other inorganic substances, industrial chemicals, herbicides, and pesticides that could result in serious health risks such as infectious disease like typyoid fever, acute toxicity from nitrates that can result in blue-baby syndrome (babies deprived of oxygen because the nitrate prevents oxygen from binding to the hemoglobin), and cancer from various organic chemicals, but because the laboratory is unable to report accurate results, dangerous levels of such contaminants would not be reported and the public would continue to drink and use contaminated water."
In its Consumer Factsheet on EDB, the EPA, consistent with its mandate under the 1974 Safe Drinking Water Act, identifies EDB as a chemical, which, if found in drinking water, can cause both short and long term health effects including damage to respiratory and neurological systems, the liver, heart, and kidneys, and cancer.
EDB, coming from two of its most significant sources - leaded gasoline and pesticides - can enter the soil inadvertantly or otherwise, and then leach into groundwater. The EPA would like to see zero EDB in drinking water, and has set a limit of 0.05 parts per billion as technologically feasible to analyze for. If EDB levels exceed 0.05 parts per billion, water systems must notify the public because a serious risk to publc health is present.
Q: "So, what are XYLENES, anyway?" A: "Think of them as a set of 'chemical' triplet siblings. They are all poisonous, easily flammable, colorless, sort of sweet smelling hydrocarbon liquids that can come from coal tar, wood tar (like from a forest fire), and petroleum (where it occurs naturally and as a result of distillation). Each of the three (ortho, para, and meta) has an identical chemical formula - C6H4(CH3)2, but, they differ from each other physically and in certain chemical properties. Xylene is actually a sort of nickname for dimethylbenzene"
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