Agency Plans To Test Pole Yard For Fumes

The Idaho Department of Environmental Quality plans to take air samples this spring at an Oldtown pole yard to determine whether pesticide fumes are making residents sick.

“The issue for me is the need to find out definitively if people are being impacted,” said Tim Teater, a DEQ air toxicity regulator analyst in Boise.

Teater said details about how and where the tests will be performed, as well as who will pay for them, will be determined in the following months.

Many teachers at Idaho Hill Elementary and a few neighbors fear that stinky fumes from the nearby pole yard are making them sick.

On days when Poles Inc. soaks its logs in a thermal insecticide treatment, students and teachers complain of headaches, dizziness, nausea, and runny eyes and noses.

They want reassurance these fuel-like smells don’t carry long-term health effects.

The DEQ can’t make that determination until air-quality tests are done. And those won’t take place until Poles Inc. resumes its pole-treatment process this spring.

“My gut feeling is, there probably is pretty minimal, if any, real exposure,” Teater said. “But a gut feeling is inadequate.”

Plant Manager Howard Fiedler has worked for Poles Inc. for 45 years and maintains there is no health risk.

The company has already volunteered to treat poles on evenings and weekends, when school is out. Idaho Hill Elementary tentatively plans to hold an informational meeting Jan. 9 at 7 p.m. Parents and community members are invited to ask questions.

“We just want to make sure we are responsible for all these children,” said Gary Go, principal of the 220-student school. “We want to make sure they are in a safe area.”

Dan Redline, a DEQ air-quality analyst based in Coeur d’Alene, learned of the meeting Wednesday. He said the department will probably send representatives.

Fiedler of Poles Inc. said he wasn’t aware of the meeting and wasn’t sure if he would attend.

“What I hope to get from the meeting is some hard assurances with provable evidence from some government agency that breathing the fumes in question is safe for all involved,” said Betty Gardner, Parent, Teacher and Student Organization vice president.

Redline and other DEQ officials visited the 60-year-old pole yard in October after receiving several complaints about the odors.

There is no proof that the pesticide, pentachlorophenol, presents a health risk. The pesticide prevents insect infestation and rot in the wood, which is used for utility poles. The chemical is on DEQ’s list of toxic air pollutants and is a possible human carcinogen.

Its health affects depend on how much of the chemical is inhaled, Teater said.

Most health studies done on pentachlorophenol have involved animals and its effects when ingested. Few studies have involved humans or inhalation of the chemical, which was once the most extensively used pesticide in the United States.

It is no longer available to the general public.

In 1993, after receiving similar complaints, DEQ inspectors found Poles Inc. in compliance with all regulations.

The department only inspects small operations, such as this sixemployee yard, when complaints are filed.

“If citizens can’t depend on us to protect them from toxic air pollution, I’m not sure what purpose we serve,” Teater said.