[CPEO-BIF] "How Google employees were exposed to toxics" at the MEW Superfund site (CA)

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

How Google employees were exposed to toxics

Daniel DeBolt
Mountain View Voice (CA)
March27, 2013

All it took was a faulty HVAC system to allow toxic vapors into a pair of Mountain View buildings where over 1,000 Google employees work, according to a report released by the Environmental Protection Agency.

The buildings are above the Fairchild Semiconductor Superfund site where toxics dumped or released by the Valley's original computer chip manufacturer are evaporating from the ground -- mainly trichloroethylene (TCE), classified as a human carcinogen.

The air in the buildings -- part of "The Quad" at 369 and 379 North Whisman Road -- must be pressurized at all hours to keep the vapors from rising through the floors. But the system to pressurize the air failed sometime last year, exposing Google employees for two months, in November and December. Levels of TCE were as high as 7.8 micrograms per cubic meter (5 is EPA's limit) -- levels that require long-term exposure to cause cancer, but are high enough to cause birth defects if women are exposed during the first trimester of pregnancy, EPA toxicologists say.

…

For the entire article, see
http://www.mv-voice.com/news/show_story.php?id=6780&e=y

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope Street
Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650-961-8918 or 650-969-1545
Fax: 650-961-8918
LSiegel@cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org




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