Toxic dust findings concern Davenport residents, Cemex workers;...

Erin herself will be town. ALL WILL BE RIGHT NOW. I honestly don't see what the big deal is. The level is very
low. This reminds me of unions, in the beginning the unions were needed but as time went by the unions were
not as important. These environmetalist that want to protect you from everything are reaching. Guess what
anything you do or live by could cause you to die. Living causes death, these groups are now run by lawyers who know nothing but money,money,money. Look at SIR AL GORE, From there it just trickles down. I BELIEVE THERE ARE ALTERNATIVE MOTIVES. This plant has been there forever.

I would like to have Cindy for lunch. Yum Yum!

...clean it up or close it DOWN...ENOUGH!

Common Sense wrote:

Erin herself will be town. ALL WILL BE RIGHT NOW. I honestly don't see what the big deal is. The level is very
low. This reminds me of unions, in the beginning the unions were needed but as time went by the unions were
not as important. These environmetalist that want to protect you from everything are reaching. Guess what
anything you do or live by could cause you to die. Living causes death, these groups are now run by lawyers who know nothing but money,money,money. Look at SIR AL GORE, From there it just trickles down. I BELIEVE THERE ARE ALTERNATIVE MOTIVES. This plant has been there forever.

This is a very lame response. You must be naive. I bet you are a republican.

We had the Sentinel out to the plant yesterday, to let the community know that the Union Cindy & I help to run (She is Secretary Treasurer & I am President) is looking into this issue. Our Union represents 80 workers in our Plant & Quarry. Our International Union represents 65,000 workers. Our International has a Health & Safety expert on staff, who we have been working very closely with since this issue first came to light. The Chromium 6 is a Community Safety concern in addition to being a Worker Safety concern. Our role in this is to be not only Worker Advocates, but also Community Advocates. Quite a few of us live in Davenport, & all of us have family or friends there.
We want the community to know: Not only are "Cemex & other State Officials" investigating the circumstances & determining a solution, but we are as well. We will NOT be starting the plant untill this issue has been resolved to our, & to the community of Davenport's, satisfaction.
Please contact me with any concerns you have regarding this issue. d46prez@calcentral.com
Eric Karo, President, Boilermakers local D-46

I love the photos, an employee with a beard wearing a half mask! That voids the masks ability to filter particulates, especially if C6 is found in high concentrations there. another shows a lab employee in the plant yard in open toed shoes next to the same employee wear a hard hat, safety glasses, safety shoes and a mask around his neck. Exactly what kind of safety program do they have there? I had to go through a 3 hour safety orientation at the Moss Landing Power plant as a sub contractor and typical of all large facilities, they have safety programs that are actually adhered too.
As far as Erin Brockovich showing up and sending a front man up from "her" office? what a joke, is she an industrial hygienist, a hazmat tech? No!
People have been living in the shadows and wind patterns of the plant for generations without ill affects other than ferro cement coated cars. Watch EB and the usual arm chair generals stir up something that will result in shutting down the plant. Who's next, Big Creek? I'm on the side of Cemex,let them find the problem if it exists on the grounds and fix it before another brokovichian size suit shuts down one of the last remaining large scale employers left

Hollywood!

My son at Pacific Elementary has been sick more than I would consider normal. Resitory and stomache problems. Could this dust be the cause? And can someone comment if they been burning tires for fuel?

A Mom wrote:

My son at Pacific Elementary has been sick more than I would consider normal. Resitory and stomache problems. Could this dust be the cause? And can someone comment if they been burning tires for fuel?

Cemex was here before you, so quite complaining or MOVE, my husband is at the Aromas quarry and if I hear anyone complain, thats what I say to them Graniterock was here before you and it will be here long after you are gone, but fortunetly it sits on 3 counties, so the freaks in Santa Cruz have no power. San Benito County laughs at you ppl, you sure like driving on your road dont, wasnt Mission street just repaved? All that fishhook rock material just came from a quarry. quite complaning.

Cemex is a Mexican Company that took over the cement plant from RMC-Lonestar basically a British Company about two years ago. Cemex is all over California so let's see how they deal with this problem. Are they a good neighbor? Idiot Cemex was not here in the begining and hopefully your husband doesn't get cancer. Who knows what is buried in the ground at at the quarry.

Ed Kendig of the MBUAPCD ROCKS!

Go Ed!

A Mom wrote:

My son at Pacific Elementary has been sick more than I would consider normal. Resitory and stomache problems. Could this dust be the cause? And can someone comment if they been burning tires for fuel?

The fact that you live in the wind patterns of chemical spraying sprout fields has never occurred to you? The fact that the combustible gas stacks at the plant would put particulates far away from Davenport considering the prevailing winds was lost on you too??
Cemex is an outstanding international company founded in Mexico. RMC was a British based company and Granite Rock is home grown as is Big Creek.

Rocket J Squirrel wrote:

<quoted text>
The fact that you live in the wind patterns of chemical spraying sprout fields has never occurred to you? The fact that the combustible gas stacks at the plant would put particulates far away from Davenport considering the prevailing winds was lost on you too??
Cemex is an outstanding international company founded in Mexico. RMC was a British based company and Granite Rock is home grown as is Big Creek.

obvious reply from Cemex salary employee

Was a time when whaling skunked up the place then came the cement plant. When you move next to industrial plants don't expect clean anything. People who move next to airport same thing. Aptos, Capitola its trains, tracks put in in the early 1900 or 18OO. Also people who want too decide who lives in their neighborhood. The neighborhood is not (your) neighborhood or property.

They also should check the aromas quarry to many people in the aromas community have died of cancer

***"An air sample was sent to a lab in Pittsburg on Monday, though air district officials expect chromium levels to be low or nonexistent compared with samples taken earlier because the Cemex plant has been closed for more than a month due to the weak economy."***

Thank you, Sentinel, for pointing that out. The plant closures do make a difference in this year's sampling.

***"You have a much higher risk of getting cancer living next to a freeway. Breathing in diesel exhaust makes this situation look like a day in the park."***

Putting side Kendig's inappropriate, insensitive, snarky tone...the residents of Davenport DO live next to a highway! And one that gets a high level of diesel truck traffic (and they have the diesel train exposure, as well). One way to put "spin" on any particular cancer risk is to separate it out from all others -- as if people lived in pure laboratory environments with an equal exposure baseline for all. But risk for cancer rises as exposures accumulate, and the risk of living next to a highway, AND next to a dust producing cement plant that burns coal, AND being exposed to Chromium IV by said plant -- all of that will add up to a different probability of developing cancer than any single risk factor. If you break it down further by population, considering only the effect on developing children, perhaps, or fetuses, you are likely to get different figures.

Common Sense wrote:

Erin herself will be town. ALL WILL BE RIGHT NOW. I honestly don't see what the big deal is. The level is very
low. This reminds me of unions, in the beginning the unions were needed but as time went by the unions were
not as important. These environmetalist that want to protect you from everything are reaching. Guess what
anything you do or live by could cause you to die. Living causes death, these groups are now run by lawyers who know nothing but money,money,money. Look at SIR AL GORE, From there it just trickles down. I BELIEVE THERE ARE ALTERNATIVE MOTIVES. This plant has been there forever.

Can't read, can you? The story said she would send a "representative" to the meeting. That means someone who is not Erin.

Your post is inane.

I am a former Cemex Employee, and there was no love lost when I decided to leave after they took over RMC. However, until state officials truely investigate this matter and come up with evidence that can indicate whether or not this is a concern, we don't need fabricated stories that only insight peoples fears, hostilities and anger. What I find interesting is, is that this plant has been here for over 100 years and one would think that if carcingens were coming from the plant, one would see a high cluster of cancer cases from its workers and the towns people. This should be easy to investigate and come up with a rational conclusion. Not junk science and speculation.

Richard wrote:

Cemex is a Mexican Company that took over the cement plant from RMC-Lonestar basically a British Company about two years ago. Cemex is all over California so let's see how they deal with this problem. Are they a good neighbor? Idiot Cemex was not here in the begining and hopefully your husband doesn't get cancer. Who knows what is buried in the ground at at the quarry.

Yes there where here, I know who owns them, my husbands worked up there for years before he finally got on a Aromos

Former CEMEX Employee wrote:

I am a former Cemex Employee, and there was no love lost when I decided to leave after they took over RMC. However, until state officials truely investigate this matter and come up with evidence that can indicate whether or not this is a concern, we don't need fabricated stories that only insight peoples fears, hostilities and anger. What I find interesting is, is that this plant has been here for over 100 years and one would think that if carcingens were coming from the plant, one would see a high cluster of cancer cases from its workers and the towns people. This should be easy to investigate and come up with a rational conclusion. Not junk science and speculation.

"Incite", FCE, not "insight". You are (obviously) not the person to make judgements about what is "junk science".

Cemex has said that it will switch to using local materials in it's kiln, to replace those materials (slag, mill scale) that were "known" to be high in chromium. So the question is, WHY did they knowingly use materials high in chromium, and for how long were these materials used? Cemex has reportedly been sloppy about controlling the dust that comes off of it's finished material while it's being transported. What they knew about that material's chemical content, and for how long, is critical in assessing their possible negligence here.