GROUP RANKS DEXTER'S ARVIN PLANT HIGH FOR CANCER RISK

DEXTER -- Arvin Exhaust ranks fourth in the nation in an environmental organization's calculation of factories whose emissions pose cancer risks.

New York-based Environmental Defense computed the cancer risk using toxic emission data factories must supply to the federal Environmental Protection Agency and multiplying those numbers by exposure factors such as smokestack height and population. The added cancer risk for the population surrounding the factory was computed by Environment Defense at 600 per million.

The Clean Air Act goal is to achieve cancer risks no higher than 1 per million from toxic chemicals emitted into the air. However, that number is based on the toxic releases alone and not exposure factors.

Karen Florini, a senior attorney for Environmental Defense, cautioned the calculation is not a prediction of how many extra cancer cases will occur in the proximity of the plant. "It is a way of getting a handle on whether there are potential problems."

Expressing added cancer risk per million allows for comparisons between plants, she said.

John Brown, vice president for corporate communications at Arvin Industries headquarters in Columbus, Ind., disputes whether that is so.

"They don't tell you how they calculate it," he said. "They just make the statement"

He said all of Arvin's plants are abiding by EPA regulations.

"Environmental Defense is not suggesting that we are acting out of compliance," he said. "That is the important message that doesn't get sent."

Brown was unable to supply figures for the Dexter plant Wednesday, but as an example he said the company's Franklin, Ind., plant is operating at only 20 percent of its permit for toxic emissions.

"If the point is being made that we should revisit the EPA regulations and the law should be changed, why didn't they include the scientific data that shows why the EPA's scientific data is not proper?" Brown asked.

Both the Arvin Franklin plant and its plant in Columbus are on Environmental Defense's top-50 list. Information about the list is available at the organization's Web site, www.scorecard.org

Arvin Exhaust in Dexter makes muffler and exhaust systems and employs 580 people.

The U.S. factories Environmental Defense rated the worst for cancer risk are E.I.S. Brake Parts in Manila, Ark., Featherlite Inc. in Cresco, Iowa, and Allegheny Ludlum Corp. Allvac in Latrobe, Penn. They had an added cancer risk of 1,000 per million according to the Environmental Defense calculations.

Environmental Defense says the exposure factors were taken from the EPA's own Risk Screening Environmental Indicators Project.

Arvin Industries operates 60 facilities around the world and 35 in the U.S. It also makes shocks, struts and other items for the automotive industry.

Environmental Defense formerly was known as the Environmental Defense Fund but recently changed its name because people thought its mission was just to dole out money, Florini said.

She said chromium is the chemical driving the Arvin Exhaust plant's numbers up. Chromium is a suspected carcinogen that at certain high or with long-term exposure levels can damage lungs and cause allergic reactions.

Florini said Environmental Defense isn't warning that people are going to start dropping dead tomorrow because of the factories on its list.

"We're saying, Gee, is there some excess risk or can we go back to sleep? In the case of Arvin Exhaust, I don't think we can go back to sleep."