Point Reyes Light -- August 27, 1998

Gas additive MTBE afflicts service station attendants nationwide

Last week The Light described how Point Reyes Station gas station attendant Todd Melton suffered oozing sores after exposure to gas additive MTBE. The story generated much response and prompted further investigation of the topic.

Former gas station attendant Todd Melton of Point Reyes Station is not alone in suffering from symptoms that possibly stem from the controversial gas additive MTBE.

Gas station attendants across the country have developed skin rashes, sinus problems, and blood abnormalities after repeated exposure to gas containing MTBE (methyl tertiary butyl ether), said Dr. Nachman Brautbar, clinical professor of medicine at USC School of Medicine.

Brautbar, who practices internal medicine, toxicology, and pharmacology in Los Angeles, said he'd have to examine Melton himself before determining whether MTBE was to blame for the young man's hand sores, occasional dizzy spells, shortness of breath, recurrent flu-like problems.

However, he said, Melton's symptoms possibly match those of numerous gas station attendants that he's seen and proven to be affected by MTBE.

In a study entitled "Methyl Tertiary-Butyl Ether Antibodies among Gasoline Service Station Attendants" published last December in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, Dr. Brautbar and two other doctors found that elevated levels of MTBE antibodies were found among gas pumpers.

Dr. Brautbar, along with doctors Aristo Vojdani, an immunologist, and Galal Namatalla, a dermatologist, compared 24 adults employed for more than two years in gas stations with a control group of 12 adults who rarely came into direct contact with fuel.

With the aid of a scientifically-proven blood test, which was developed by Dr. Vojdani, all the participants were examined for their immunological responses to MTBE.

Seven individuals from the first group exhibited antibody levels of a three- to 15-fold elevation when compared with the antibody levels against MTBE in the control group.

"What this means is that they [the gas attendants] were exposed to MTBE at some time," Dr. Brautbar said, noting that he has seen 450 patients with MTBE-related health problems, which are appearing throughout the country.

Following the passage of the federal Clean Air Act in 1990, which mandated the use of oxygenates to reduce smog, MTBE came into widespread use in California, Texas, and several eastern states. Other states, such as Oregon, Washington, Montana, and Minnesota have adopted an alternative oxygenate, ethanol, which is derived from corn.

MTBE was tried - and later rejected - by several states, such as Alaska and North Carolina, after residents there developed health problems.

"I haven't seen any scientific justification for using MTBE in California rather than ethanol, which achieves nearly the same results as far as oxygenating the gasoline," said Point Reyes Station resident John Hulls, a member of the Calstart Advanced Vehicle Consortium, which is a state-sponsored group working to improve transportation efficiency.

Automotive mechanics and gas station workers who must breath fumes from MTBE and its byproducts all day are showing more and more signs of illness, wrote Dr. Peter Joseph in "Health Effects from MTBE in Gasoline," a study published on the Internet.

Dr. Joseph, a radiology physics professor at University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, noted that some gas pumpers he knew became so sick that they were forced to leave their jobs.

"I know of a father-son combined car repair shop and gas station in Pennsylvania that had to close down because of MTBE," Joseph told The Light on Monday. "They both got sick, but with different symptoms. The father got heart symptoms, and was hospitalized. He got better in the hospital, where he was away from the gas pumps. His doctor later released him with orders not to return to his job."

Meanwhile the son developed a nasty cough, a common symptom among folks who work around gas with MTBE; like his father, he was told by doctors to find another livelihood, Joseph said.

Melton, likewise, was told by UCSF dermatologists to leave his job pumping gas in West Marin. He did, and is now hoping to secure Workers' Compensation to support himself and his two children while he looks for another job.

But Melton and others like him face a challenge because most doctors are unfamiliar with MTBE-related illnesses, and these illnesses, while real, remain unproven within the general medical community so far, Joseph said.

"Gas stations are the place where people are most likely to develop allergic reactions to MTBE. When you see case after case of this, there's every reason to suppose that MTBE is toxic," Joseph said.

Sensitivity to MTBE increases over time, the doctor said, and manifests in four categories: respiratory, neurological, allergic, and cardiac.

"Respiratory symptoms are due to irritation of the tissues in lungs, bronchial tubes, and nasal passages. The result feels much like a cold," he reported in his Internet story. "Another common symptom is chronic inflammation of the sinuses."

Those afflicted with neurological symptoms often feel tipsy, as if their brains were wrapped with cloth, he wrote. Others feel dizzy, lightheaded, sleepless, and/or nauseous.

Allergic symptoms include skin rashes, watery eyes, and a dripping throat; cardiac symptoms include heart palpitations and, more seriously, heart attacks.

Since MTBE was introduced in Philadelphia, New Jersey, Connecticut, and New York City, asthma cases have multiplied at an alarming rate, Joseph noted. "This area of research is of special interest to me, because exhaust fumes from cars affect everybody."

Surmised Hulls of Point Reyes Station, "It would seem to me that the effectiveness of MTBE's supposed ability to clean the air could be evaluated from the Smog-check data collected by the state, but I haven't seen any authoritative articles published."

Dr. Joseph also emphasized that he questioned MTBE's purported air-cleaning effects. In addition, he warned that residents who use groundwater contaminated with the chemical for either drinking or irrigating their vegetable gardens are endangering their health. Also at risk are farmers who water their crops with MTBE-tainted groundwater, he said.

In Marin, about 60 sites have groundwater that is contaminated by MTBE, say staff from the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board, which receives its data from outside research sources.

In West Marin, five sites have been found to have MTBE levels that exceed 14 parts per billion - the level now considered "safe" by state health officials: the Bolinas Garage (420 ppb); the former Chevron station in Tomales (91 ppb); the Golden Hinde Inn & Marina in Inverness (73 ppb); the Olema Ranch Campground (24 ppb); and the McIsaac ranch in Tocaloma (23 ppb).

Following The Light's story on MTBE last week, water board staff rechecked their records and found two data-entry errors: Hog Island Oyster Company's retail site in Marshall and the San Geronimo Valley golf course, which reportedly had 650 ppb and 100 ppb respectively, have no detectable levels of MTBE.

Excluding the Bolinas Garage, the remaining four sites that used to have leaking underground gas tanks are no longer considered problematic by water-board staff and require no further cleanup action - despite the MTBE levels that remain.

"We do not believe that the remaining concentrations of gas-related pollution in these places pose a threat to human health or the environment. Also, there are no drinking water wells located near these areas," said John Jang, the water board engineer who oversees many West Marin sites.

Dr. Brautbar, however, believes that any level of MTBE-laden gas in groundwater is problematic. "I wrote another study which looked at the changes of DNA in white blood cells of people who drank water contaminated with MTBE or benzene [another gasoline additive]. It showed that MTBE in gasoline, like benzene, affects the cell as expected from a cancer-causing agent."

The 60 adults tested had been exposed for five to eight years to gasoline-tainted drinking water with MTBE concentrations up to 76 ppb, and benzene levels up to 14 ppb.

Brautbar said he has testified before the US Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee, where member Sen. Barbara Boxer is urging the Environmental Protection Agency to ban MTBE, and before State Senator Richard Mountjoy, who has introduced legislation to phase out the chemical.

Despite the absence of confirming data in humans, MTBE causes cancer in many organs and tissues in significant numbers of experimental animals and poses a presumed cancer risk in some humans, he said last December while testifying before Senator Boxer and the US Senate's Environment and Public Works Committee.

Furthermore, he testified, sensitive individuals exposed to MTBE in gasoline, such as pregnant women, young children, are people on medications "are at even greater risk for developing cancers."

Melton meanwhile wonders how seriously he has been affected by the gas he used to pump.

"My hands are just a small part of my problem," he said. "It's the part that people see. I want to know if I will ever be able go outside again and take a deep breath, and fully expand my lungs - which I can't do now. I want to sleep through a whole night without waking up with aching joints. I want to know when I'll feel well again."

Point Reyes Light Cover | News | Calendar | Coastal Traveler