Markey wants answers from Verizon over lead in old phone lines
SPRINGFIELD — U.S. Sen. Edward J. Markey D-Mass., wants to know where Verizon's old lead-sheathed telephone cables are and what the legacy phone company is doing to protect its workers and the public.
A sediment sample collected by federal inspectors from a telephone worker manhole under Central Street in Springfield in January was found to be 3% lead.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control, Prevention Health Hazard Evaluation Program and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health said the muck had lead concentrations of 30,000 parts per million. A dizzying number given that the Environmental Protection Agency lowered last year its acceptable level of lead in soil from 400 parts per million to 200 parts per million.
A 2023 Wall Street Journal investigation documented a sprawling nationwide network of legacy lead-sheathed cables. Phone companies used lead up until the 1960s when they switched to plastic.
In Western Massachusetts, John Rowley Sr., business manager of IBEW Local 2324, has also been investigating lead contamination on behalf of members who were exposed. Demonstrating a classic symptom, some workers reported headaches so bad they had to go home for the day.
Markey, a Democrat on the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee and the Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, also took up the lead cause.
In February 2024, he visited Chicopee and watched as researchers found lead in front yards on busy Montcalm Street. Its lead that had falen from overhead wires.
Today, Markey sent a letter to Verizon, one of the successor companies to the old Bell System that used lead sheathing.
Verizon has declined to comment on lead. In the past, it had issues with the Wall Street Journal's reporting and has called for more research.
Verizon wrote a New York congressman in 2023 saying 'soil lead levels near Verizon's cable are similar to lead levels in the surrounding area (i.e., background levels) and do not pose a public health risk to your constituents.'
Markey wants to know, by July 9, the answers a number of questions:
What is the status of Verizon's efforts to mapping all known and suspected lead-sheathed cables it owns or for which it is responsible?
What steps has Verizon taken since the publication of the Wall Street Journal investigation to:
Identify and monitor worker exposure to lead from lead-sheathed telecommunications cables?
Notify and protect workers in or near areas with lead-sheathed cables?
Inform the public, especially in environmental justice communities, about risks posed by lead-sheathed cables, and field and respond to concerns?
Test for and remediate environmental contamination around legacy infrastructure?
Provide medical monitoring, treatment, or compensation for lead-exposed workers?
What is the status of any investigations by the U.S. Department of Justice, the EPA or Occupational Safety and Health Administration into Verizon's handling of its lead-sheathed cables?
Markey also wants Verizon to implement all the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) recommendations, including conducting routine blood lead level testing and retrofitting hygiene and personal protection protocols.
Rowley is concerned that with federal cutbacks to agencies like the EPA, OSHA and NIOSH, no one is left to monitor, research and enforce rules.
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