[Source: Press-Telegram] The metal-finishing company Anaplex Corp. in Paramount was forced to close because of high-level emissions of a carcinogen on Thursday, Oct. 4, for the seventh time since February 2017.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District ordered the temporary closure because the agency’s air monitors found above-threshold levels of toxic hexavalent chromium at the company’s address at 15546 Garfield Ave.
The trigger threshold for hexavalent chromium is 1.0 nanograms per cubic meter, and in recent days, Anaplex’s average was 2.0 in areas downwind of its location. On Tuesday, Oct. 2, Anaplex’s location reached a high of 5.81 nanograms, according to the air-quality district.
Hexavalent chromium is a potent human carcinogen associated with lung cancer when inhaled over long periods of time, typically years to decades, according to a press release.
Anaplex’s Thursday closure comes on the heels of its most recent violation and subsequent closure in August. But there were five more closures before, dating back to the air quality management district’s initial investigation in 2016 that found the company had levels of hexavalent chromium as high as 75,000 parts per million.
Anaplex will not be able to operate until the AQMD determines that the average of three most recent samples, collected over a period of about one week, is below 1.0 nanograms per cubic meter.
Although Anaplex has violated the threshold multiple times, the order cannot force the company to permanently close. However, it does require Anaplex to make a permanent change to get its emissions “considerably lower,” said Sam Atwood, a spokesman for the agency, in August.
Source: Press-Telegram
October 4, 2018
