Death of Champion mill worker prompts chemical poisoning tests> Government, plant owners seek health-problem answers

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The death of an employee of Champion International Corp. in December has spurred government and company investigations at the Bucksport paper mill into the possible chemical poisoning of workers.

An army of doctors, industrial hygienists and engineers have been treating patients, sifting through medical records, measuring air samples and making improvements to the mill’s pulp laboratory. No conclusions have been reached, officials say.

Norman Crossman, 34, of Searsport, was a good-natured, rugged athlete, say co-workers who worked with him in the pulp laboratory. He had planned to compete in the New York marathon, until he had a heart attack and his heart aged a couple of decades in six months, according to his wife, Debra,

Crossman died Dec. 7 in a Hartford, Conn., hospital after quadruple bypass surgery, while waiting for a heart transplant, she said.

What started in January as an investigation into his death has broadened into an inquiry into problems reported by other mill employees, said William Freeman, area director of the U. S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Augusta office. He declined to divulge details.

About 24 Champion workers have been questioned by OSHA, according to two sources who asked not to be identified. An industrial hygienist and a doctor are conducting a parallel investigation for Champion, said Seth Kursman, a company spokesman.

A petition filed with the Workers’ Compensation Commission alleges that Crossman’s illness was precipitated by exposure to methylene chloride “and other hazardous substances” in the course of his work as a lab inspector.

Methylene chloride, a chemical used in several substances in the mill, can affect the skin, eyes, cardio-vascular system and the central nervous system worsening angina, and causing fatigue, weakness, lightheadedness, numbness, tingling, nausea, vertigo and eye and skin irritation, according to a guide to chemical hazards published by the National Institute for Occupational Health and Safety.

A brief letter from a Hartford cardiologist, Dr. Henry B.C. Low, to Champion’s insurance provider blamed Crossman’s heart attack on atherosclerosis, and stated, “It certainly was not the result of a work place injury,” according to Kursman.

But Debra Crossman still recalls her husband’s chillingly prophetic words when he came home from the midnight shift at the mill on the morning of April 30: “I got into something really bad at the mill. My lungs feel like they’re on fire. If I drop dead in the next couple of days you’ll remember this.”

Crossman, a non-smoker, had his first heart attack a day later while running his 14-mile regimen. The doctors diagnosed two mild artery blockages, said Debra.

“Other than that, his heart was beautiful,” she said, “and there was virtually no damage done.” Crossman’s Bangor cardiologist refused comment for this story.

Crossman recovered and returned to a reduced schedule of work and jogging. During that time there were reoccurrences of symptoms he had felt since April, including burning, tingling sensations as if something were happening under his skin, anxiety attacks, burning lungs, shortness of breath, and unbearable hot flashes that plunged his final days into misery, said his wife.

Six months after his first heart attack, Crossman became sick at the mill a few weeks after returning to work. He told company health officials that he felt weak and lightheaded, and called his wife to take him home, according to a report filed by the company with the Workers’ Compensation Commission.

A few days later Crossman felt well enough to go jogging, but after a half mile, he told his wife, who was following on a bicycle, “My lungs are on fire real bad.” As she pushed him toward home on the bicycle, Crossman’s limbs and face became numb, and he had another heart attack.

Doctors found four 95 percent blockages. Between his first and second heart attacks the amount of damage to Crossman’s arteries was “extraordinary. It’s as though he had aged 14 to 16 years in several months,” said Thomas Watson, Mrs. Crossman’s lawyer.

Watson said he also represents several other mill workers claiming workers’ compensation benefits who exhibit a variety of sometimes vague, debilitating symptoms. “We suspect there’s a connection,” he said.

Co-worker’s illness

Judy Brown Cousens testified under oath about her health problems before a Workers’ Compensation hearing last July. Both she and Crossman worked out of the pulp laboratory, which was their base of operations for gathering samples of pulp and chemicals for analysis at various points in the paper-making process throughout the mill.

Cousens became ill and left work in October 1988, six months before Crossman’s first heart attack. Her workers’ compensation file indicates she has seen at least nine doctors.

Some of her symptoms are similar to Crossman’s and other workers interviewed. She said she had experienced sore throats, fatigue, aching arms, bad headaches, burning eyes, breathing difficulties, burning sensations in her chest and stomach causing her to vomit, heart palpitations, hot flashes, joint pains and bladder problems.

She testified that she contracted hepatitis, suffered bouts of depression and anxiety, and had heard voices when falling asleep at night. In July she said she could only hold her arms up 30 seconds before they became tired, affecting her ability to drive, vacuum the floor and wash her hair.

The right side of her head, and the left side of her ribs were numb. She told of stabbing pains in her arms and legs that “felt like a knife.” When she tried to move it felt like someone was holding her shoulders, pushing her down, she said.

Cousens, 32, said her job had involved going throughout the mill collecting samples of pulp stock and chemicals in stainless steel containers from valves, bins and “sewers” that run through the basement. She always got her hands and clothes wet, she said.

“You go down and put your hands in the sewer, which consists of all the drainage of all the machines and everything that’s put in the paper,” she testified.

She also told of problems in the pulp lab where she took water from two faucets to make coffee and cook until co-workers warned her not to.

“One of my co-workers explained that there was like a kerosene, strong odor coming from the water, plus one of the other co-workers said that she’d seen it turn purple…. They mixed a dye up over the paper lab which would get into the water and I didn’t know. Nobody ever explained to me or there was never a sign to say not to drink the water so I drank it for a long time.”

Pulp lab investigation

It wasn’t until early January 1990 that someone put up a sign saying, “Don’t drink the water.”

Gary Webber, a mill engineer, recommended that the toaster and coffee pot be removed from the lab, according to his report of a company investigation. Webber also noted packets of mustard, mayonnaise, catsup and relish stored in stainless steel containers with chemical labels that “showed signs of stock residue.”

Webber found that pitch dispersant, a chemical brew used to remove pitch from the inside of paper machinery next to the lab, could enter the warm water pipe leading to the pulp lab sink.

He also found holes in the wall opposite a blending trough for a paper machine, and pitch dispersant containers. “The incident of odor seems to coincide with the delivery of a new container of the pitch dispersant by a fork truck,” he noted.

The report also traced problems involving an occasional chlorine odor, excessive heat and the escape of steam and vapors from unsealed equipment containing chemicals beneath the lab.

The report quoted workers. Bill Leach said he had smelled chlorine and kerosene-like odors, and he had a rash on both arms. He said he ate his meals in the lab, but didn’t drink the water.

Mark Goguen said he had smelled odors, and had had burning, bloodshot eyes. He had noticed material leaking from lab ovens when “they burned their stock samples.” He said he used to make coffee from the tap water until he noticed white, soapy foam coming out with spurts of air.

Damon Holmes reported that he had eye discomfort, and had smelled a sulfur-like odor that caused an upset stomach.

Other employees, in Bangor Daily News interviews, reported similar, sometimes more serious, incidents.

One worker told of an evening when the lab was evacuated and a worker driven home after he was immobilized with an upset stomach and a headache. “When I worked in the lab I woke up with a headache every morning,” he said.

Several employees said that changes made to the lab after the January investigation appear to have solved the problems. “The company has been very cooperative,” said a worker.

Kursman, the company spokesman, said that the improvements are only one example of the company’s concern for its employees’ health.

After complaints began surfacing in late 1988, Atlantic Environmental Corp. of New Jersey did an industrial hygiene study for chemicals, mold and other substances. “All the tested materials were found to be below the established limits (by OSHA),” he said.

In January 1989 OSHA investigators tested for potassium hydroxide and found zero parts per million, he said. In May, the company filled some “tiny holes” in cement in the pulp laboratory. In December the company sampled for chlorine and found none, he said.

Service Engineering Inc. of Bangor is doing another study, but hasn’t found any “major concerns” so far, Kursman said.

“The company is not ignoring the problem. It has been aggressively investigating all of the concerns that have been brought to our attention. We have responded with definitive studies. None of them have shown a problem,” he said. “Priority No. 1 is the health of our workers.”

Other employees

While many of the complaints have focused on the pulp laboratory and its workers, the OSHA investigation involves other employees, too.

Some longtime employees who worked in the lab years ago have been questioned. They include three men who have experienced long-term problems involving nerves and joints in their arms with symptoms of tendonitis and nerve damage.

One of them, Barry Murchie, said he worked in the pulp lab for three or four years 25 years ago, and had worked in different labs since then until he lost the ability to use his arms below the elbow. He left work in 1986.

Murchie, 50, said he has “radial nerve palsy.” He first noticed a weakness in his right hand when using a calculator. Eventually the problem spread to his left arm. Operations on his muscles and nerves restored 35 percent of the use of his hands and forearms, but he said he has been losing this.

“The medical profession is lacking terribly in knowledge of how to detect chemical poisoning,” said Murchie. He said he had visited many doctors in Bangor, Portland, Vermont and Boston, and been misdiagnosed four times, once by a doctor who told him he had Lou Gehrig’s disease and that he had only a few months to live.

In letters placed in his Workers’ Compensation file up to 1986, doctors said they were uncertain about the causes of his problems. But Murchie said more recently doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston have said “I definitely have chemical poisoning,” and they are now trying to pinpoint the specific chemical. He said the company has been cooperative in dealing with his case.

Workers who have had no connection with the pulp laboratory also complain of health problems that they believe may be connected to chemicals.

One is David Baker, who said he used to measure the vibration from plant machinery from an office near the pulp lab before he became disabled in 1988. Baker said his medical records have been requested by Champion and by union officials, but he has not been questioned by OSHA.

He said he has headaches, backaches, stiff muscles, fuzzy vision, and breathing problems. He mentioned burning sensations under his skin, sore joints, fatigue and other symptoms, some of which are similar to multiple sclerosis. He was hospitalized with a high fever and sweating for 10 days in 1988 before he left work permanently.

Baker, 44, said he can’t hold his arms up long enough to drive from his home in Lincoln to Bangor, and that he has to be pushed around the Bangor Mall in a wheelchair because he lacks balance and his legs are weak.

Once Baker thought his problems might have been caused by mold growing on the walls of his office, a possibility that was investigated and dismissed. He said that at different times during his employment with Champion he had been exposed to mill chemicals that etched his glasses and burned his hands.

Like several other workers and former workers, he said he had been to a number of doctors from Bangor to Boston, but all have failed to find a definitive diagnosis.

“Nothing has really determined what my problem is,” but it’s getting more pronounced, he said. “The worst thing is not knowing.”