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CITING CANCER RISKS, ENVIRONMENTAL COALITION, STATE OF CALIFORNIA SUE MAJOR SUPERMARKET CHAINS FOR EXPOSING NEIGHBORS T0 HAZARDOUS DIESEL EXHAUST

April 28, 1998

LOS ANGELES - turning up the heat on cancer-causing diesel exhaust, a coalition of environmental groups and California Attorney General Dan Lungren today sued four prominent supermarket chains, charging them with illegally exposing thousands of neighbors of their distribution centers and workers to Hazardous diesel exhaust containing cancer causing chemicals and other toxins.

The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Coalition for Clean Air (Coalition) and Environmental Law Foundation (ELF) filed the lawsuits today against Vons Stores and its parent company Safeway, Lucky Stores, and Ralphs in Los Angeles Superior Court. The environmental groups also filed suit against Stater Brothers in San Bernardino Superior Court.

In the lawsuits, the companies are charged with unfair business practices and violations of the Safe Drinking Water and toxic Enforcement Act of 1996, more commonly known as Proposition 65. The lawsuits demand that the supermarket chains transition completely to trucks and other vehicles that use less polluting fuel and pay damages to the neighbors and workers who have been harmed by breathing the hazardous diesel exhaust and its component chemicals, including arsenic, benzene, dioxins and formaldehyde. They also seek an order requiring that the companies warn residents in communities surrounding their distribution centers and workers that they are being exposed to a known carcinogen -- diesel exhaust.

State Attorney General Dan Lungren is filing companion lawsuits against the supermarket chains - the first time the State of California has joined in such legal action against businesses that have exposed people to cancer-causing diesel exhaust. Together, the suits mark a growing awareness of the hazards of diesel exhaust and intensify the pressure for companies to use other safer and less polluting fuels.

"These companies' diesel trucks deliver not only groceries, but high doses of cancer-causing diesel exhaust into our communities," said Gail Ruderman Feuer, senior attorney with the NRDC. "We are taking these companies to court to force them to break the diesel habit and to save lives in our communities. We are also sending out our own smoke signal today - beware this is only round one against companies in California which illegally drive their polluting diesel trucks through our communities."

The lawsuits -- part of a growing nationwide "Dump Dirty Diesel" campaign spearheaded by tile NRDC and the Coalition -- come in the wake of state and national studies in recent weeks, which further demonstrate that diesel exhaust poses a serious cancer danger.

Last Wednesday, a state panel of scientists unanimously recommended that the California Air Resources Board declare diesel fumes a toxic air contaminant. The U.S. Environmental Protection agency, meanwhile, released a draft report earlier this month linking diesel exhaust to lung cancer and other respiratory ailments.

The filing of the lawsuits today and the release of a major new report: Exhausted by Diesel: How America's Dependence on Diesel Engines Threatens Our Health, culminate a year's extensive investigation of hazardous diesel hot spots in neighborhoods throughout California.

"Not only does this report demonstrate the very serious health hazards of diesel exhaust, but it also shows there are a number of positive alternatives such a compressed or liquefied natural gas that are cost effective and can help produce a much cleaner, healthier environment," said Mary Nichols, executive director of Environment Now, a private Southern California environmental foundation whose support helped make the study possible. "For far too long, businesses have "cried wolf' and proclaimed that the economy will be devastated by initiatives that clean up the air. We have the technology to move beyond diesel and the time to do it is now,"

To develop the Exhausted by Diesel report, the NRDC and Coalition worked With internationally recognized experts on diesel exhaust analyzing the available scientific information, generating specific estimates of the cancer risk from diesel exhaust exposure, and applying these estimates to highly impacted California communities, The NRDC and the Coalition also performed extensive air monitoring in communities located near distribution centers where diesel truck traffic is heavy.

"The conclusion from this intensive study is that facilities with heavy truck traffic are exposing local communities to diesel exhaust concentrations far above the average levels in outdoor air," said Linda Waade, the Coalition for Clean Air's executive director, "These affected communities, and the workers at these distribution facilities with heavy diesel truck traffic, are bearing a disproportionate burden of the health risks and are paying the price for for society's addiction to diesel engines."

"One disturbing finding from our study is that the highest level of diesel exhaust are often concentrated at bus depots, distribution centers and industrial facilities near low-income communities of color, following a pattern shown with respect to other environmental hazards.," Feuer said.

Based on their site monitoring, the environmental organizations identified the following five distribution centers as illegal diesel hot spots:

1. Ralphs distribution center, 4841 W. San Fernando Road, Los Angeles
2. Vons distribution center,1280I Excelsior Street,Santa Fe Springs
3. Lucky distribution center, 6565 Knott Avenue, Buena Park
4. Lucky distribution center, 1701 Marina Boulevard, San Leandro
5. Stater Brothers distribution center, 21700 Barton Road, Colton

In the lawsuits, the companies are charged with exposing "thousands of people to diesel exliaust and its toxic constituents, which are known to the State of California to cause cancer and reproductive harm" and having "unlawfully failed to warn these individuals as to their exposures" as required by Proposition 65.

In particular, the continued expulsion of diesel exhaust from diesel trucks That go into and out of the distribution centers as well as trucks and yard tractors that operate within the facilities "pose a serious risk of cancer, reproductive harm and other adverse health effects to workers and to the people who reside, work and attend school in the surrounding communities."

"Despite knowing about these dangers, the supermarket chains have continued to operate diesel trucks and to receive goods from independent truck companies and owners who operate diesel trucks servicing the distribution centers. As a result, workers and members of the public who reside, work and attend school in the communities surrounding the facilities unknowingly and unwillingly continue to inhale diesel exhaust and its toxic constituents," said James Wheaton, executive director of the, Environmental Law Foundation.

In their study, the NRDC and the Coalition provide an antidote to the nation's diesel dependence:

The US EPA and California Air Resources Board just end their "hands off" diesel policy immediately and act quickly to set new stringent standards for heavy duty trucks, buses, trains, marine vessels, construction and agricultural equipment and other diesel vehicles and equipment to expedite the transition toward cleaner alternative fuel vehicles,

The US EPA should apply the Clean Fuel Fleet purchasing requirements of 30, 50 and 70 percent to all centrally-fueled fleets with ten or more vehicles, In this effort, US EPA must not be handcuffed by the inability of diesel technology to meet stringent emission standards and should not allow regions to opt out of this critical program.

Legislative and municipal bodies should also provide financial incentives to operators of diesel vehicles and equipment to encourage them to purchase new alternative fuel vehicles or to retrofit their existing diesel vehicles.

Transit agencies should lead the way toward clean fuel vehicles by committing to purchase only alternative fuel buses and other vehicles for their fleets. And private fleet operators should take a major step to protect their workers and local communities by immediately beginning to purchase alternative fuel heavy duty trucks, buses and equipment as part of their fleet.

"We believe that these recommendations can go along way to cleaning the air we breathe and decreasing the hazards we are exposed to every day, In the end, convening to cleaner fuel could help a company like Vons make good on its motto "Vons is Value" when it comes to health and a commitment to the future," Waade said.

The Natural Resources Defense Council is a national nonprofit organization of scientists, lawyers and environmental specialists dedicated to protecting public health and the environment. Founded in 1970, NRDC has more than 3 50,000 members nationwide and offices in New York, Washington, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Visit NRDC at web site: www.nrdc.org.

The Coalition for Clean Air is one of the leading community-based nonprofit environmental organizations dedicated to restoring clean, healthy air to Southern California through a combination of efforts including public health and environmental policy advocacy.

The Environmental Law Foundation's mission is to use environmental and other laws to achieve reduction of toxic exposures and disclosure to the public of the health hazards of such exposures, and to work with community groups to combine these legal strategies with public education and outreach. Visit ELF at web site: www.envirolow.org.

Environment Now is a private Southern California foundation that works to protect, preserve and restore the environment by influencing public policy and promoting responsible resource management.

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