Congressman Sweeny,

Earlier this year I dropped off a package to explain how congress rewrote “The Sanitary Food Transportation Law" (title 49 transportation chapter 57 sanitary food transportation), but never put in an amendment to uphold this law. For example, section 5706, which calls for, dedicated vehicles so food products can be delivered safely to the American people. However, this section is completely useless because there is no way to uphold it at the present time. I do have an easy answer to this that would not add any cost to the taxpayers. Let me explain:

All trailers have to be inspected once a year and have an inspection sticker affixed on them to prove it has been inspected. To uphold section 5706 of the “Sanitary Food Transportation” law, an amendment could be written that states, “when a trailer is inspected that is going to haul food or food products that touch the food, that trailer should have a letter F on the inspection sticker that is affixed to that trailer.” The rest of the system is already in place. We have D.O.T. inspection stations all over these United States. When a truck is pulled into these inspection stations it is weighted, then the inspectors checks the manifest for the load that it is hauling and inspects the vehicle. What would be so hard in having the inspector look at the inspection sticker to see if this vehicle should be hauling the freight that is in it? When an inspector looks at the driver’s manifest and then checks the inspection sticker, if there is an F on the inspection sticker and there are chemicals in the trailer or other toxic substances the trailer would be impounded and the inspection sticker stripped from the trailer. The company should also be heavily fined.

There are many reasons an amendment such as this should be in place. The most important reason is the health care of the citizens of this nation. Every time I listen to a news report I hear the government is trying to cut the rising cost of health care. This would be a good way to do this and more. Doctors look for the obvious reasons why a person is ill they don’t take in account that there might be other underlying reasons. In other words they treat the symptoms not the toxic effect. The doctors can’t be blamed, they are not being told. The person suffering doesn’t know what is happening. By the doctors treating the symptoms it cost the taxpayers millions of dollars a year. The people that are most at risk are our children and the elderly. The State Agencies or State Insurance cares for some of these children. While most elderly depend on Medicare for there medical insurance. If we can stop the poisoning of our food supply by these industries our children and elderly will have a healthy and more productive life.

In my research of the products that I hauled for the company where I was injured I found that most of these chemicals are the same chemicals that are in tobacco smoke. In fact one chemical is worse then the rest because it sensitizes the human body to many other things. In other words it makes the body allergic to many other chemicals and natural things such as pollen. Could this be one of the reasons there is a rise in asthma in children? By the way congress has gone after the tobacco companies because of the heath risk associated with these toxins you would think they would do everything in there power to keep these same toxins out of our food supply due to contamination. The health issues of the tobacco industry are a testament to this.

You had asked for some evidence that these laws where being broken. Instead of sending you all my invoices and trip sheets I have put everything on spreadsheets. Asbestos on one, the loads I hauled for my company Monsey Products Corp. on another. There is also a spreadsheet showing the loads I hauled for Amstar Sugar. And another one showing loads I hauled for WR Grace. Which are the majority of the loads and the most critical, due to the fact that their product (Styrofoam food trays), is packaged in perforated plastic bags and are laid directly on the floor and touch the walls of the trailer. So if there is any contaminates in the trailer these food trays pick them up. On the Amstar and WR Grace spread sheets you will find some of the trailer numbers printed in Red these are the trailers that have hauled asbestos before hauling the food product. The trailer numbers that have been highlighted, are trailers that have hauled Monsey Products Corp. products before the food product. Monsey Products Corp. makes driveway sealer, roof coatings, paints, and in doing so use highly toxic substances; Asbestos, coal tar, Anthracene, Naphthalene, and others. The only reason that the loads that I hauled where contained in the northeast is because my contract was out of Waterford NY. What you also have to remember is these are from my records only. It does not take into account the other 45 plus drivers and Owner/Operators that moved these trailers across the country. With all dispatch coming from the Kimberton, PA Office. Monsey Products Corp. and MPC. Trucking also had terminals in Kimberton PA, Indianapolis IN., Barlow FL., Rockhill SC. and Texas.

Enclosed are Driver Logs of the dates in question, along with trip sheets showing the routes traveled with the asbestos loads. If more information is needed please contact me. I have most trip sheets and all paid invoices along with most of my Driver Logs for the time I worked at MPC Trucking.

Also I’m attaching pages from WR Grace’s website because I am convinced that they knew exactly what asbestos could do. One site is on “The Woburn Story“. Another is “Grace in Libby”; the others are from Grace News, which show that WR Grace has been dealing with asbestos-related bodily injury litigation dated 2/4/99. In fact in one of Grace’s news dated May 14, 1998 WR Grace was considering asbestos insurance. Yet they allow their food product to be hauled with asbestos and other chemicals. In fact they loaded the trailers and put seals on them, every load I hauled from WR Grace was preloaded.

I understand that the Sanitation Food Transportation laws are dated in 1994 BUT they refer back to laws in 1990 that where basically the same. I am also enclosing some of the documentation showing how OSHA mishandled the investigation. I have been told that OSHA only has six months from the date of the offense to investigate a claim. If you look at the letters sent from MPC Trucking to OSHA you will find that they are dated after the six months window of investigation. Also if you look at the third page of the report dated 8/10/92 you will see where hazardous waste comes before food and directly after food it states Asbestos. I will highlight different things that are wrong on each page and make notations. I also enclosed FACT SHEETS from OSHA, EPA, and ATSDR all are government agencies. The Polystrene, Isbutene, and the Styrene go directly to the product that WR Grace makes and I delivered without training or being notified what effects the product would have on my health because I was in a non-ventilated area over long periods of time. The Formaldehyde shows that it’s used commonly in a lot of the products that I have hauled for MPC Trucking. It shows it has server heath affects inhaling low levels over a long period of time can cause sensitization, which has happened to me. I have more information that is more detailed from these government agencies.

Please contact me if you need other information.
June 6, 2000
Charles Lake

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