Lead-Emissions Suit Settled

On February 17 the Acme Packaging Corp. (Bay Point, CA), as an outgrowth of litigation relating to its polluting the environment with lead, agreed to three actions:

(1) to advise its neighbors of its lead emissions;
(2) install pollution-control devices; and
(3) pay, in part, the legal costs incurred by the complainants in the litigation.

The plant's manager said the company previously had not posted Proposition 65 notices for fear they would needlessly alarm the community. (Proposition 65 requires businesses that use chemicals known to cause cancer, birth defects, or reproductive harm to post warnings.) The company will take out quarter-page newspaper ads to notify neighbors that they are exposed to lead. Acme uses lead to prepare steel strapping for painting. The straps are dipped in a 100-cubic-foot vat of molten lead to clean and "blue" them.