The Journal. - What AT&T and Verizon Knew About Toxic Lead Cables

Episode Date: July 14, 2023

For decades, telecom companies have known that lead in their networks posed risks to workers, and did little about it. Lead can cause a variety of ailments in adults, affecting the kidney, heart and reproductive systems, and it is classified as a probable human carcinogen. WSJ’s Shalini Ramachandran explains the danger of lead cables -- and what telephone companies knew. Further Reading: - America Is Wrapped in Miles of Toxic Lead Cables  - What AT&T and Verizon Knew About Toxic Lead Cables  -​​ Workers Exposed to Toxic Lead Cables Wrestle With the Aftermath  - How the Journal Investigated Hidden Lead Cables Circling the U.S.  Further Listening: - Part 1: America Is Wrapped in Toxic Lead Cables   Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tommy Steed lives in upstate New York. He has bees, a border collie named Pete, and a pickup truck with a bumper sticker saying he's a member of the local fish and game club. But before retiring, Tommy, and the South Bronx. Tommy was hired as a cable splicer. In this job, he had to maintain and install telephone cables, sometimes 20 feet up in the air, sometimes underground. sometimes 20 feet up in the air, sometimes underground. We would wipe the ends with solder, molten solder, and run a seam down the middle, make sure there was not one single bubble because that cable is going into a manhole for the next 100 years.

Tommy enjoyed his job, the camaraderie of the crews, and being outside all day. But after about 15 years of work, something unexpected happened. Maybe about 1987, 1988, I went down to our medical department in Manhattan. It was a routine annual examination. department in Manhattan. It was a routine annual examination. And about two weeks later, my boss came out and said, you have to go back to medical department. And I said, what for? And he said, they didn't tell me. They just said they need to draw blood. That afternoon, Tommy made his way downtown to the company's medical department. And I went to the front desk and they gave me my file.

And they told me to walk down this long hallway, make a left at the end, and there'll be an open door with a nurse that'll take my blood. So walking down the hall, I was curious, you know, like, what the hell did he want my blood for? So I opened up my file and there was a yellow sticky note, test for lead only. Lead. The results of this test would show that Tommy's lead levels were off the charts. were off the charts. Tommy is one of tens of thousands of workers who've been exposed to lead through their work

at AT&T, Verizon, and other telecom companies. The companies say they follow safety guidelines for workers dealing with lead. For the past 18 months, the Wall Street Journal's been investigating the impacts that lead-covered cables have on people and on the environment. And the team found that telecom companies have known about the health risks posed by these cables for decades. Welcome to The Journal, our show about money, business, and power.

I'm Kate Leinbaugh. It's Friday, July 14th. Coming up on the show, the potential danger of lead cables and what telecom companies knew about. a sandwich for only $5 at A&W's in Ontario. Lead-covered cables have been connecting the country since the late 1800s. Our colleague Shalini Ramachandra is part of the Wall Street Journal team that's been investigating them. The telephone companies wanted to keep the water out of the copper wires that were transmitting signals all over America. So lead is a very malleable metal, and it was something that kept water out. By 1940, the majority of the country's phones were connected with lead-covered cables. The company behind this was the massive Bell system, a predecessor of AT&T, Verizon, and other telecom companies.

And we saw that in a 1957 article published in the Bell Laboratories Record, the entire system had used around 100 million pounds of lead in just the prior year alone. All that lead cable had to be installed and maintained, work that was done by people like Tommy Steed. At the time, Tommy was working for a company called 9X that would eventually become part of Verizon. Working with the cables, brand brand new wasn't too bad, but when I was a linesman and we removed thousands and thousands of feet of this old lead cable that was decommissioned, that's where the danger came in. Over time, newer technology replaced the need for lead-covered cables. So the removal of these cables that were now porous from being out in the weather for 50 years, you know, hot and cold, snow, rain, sun, that's when they really started deteriorating. And so it was the removal of these lead cables that I feel was the most

dangerous part of our jobs because it created dust that we had to breathe. At any point, did the company talk to you about how toxic lead is? No. No. Or give you protective gear? No. They gave me, excuse me, let me go back. When I wiped sleeves, lead sleeves with, you know, molten solder, they did give me protective gloves so I didn't get burnt because I couldn't do it if I got burnt. Shalini talked to a number of former and current employees who also described inadequate protection. When talking to a lot of the workers who've worked with the stuff over decades,

most of them said they were never provided a mask. They said they were never provided respirators. There were no danger signs. Many said they learned lead work on the job. There was no safety training that they heard of. How have the telecom companies responded to your reporting? In response to our reporting, the companies and U.S. Telecom, a group that represents the broader telecom industry, they have defended their practices and say that they offer safety training and a lot of protective gear and masks and equipment

to help workers handle lead properly. And they also said that they follow regulatory safety guidelines for workers dealing with lead and offer training and also offer blood lead testing for people who wish to get their blood lead levels checked. Stories from workers like Tommy prompted Shalini and the team to go back to see what Bell Systems knew about lead and risks to employees. They found an old study done by medical staff at Bell.

And a 1977 Bell study showed a snapshot of just how high lead levels were among female lead-soldering workers at a unit of AT&T. The workers had blood lead levels in the range of 25 to 45 micrograms per deciliter, which is very, very high. So it was very known to AT&T that there were high blood lead levels among workers.

Around the same time, Bell partnered with Mount Sinai Hospital System on a second study of 90 cable splicers, the job Tommy had. This one also came back showing, quote, high lead content in their blood. showing, quote, high lead content in their blood. Shalini says the companies didn't necessarily act on that information. From what we understand, there wasn't any sort of widespread reckoning in the Bell system that, oh my goodness, workers are exposed, this is a major problem, we have to deal with it. That didn't happen from our understanding and from the documents that we have seen. And what we know is that they did publish safety

manuals from time to time, but many of the workers we talked to said they never saw any kind of lead training. So they kind of said that the safety manuals weren't really widely read and weren't really well known. And so it's not clear to us that they took major action after getting that knowledge from that study in the late 70s. And did you try to find out why not? It wasn't considered a big deal from the former executives we talked to. It didn't seem like people thought twice about it. It was just an old part of the network. You know, we've moved on to fiber. We've moved on to other stuff, cell phones. There's just some old stuff out there.

It's not a big deal. Right. To find out more about how companies thought about lead, we called up Brad Allenby, a former AT&T executive. We had lead in a lot of uses. 20 years ago, Brad was a vice president of environment health and safety for AT&T. Our colleagues have done a major investigation and found all kinds of lead sheathed cables across the country. When you were working for AT&T, were you aware of these cables?

When you were working for AT&T, were you aware of these cables? Sure, because it was part of the infrastructure. But we also, it's important to note that lead was a ubiquitous material in telecom. We've spoken with telecom workers who said they regularly came into contact with lead cables. Was that something you were aware of happening at AT&T? Not particularly aware of, but I wouldn't be surprised. You'd expect it. I mean, they were working with the infrastructure.

So, sure. But the question is, is that lead in a form that is liable to cause damage? Once you use a soldering iron and you begin to melt it, then you begin to get gaseous lead and that can be inhaled and that's more of an exposure problem. So the question would be, in a case like that, are they properly protected when and if that lead is mobilized? Right. And we spoke with cable splicers and they did say they soldered lead and then their blood was tested. They had high lead levels. At your time at AT&T, was this on your mind in terms of putting in place safety protocols and monitoring lead exposure for workers? Yeah, I can't I can't speak to what the practices were at that time because that's 20 years ago.

I can say generally that if there were exposure issues and we knew about it, we would have addressed it because, among other things, that would have been an OSHA requirement and it would have been the right thing to do for our employees. If there's something like that that's causing potential problems, then of course you address it. OSHA oversees worker safety for the federal government. In a statement to the Journal, AT&T said, quote, The legacy cables that remain in our network are maintained in compliance with applicable environmental, health, and safety rules. I asked Shalini if she spoke with any workers who are currently maintaining lead-covered cables.

Yeah, so I talked to a cable splicer out in L.A. who talked about how when there are heavy rains, there's a lot of these lead-sheathed cables that, and they have to go into the manholes, cut them open with a lead chipping knife. He described, you know, even as of recently, a few months ago, opening up a big lead sheath cable underground and then repairing the copper wires inside. But importantly in what you're saying is this isn't all just in the past. Workers today are still interacting with lead cables and having potential lead exposure. That's correct. When actually I set out to understand this issue, I thought it was probably mostly a

decades ago exposure. But in reality, with all of these lead sheet cables still around, workers are still exposed to it. Coming up, the potential health consequences of lead exposure. Summer's here, and you can now get almost anything you need for your sunny days delivered with Uber Eats. What do we mean by almost? Well, you can't get a well-groomed lawn delivered,

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Bacardi, its trade dress and the bat device are trademarks of Bacardi and Company Limited. Rum 40% alcohol by volume. Around two years before Tommy Steed got his blood tested for lead, he was really ill. I was in the prime of my life. I couldn't understand it. But the most significant marker was I would leave the garage in the morning, go for my morning breakfast. And as soon as I ate my bacon and eggs, I would vomit it all up. So I knew something was significantly wrong. And I went to this physician, this medical doctor in Riverdale, and I went back a few times because she performed so many different tests. But the one

test we missed, which is a specific test, was for lead poisoning. You know, we missed that. Both of us missed that. Eventually, Tommy ended up in his company medical office, walking down that long hallway, about to get his blood tested for lead. So I went in to the room and the nurse started drawing my blood. So now I asked her, I said, look, am I going to get the results of this test? And she said, oh yeah. I said, when? She said, oh, about two weeks. I said, good, because I'm going to call you. She said, oh, about two weeks. I said, good, because I'm going to call you. Two weeks went by.

Three weeks went by. Nothing. I called her, and she still would not tell me my results. But she gave me, she said, I'll give you a number to call, but it's a long-distance number. And I said, lady, I will call Singapore. I work for the phone company. It's not going to cost me anything. It was a 518 area code, which is Albany, New York. And I called the phone number. The lady picked up the phone. I identified myself, Thomas Steed calling. I was given this number to call and she said, oh yeah, Mrs. Steed,

I have your file right on my desk in front of me. Do you know where you're calling? And I said, no, I don't. She says, we are the New York State Department of Health and your employer was mandated to report your lead levels to us and I have your file right here in front of me. And that's how I found out I had lead poisoning, to the New York State Department of Health. Now, by this time, I wasn't sick anymore, because I was away from working with lead cable, isn't sick anymore because I was away from working with lead cable and I was doing new plastic polyethylene, you know, black brand new cable. You know, I wasn't ill anymore and I still had lead poisoning, but I didn't know. Shalini saw Tommy's blood test and it showed he had 43 micrograms of lead per deciliter of blood, well above the average for

the U.S. population at the time of 2.8 micrograms. Verizon, which took over the company Tommy worked for, said it has a robust health and safety program and that workers can get lead testing at any time at no cost. The company said its work practices on lead cables are based on available science, legal requirements, and guidance from medical and work safety organizations. I asked Shalini if Tommy Steed should have been told by his employer that he'd been exposed to lead when he was tested in 1988. She said yes. Tommy Steed was working in the 1980s,

which was after the first lead standard from OSHA was published. His blood lead test ended up over 40 micrograms per deciliter, which under OSHA standards, even at that time, he should have been informed. And for him, that never happened. And that was as of the late 80s. What kind of problems can lead exposure cause? Lead exposure can cause kidney, heart, and reproductive problems in adults. And it's classified as a probable carcinogen. The risks that people worry most about with lead is that it is a neurotoxin. And so that means that it attacks the central nervous system.

And Parkinson's disease has been linked recently to lead exposure. Shalini spoke with other former and current telecom employees who'd worked with lead and had health issues. I talked to a number of women who worked in AT&T central offices doing lead soldering work, connecting lead-sheeted cables from the outside with the internal central office machinery. And they actually showed gloves with the fingertips cut off because they had to do sort of small, intricate work to melt the solder with a soldering iron and so they describe breathing in those fumes they're not being sort of fans or exhaust around and feeling headaches often every day coming home from work and gastrointestinal issues nausea constipation infertility issues misriages. One woman had developed kidney cancer

and had to have a kidney removed. AT&T dismissed what it called anecdotal, non-evidence-based linkages to individuals' health symptoms. The company said symptoms, quote, could be associated with a vast number of potential causes. When you think back on it, what's been the hardest thing? That I was a loyal employee and my company was not loyal to me.

And not loyal to hundreds, maybe thousands of fellow craftsmen like myself. What do you say to them now? a fellow craftsman like myself. What do you say to them now? Well, it's a different corporation now, but what I would say to them is, hey, safety is number one. Your employees' lives are number one. You know, after that, we'll work our donners to make the company, never mind a Fortune 500, a Fortune 1 or 2.

We'll dedicate ourselves to that. But you have to accept some responsibility. You have to accept some decency. We're not cattle. You know, we're human beings just like you. So Shalini, this is the end of a really long reporting project. Yes, it's the longest investigation I've ever worked on. And after those, what, 18 months of reporting with a team that's traveled all over the country, what would you say you found out?

The highest level finding is that the old American telephone and telegraph, which is known as a bell system, laid thousands of lead sheathed cables across the country. And many of them were abandoned in place and still remain out aerially above schools, above houses and underground underneath waterways that are used for drinking water. And we've gone out and seen them and moreover done our testing with experts. And we found that some of them are leaching lead into the environment. Who's responsible? I mean, this is, you know, it's old industrial waste in the environment. Basically, it's complicated. The question of who's responsible is complicated. On one hand, environmental law and precedent has held

successor companies responsible for things that their predecessor companies did. That is well established in environmental law. However, if in the time these were laid, if it was okay and considered safe at the time, then cleanup could be a collective responsibility between the companies and the government. One of the things that this reporting opened my eyes to was that there is this old industrial detritus that we still continue to live around. And they're here and they're potentially causing risks to our community. And it just kind of opened our eyes to just how much could be out there. We've only scratched the surface. And just the bigger picture that oftentimes things that we consider toxic now

might have been left in the environment years ago and not dealt with. And they're still out there. That's all for today, Friday, July 14th. Additional reporting in this episode by Thomas Greta, Colter Jones, Susan Pulliam, and John West the journal is a co-production of Gimlet and the Wall Street Journal the show is made by Mahara Dhoni, Annie Baxter, Catherine Brewer, Maria Byrne, Pia Gadkari, Rachel Humphries Ryan Knudsen, Matt Kwong, Jessica Mendoza, Annie Minoff, Laura Morris, Enrique Perez de la Rosa Our engineers are Our theme music is by So Wiley. Additional music this week Thanks for listening. See you Monday.