Hello D. Don't know who you are. I am Mary Peveto. I am not a scientist - I am a mother of three young girls. I am also a concerned citizen who lives next to a large regulated polluter. Health based science is not utilized for regulating polluters. If it were, lead for example, would be prohibited. But instead as reported by Cascadia Times (http://times.org/article/303):"Consider a young girl living at Northwest 24th Place, across the street from an ESCO plant. In the eight years since 2001 when ESCO started disclosing its lead emissions to the EPA, the company has emitted 613 pounds of lead.Lead emissions have been rising since 2001, and were 32 times greater in 2008 than in 2001.If ESCO continues emitting lead at the 2008 rate, our young girl, before reaching her 18th birthday, could be exposed to another half-ton of emissions."

ESCO is my neighbor. I also thought you might like to meet my other neighbor: Chris King Components (http://chrisking.com/). The company produces bike components. They do not pollute.

Kind regards, Mary

Get real, fools. The four people who went to the hospital went as a precaution.
The titanium pieces are immersed in the acid on purpose, they didn't slip in.

Noone at the company messed up and allowed the casing to fall in, the power went out when the piece was in, preventing the part from being removed.

Fact is, I worked at PCC until recently in thier facilities engineering department. Air quality and environmental protection is taken very seriously. The cost of many a project DOUBLED for a minor increase in air scrubber performance, among other things. The chemicals were quickly diluted by rain, and posed no threat to the public. This is just typical sensationalist news reporting.