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Bullseye Glass Co.

SE Portland, Oregon

bullseye EHAP has completed the Public Health Assessment (PHA) for the Bullseye Glass facility in southeast Portland. The PHA was available for public comment from June 30th, 2021 through June 15th, 2022. Comments received during that public comment period are available online HERE. EHAP addressed comments and incorporated them into the final report. EHAP completed the final draft of the PHA in May 2023.

 Click here to view the final PHA

Click here to view the public comment version PHA

Click here to view the Summary Factsheet

Click here to view Public Comments for Bullseye Glass Co

OHA hosted a public meeting to present and answer questions about the findings on April 5, 2022 from 6:00 PM - 7:30 PM. 

Click here to watch the recording of the meeting

Click here to view the slides

Findings of the PHA

  • Levels of metals measured in the air around Bullseye Glass during October 2015 were not high enough to harm the health of people who only breathed it during that one month.
  • Exposure to soil, garden produce and air, since February 2016, around Bullseye Glass will not harm health.
  • Interventions to reduce emissions from Bullseye Glass reduced current and future cancer risk over 50 times and non-cancer risk over 100 times.
  • Had emissions from Bullseye Glass not been reduced and levels of metals measured in October 2015 been allowed to persist, long-term exposure to that air could have harmed the health of people breathing it.
  • The contaminants of greatest concern around Bullseye Glass were cadmium and arsenic.
  • There is not enough information about conditions before emissions were reduced (February 2016) to answer community questions of whether breathing the air around Bullseye Glass long-term in the past could harm or has harmed people's health.

Background

A 2016 study by the United States Forest Service (USFS) analyzed moss samples collected around Portland for concentrations of heavy metals. USFS found cadmium at the highest concentrations near the Bullseye Glass manufacturing facility. Cadmium is a top concern of the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ). To better understand what was in the air, DEQ placed an air monitor near the facility, and the results showed cadmium and arsenic were at levels that exceeded health benchmarks.

Starting in May of 2016, EHAP convened a series of Community Advisory Committee (CAC) meetings, made up of residents who live and/or work within a half mile of Bullseye. EHAP structured CAC meetings in ways to provide an opportunity for meaningful participation. These meetings were designed to:

  • Receive input and feedback from the local residents into the exposure assumption and scenarios that would be used in the PHA.
  • Educate participants about the PHA process and build community capacity in environmental health.
  • Develop relationships with local residents to help build trust in the long-term PHA process.
  • Identify the most relevant way of communicating to the broader community about the PHA and the conclusions and recommendations that will result from the process.
  • Ensure that community concerns are highlighted, incorporated and addressed through the PHA process.
EHAP engaged the broader community through education and listening sessions at public information sessions, meetings and additional events organized by agency partners, including Multnomah County Health Department, DEQ and others. Community members used these events to express realistic, insightful concerns and convey valid emotional distress towards their community's wellbeing. They expressed the importance of knowing whether their health was at risk and advocated for change to prevent similar situations in the future.

As EHAP was completing the public health assessment, information came to light regarding problems with the quality of some of the data collected in the vicinity of Bullseye. Unfortunately, this discovery caused significant delays as several experts reviewed the validity of the data. EHAP received guidance from ATSDR on how to move forward with the PHA in December 2019, but these efforts were further delayed due to limited resources during OHA's COVID-19 response. Frustrations from these delays were well-founded as the community has awaited findings from the public health assessment.

To prevent situations similar to those related to Bullseye Glass in the future, Governor Brown directed DEQ and OHA to establish the Cleaner Air Oregon (link) program. This new regulatory program requires industrial facilities that emit air pollutants to report to DEQ what they emit and in what quantities, assess risk to neighbors posed by their emissions, and then DEQ regulates their emissions based on the risks posed.

Community engagment and transparency are key components of the Cleaner Air Oregon program.