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At least 2,000 aging landline telephone cables from AT&T, Verizon and other telecom giants are contaminating US soil and water with lead, which can cause brain damage, infertility and kidney failure.
The degrading cables are lined with lead, first used in the 1880s and phased out in the 1950s.
Stretching along the Mississippi River, Detroit River, Oregon’s Willamette River, and New Jersey’s Passaic River, these toxic networks of cables hang near schools, playgrounds, and bus stops.
Lead levels at a fishing spot in New Iberia were 14.5 times the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) threshold for areas where children play, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis.
AT&T and Verizon are believed to be aware of the toxic lead cables, but have yet to address the issue.
More than 1,750 of the lead-sheathed cables were found underwater and about 250 hang along streets and fields, according to WSJ
A Telecommunications Association (USTelecom) told DailyMail.com: “We have been unable to confirm the information reported by the Wall Street Journal because we do not have access to all of the data or methodology underlying its conclusions.
“We have seen no evidence, nor have regulators identified, that aging lead-sheathed telecom cables are a major cause of lead exposure or the cause of a public health problem.”
Children exposed to high levels can damage the brain and nervous system, slow growth and development, and cause learning, behavioral, and hearing and speech problems.
And adults can experience high blood pressure and brain, kidney and reproductive problems.
More than 1,750 of the lead-sheathed cables were found underwater and about 250 hang along streets and fields, according to WSJ.
The report also discovered lead-covered overhead cables in a region of central Pennsylvania along the Monongahela River that flows through a town called Coal Center.
A mother sought medical tests for her six-year-old twins and discovered they had high levels of lead in their blood.
And the tests were administered a few days after the children had played a lot near a hanging rope.
Testing of soil in the area revealed that samples had 7.5 times the EPA’s recommended threshold for children’s playgrounds.
The Journal’s findings “suggest that there is a significant problem everywhere from these buried lead cables, and it will be everywhere and you won’t even know where it is in a lot of places,” said Linda Birnbaum, a former EPA official and director. from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, a federal agency.
In 2021, AT&T settled a lawsuit by agreeing to spend up to $1.5 million to remove thirteen miles of toxic telephone cables left decades ago on Lake Tahoe (pictured)
Telecommunications Association shared this chart on its site showing that blood lead levels in the US have fallen dramatically since the late 1970s
During the investigation, WSJ found more than 100 schools with about 48,000 students near hanging cables.
And more than 1,000 schools and children’s centers are located within half a mile of an underwater cable.
New Jersey transit data showed that more than 350 bus stops are located next to or under lead-lined cables.
WSJ also reported that 80 percent of soil samples taken from sites near submersible cables had high levels of lead.
“As a highly regulated industry, we have implemented and maintained strong safety programs and follow local, state and federal environmental and public health and safety laws and regulations,” the USTelecom spokesperson told DailyMail.com.
“Our industry also has a long tradition of closely following science and evidence related to public health, environmental protection and worker safety.
And safe work practices within the telecommunications industry have proven effective in reducing potential exposure to lead for workers.
“Legacy lead-sheathed telecom cables were deployed in the telecommunications infrastructure of the country, and the placement of these cables began to be phased out in the 1950s following the development of a new type of sheath.”
Verizon, for its part, told WSJ it was “taking these concerns about lead-sheathed cable very seriously,” adding that “there are many lead-sheathed cables in our network (and elsewhere in the industry) that are still used at providing critical voice and data services, including access to 911 and other emergency systems, for customers across the country.”
In 2021, AT&T settled a lawsuit by agreeing to spend up to $1.5 million to remove thirteen miles of toxic telephone cables left behind on Lake Tahoe decades ago.
AT&T took a more aggressive approach when they spoke to the WSJ.
Daily Mail contacted AT&T, but USTelecom responded instead.
“The health, safety and well-being of our people, our customers and our communities are of the utmost importance,” AT&T told the WSJ in a statement, adding that the report’s findings “contrary not only what independent experts and have long-standing knowledge about the safety of lead-coated telecom cables, as well as our own testing.’
However, an internal AT&T note reviewed by the WSJ paints a different picture.
“Underground cables present real overexposure opportunities” for workers who remove them, AT&T said in a 2010 presentation on worker safety, according to the WSJ.
“Some older metropolitan areas may still have more than 50 percent lead cable.”
A USTelecom spokesperson told DailyMail.com, “The US telecommunications industry stands ready to deal constructively with this issue.”