Despite several claims,
the Spring Grove mill's mulch meets the standard
set in a "special agreement"
with the EPA.

By Joli Harrington,
Record Correspondent
October 3, 1995
Business Section
A Publication of The York Daily Record

If you are thinking about using mulch on your lawn, you might want to start reading the labels more carefully.

Scientists are trying to determine whether certain chemicals found in some mulches could be harmful to plants. A larger question is whether the chemicals - dioxin and furan - could find their way into fruits and vegetables and create health concerns.

"Dioxin is thought to be a carcinogen and cause cancer," said John Hausoul, an Environmental Protection Agency official. "We have seen that it does cause cancer in animals."

Locally, the issue has raised a dispute between the owner of a local Garden Center & Nursery and a mulch manufacturer, P.H. Glatfelter Co., a paper mill in Spring Grove.

John Shelley II, president of John Shelley's Garden Center & Nursery in Felton, has said that he considers Nutri-Mulch, a trade name used by one of Glatfelter's distributors of the special Glatco Mixture mulch, to be a grave health hazard because it contains dioxins and furans.

But there is no conclusive evidence yet to bear out Shelley's claim. The EPA studies have been under way for 10 years now but are incomplete, Hausoul said. He added, however that scientists have a concern that dioxin could potentially cause developmental and reproductive problems, but it is unclear at what levels.

Dioxins and furans are unintentional by-products that are formed through a variety of chemical reactions and combustion processes, he said. Medical and municipal waste incinerators are the two biggest contributors of the chemicals to the environment, he said. Pulp and paper mills are farther down on the list of offenders.

The dispute between Shelley and Glatfelter evolved in July after Shelley ran an ad in The Weekly Record that said "..a local paper mill company even tries to sell their toxic by-products mixed-in with their cheap quality, ground-up hardwood mulch."

After the ad appeared, Glatfelter attorney David Mandelbaum wrote a letter to John Shelley's Garden Center & Nursery demanding that Shelley stop printing the advertisement and threatening legal action.

Shelley said that he stands by his advertisement.

"The public needs to be able to make an informed choice," Shelley said.

Glatfelter has taken steps within the past year to reduce the levels of the chemicals in its mulch. Prior to the June 1995 agreement with the EPA, samples of the older mulch contained much higher levels than the 10 ppt (parts per trillion)

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