Update: This story has been corrected to say that S.H. Bell no longer stores manganese in open piles on site and that very high levels of manganese were detected in tests taken at three nearby homes, not four. Dangerously high levels of manganese, a heavy metal that can cause brain damage, were found at southeast-side homes near an industrial storage facility, results of soil testing released last week week by the Chicago Department of Public Health revealed.
John Holden, spokesman for S. H. Bell told the Reader this week that the company hadn’t yet seen the results of the soil tests and couldn’t comment. In an email, he also said that workers on the site are not in danger because “manganese levels measured on Bell’s property are a minuscule fraction (literally thousandths of the level) of levels that are likely to lead to manganism.”
