2024-01-11 23:13:50
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said Thursday it plans to meet with AT&T and Verizon this month as it continues to closely study the potential impact of lead-containing telecommunications cables .
The EPA has conducted independent sampling in Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Louisiana and has found “no immediate threat that would require emergency or removal action” to date, the agency said. adding that it planned to collect more data at the start of the year to better characterize lead concentrations near the cables.
The EPA tests were launched following a Wall Street Journal investigation into lead-coated telecommunications cables across the United States. AT&T and Verizon fell after the newspaper reported the scheduled meetings, with AT&T closing down 3.8% and Verizon down 3%.
AT&T and Verizon declined to comment and referred questions to the USTelecom trade association, which said that “the companies requested to meet with the agency to discuss the technical results when they presented them last year. They still want to do it.”
The group added that “the bottom line is that test results continue to show that lead-sheathed telecommunications cables pose no significant risk to public health.”
The EPA added that “while some sampled locations have concentrations above screening levels for long-term exposures, existing data are not sufficient to determine whether lead from cables poses a threat, or potential threat, to human health or the environment.
The EPA said its investigation “will include the development of multiple lines of evidence to evaluate whether lead in soil and water is attributable to lead cables.”
In July, AT&T shares fell to their lowest level in thirty years, after analysts downgraded the stock following the report that AT&T had left toxic lead wires buried across United States.
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