“One of Silicon Valley’s dirty secrets is coming back to haunt Google with toxic vapors,” CBS San Francisco reports.
“TCE, or trichloroethylene vapors were detected at the company’s offices in Mountain View,” CBS SF reports. “Google’s buildings QD6, and QD7, which sit on North Whisman road sit on top of what used to be Fairchild Semiconductor, Intel, Raytheon, and other computer chip makers.”
“The EPA’s screening level for commercial buildings is 5 micrograms per cubic meter. Most of Google’s air sample stations in the two buildings detected TCE levels below 5 micrograms per cubic meter. But about a dozen stations reported readings from 5 to 30 micrograms per cubic meter. One station reported 120 micrograms per cubic meter. Air samples are collected over 8 to 10 hour span,” CBS SF reports. “It takes decades of TCE exposure at elevated levels to cause medical problems, according to the EPA.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Mole holes.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dave8112” for the heads up.]
Smells like Brin spirit
And all the rabid, drooling, hateful apple fan boys are out today….
We get up early and go to bed late B-)
I don’t like Google the company, but I do not harbor ill will towards Google employees. A toxic work environment is not a laughing matter, and I am sure that Google will take the necessary steps to remedy the problem.
This is a wakeup call to everyone who feels that capitalism at any cost is the best answer. This is a wakeup call to those who believe that the environment will take anything that humankind can dish out with no consequences. This is a wakeup call to those extremists who continue to rant that all regulation is evil. We have to take care of the environment, even if the short term cost of doing so is higher than the most profitable and expedient course. The long term cost of ignoring the adverse environmental impacts from human activities may be incredibly costly – perhaps even unaffordable.
I”m a little surprised that they are just finding this now. I’ve had friends working in the are of groundwater testing in Silicon Valley. Anyone buying property there has been acutely aware of this problem for years. I’m sure the ground was drilled and tested extensively before the building went up. Perhaps some TCE bubbled up from deeper than expected or drifted in from a neighboring property.
Roughly speaking, how this came about is that fifty, sixty years ago when the industry was starting there was much less awareness about the dumping of toxic chemicals. Some were deliberately dumped, others leaked by accident from rusty tanks or broken pipes. The companies responsible are often gone but we still have to deal with their legacy.
Exactly so. In fact, across 101 where their main campus sits is where a lot of hogs and cows were quartered on their way to the slaughterhouse. There was also a tire dump on Charleston that caught fire in the early 80s, burned for days. When growing up our scout troop would do a fertilizer day at the church that sponsored us – dads with pickups and we scouts would get free manure at the dairy farm on Whisman. I’m surprised the methane hasn’t been a problem.
Google stinks.
“No harmful side effects for years.”
They got it wrong, the toxicity is leaking from Google into the earth.
About time the media started to kick Giggle in the pebbles for trumped-up non-issues
LOL
It took thirty seven years for agent orange to get me the first time and seven more for the second problem. These chemical sites are literally ticking time bombs.
as a Vietnam veteran, you can imagine the hell that Iraq/Afghanistan veterans will eventually suffer…all to enrich defense contractors and destroy America’s wealth.
Well said. And still well above the heads of most US citizens. What a shame, all ways around.
Tunnels full of Eric T. Moles waste!
Eric”s farts are deadly too.
Not to mention the fumes from Page’s rotten gums.
Known effects from TCE exposure are lower sex drive and fertility (not to mention the more fatal ones)
Wasn’t Brin talking about emasculation at TED? Think we found why he’s feeling insecure.
The explanation is finally in: Google wasn’t responsible for stealing Android, they were poisoned.
They can’t deny their collaboration with Ballmer any longer….
It’s all about the vaporware.
+1
Google is really slipping: their search for leaks is taking 8 to 10 hours to get results. And the results are no longer tailored to the interests of the party doing the searching.
EPA (and FDA for that matter) are like women.
When they say “NO”, they mean “YES”.
What do Toothpaste, Drinking Water (and bottled water), Warfarin, Prozac, Soft Drinks, Pesticides and Rat Poison have in common? FLUORIDE. It’s toxic, just like TCE.
Don’t forget chocolate cake.
“Who you gonna call?…”
We all knew that Google was a bunch of toxic waste.
Destiny takes a twisted path.
The sage advice of the Oracle at Delphi guided kings and commoners as long ago as 900-1400 BCE, persisting until 393 AD.
The Oracle was the state of the art of corporate business intelligence and of Dear Abdul agony columns for thousands of years. Indeed, Larry Ellison invokes this image as his company’s eponymous corporate mascot.
Twentieth-century researchers excavated Delphi and determined that a rare geological fault nexus below the site released ethylene, a gas that induced a specialized euphoria, presumably leading to the Oracle’s inspirations, which effectively changed civilizations.
Twenty-first century researchers determined that a toxic ethylene compound effused the Google Mountain View corporate offices, leading to the creation of Google Glasses and other oddities which effectively changed landfills.
I just hope that Apple do some good survey on it’s Campus 2 site where HP Campus is currently sits.
The real stunner is that a local commercial TV station is actually doing environmental reporting. Kind of softball, not really going into the dangers posed by these chemicals, but it’s something to begin raising awareness.
What about the new Apple Mothership site?
Wasn’t that HP or something?
Bring back the orchards!
Is that what Bad Karma looks like?
Never build on a dump.
*Waits for Apple stock to drop on this news*
:p
Great MDN take. Well done gents!
“Stop digging Mr Brin – it smells like schmidt down here!”
This isn’t a huge shock. Google’s Mountain View campus is adjacent to Shoreline Amphitheater.
http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoreline_Amphitheater#section_2