PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Cadmium and arsenic, two metals found in the air in Southeast Portland, are common metals used in the glass industry. The metals found are coming from Bullseye Glass, which has since stopped using the metals. But the shop was using the metals for 42 years, ever since Bullseye Glass first opened. A similar company, Uroboros, located in Northeast Portland, has been using cadmium for 35 years. Now the question is, how long have the toxins been in the air?

The Oregon Department of Environmental Quality monitors pollutants in the air. But there are no records for the neighborhood near Bullseye Glass.

“We have one toxins monitor in Portland. And that’s in North Portland. It’s expensive. We have to get funding,” says Marcia Danab with DEQ. She spoke to KOIN 6 News at a community meeting Tuesday night.

In recent findings, DEQ found arsenic levels around 150 times the state’s healthy benchmark for ambient air. Cadmium levels were 50 times the legal limit.

While that is concerning, it is not illegal, according to Geoffrey Donovan with the US Forest Service. “No, there was no law broken, which is, I’m not a lawyer, but that strikes me as a peculiar situation let’s just say that.”

Donovan was a member of the team that discovered the high levels of arsenic and cadmium. What worries him is the potential impact on a child’s health.

“Their whole trajectory in life could be changed by their exposure to a chemical that they had no control over,” Donovan tells KOIN 6 News.