Bullseye Glass Layoffs Starting Monday

Bullseye Glass says it will start laying off employees on Monday.

The move comes on the heels of a cease-and-desist order from the state last week for the company to stop using several "hazardous air pollutants" including lead.

Governor Kate Brown directed the state's Department of Environmental Quality to issue the order after air monitoring at a daycare facility near Bullseye Glass in Southeast Portland showed "an immediate, short-term health risk from lead levels that were four times above the 24-hour benchmark."

The company issued a statement questioning the state's directive, pointing out the monitoring had detected the elevated levels on May 9 but the cease and desist order was not issued for 10 days.

"If the matter was so urgent that it requires these unprecedented steps, why didn’t they simply pick up the phone and inform us of the problem," the company said. "We would have suspended the use of lead while they investigated the matter further."

State officials said there was no delay in releasing the information - there was a delay in processing the data - and that as soon as they knew of the elevated levels, they took action.

The air monitoring has been taking place since earlier this year when The Portland Mercury broke the story of how alarming levels of arsenic and cadmium had been found near the factory.

Bullseye uses the heavy metals as part of their process manufacturing colored glass.

The company said that since the levels of metals in the air were discovered, they have "tried to be a model of how a business can work with DEQ to solve problems once they come to light. Our goal since the beginning of this ordeal has been to become the cleanest manufacturer of colored art glass in the US."