Hearing tonight on radar safety

Two studies have found no public health risks

Cape Cod Times

By George Brennan

gbrennan@capecodonline.com

July 15, 2008 6:00 AM

No public health risks linked to PAVE PAWS.

BOURNE — The public will have a chance tonight to comment on recent studies that conclude PAVE PAWS, an Air Force radar station, poses no health risks to Cape Codders.

The studies, already released publicly, are summarized in the draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, which will be presented at 7 tonight at the Best Western in Bourne. Residents will be given two minutes each to comment on the findings, which critics have said are flawed. Written comments will be accepted through Aug. 4.

Last December, a state Department of Public Health study concluded it was unlikely that PAVE PAWS was the main cause of 14 local cases of Ewing’s sarcoma, a rare bone cancer, since 1982. Another study by Broadcast Signal Lab in 2005, which did not look at the Ewing’s cases, also concluded there was no risk to public health.

The two studies were prompted by concerns, primarily from parents of children with cancer, raised at public meetings in 2001 and 2002. At the time, the Air Force was proposing an upgrade to the radar station, Air Force environmental planner Lynne Neuman said yesterday.

“Out of those meetings, we found the public wasn’t concerned with the component upgrade, but with the radiofrequency energy and the potential health impacts with those emissions,” she said.

PAVE PAWS, operated by Air Force Space Command, scans the eastern skies for missiles, satellites and space debris. The Sagamore radar station has been in operation since the late 1970s and for nearly as long there have been concerns raised about radiation and the possible health risks associated with exposure to it.

“We’re very confident, and I think the public is confident as well, that these studies have answered their questions,” Lt. Col. Paul Legendre, an environmental engineer with the Air Force, said yesterday.

If you go

A public hearing is scheduled from 7 to 10 tonight at the Best Western, 100 Trowbridge Road, Bourne.

Written comments can be made to Lynne Neuman by e-mail at Lynne.Neuman@Peterson.af.mil; by fax at 719-554-3849; or by mail at HQ AFSPC/A4/7PP, 150 Vandenberg St., Suite 1105, Peterson AFB, CO 80914-2370.