Vermont Yankee among troubled

By Beth Daley
Boston Globe Staff / January 31, 2010

VERNON, Vt. – The nuclear industry, once an environmental pariah, is recasting itself as green as it attempts to extend the life of many power plants and build new ones. But a leak of radioactive water at Vermont Yankee, along with similar incidents at more than 20 other US nuclear plants in recent years, has kindled doubts about the reliability, durability, and maintenance of the nation’s aging nuclear installations.

Vermont health officials say the leak, while deeply worrisome, is not a threat to drinking water supplies or the Connecticut River, which flows beside the 38-year-old plant, nor is it endangering public health. But the controversy is threatening to derail the nuclear plant’s bid, now at a critical juncture, for state approvals to extend its operating life by 20 years when its license expires in two years. Nuclear Regulatory Commission inspectors, Vermont Yankee’s owners, and state officials are tracing the source of the radioactivity and searching for other leaks in the labyrinth of below-surface pipes on the plants’ property about 10 miles from the Massachusetts border.

The timing couldn’t be worse for the nuclear industry, coming as it attempts a broad rebirth as a green energy source in the battle against global warming; the reactors do not emit greenhouse gases that cause the atmosphere to warm.

Memories of the accidents at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl are receding and many in the public are taking a second look at nuclear. President Obama last week endorsed a new generation of nuclear power in his State of the Union address, and for the first time in decades, more than 20 new plants have been proposed.

But the leaks have the potential to slow, if not stop, the bandwagon. Crucial voices are calling for caution. “I am appalled by the safety procedures not only at Vermont Yankee, but at other nuclear facilities across the country who have failed to inspect thousands of miles of buried pipes at their facilities,’’ US Representative Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, the chairman of the House Energy and Environment Subcommittee, said last week. Earlier this month, Markey asked the US Government Accountability Office to investigate the integrity, safety, inspections, and maintenance of buried pipes at nuclear plants.

Critics say the problems with buried pipes are evidence the plants are too old and poorly maintained to continue to safely operate as many – including plants in Seabrook, N.H., and Plymouth – seek extensions of their original 40-year operating licenses. Nuclear advocates, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, say that while the leaks of a radioactive form of water containing tritium are serious, those that have contaminated groundwater have not exceeded regulatory limits or harmed the structural integrity, operation, or safety of the plants.

By LIZ SWITZER
Saturday, January 30, 2010 10:57 PM CST

Miranda Pederson/Daily News
John Campbell, a Louisville native, has been general manager at Indian Hills Country Club in Bowling Green for about a month. Campbell has spent 33 years in the country club business. “It’s a great career,” he said. “I’ve loved every minute of it.”

*
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The Daily News

lswitzer@bgdailynews.com/783-3240

Central Kentucky’s karstlands have long been a healthy source of tourism dollars, but that same topography carries increased health risks from radon gas, the leading source of lung cancer for nonsmokers. Health experts now say that radon risk has been shown to be more serious than previously believed and are strongly recommending that property owners here test for it.

An estimated 14 percent of lung cancer cases are attributable to exposure to radon gas, according to new findings by the World Health Organization. In the U.S. alone, the Environmental Protection Agency says that 20,000 lung cancer deaths each year can be attributed to radon.

As a result, WHO now recommends that homeowners take action when radon levels exceed 2.7 picocuries per liter – or pCi/L, a measure of radioactivity – a new radon standard that is considerably more conservative than the EPA’s action level of 4.0 pCi/L, which has been the U.S. standard for more than 20 years. The average level in Warren County is 14.02 pCi/L, the fourth highest rate in the state, according to the University of Kentucky College of Nursing Tobacco Policy Research Program.

Put in risk-calculated terms, said Anita A. Britt, Western Kentucky University Department of Environment, Health and Safety specialist, radon can be viewed in this way: “A family that has a radon level of 8.0 pCi/L that spends 75 percent of their time in the home for 15 years has a 1 percent risk of contracting fatal lung cancer from radon exposure. Compare this to the risk of dying in a car crash – 0.78 percent. Yet people wear their seat belts – it is the law – so they should test their home for radon.”

Radon, which comes from the natural radioactive breakdown of uranium in soil, rock and water, is found all over the U.S., especially in karst geology, with caves, sinkholes and fissured rock. While there are guidelines, there are actually no safe levels of radon, according to the EPA, which is developing special recommendations for testing and mitigation in karst geology.

David Butler, environmental health program manager for the Barren River District Health Department, gives out radon kits to many homeowners in the eight-county Barren River area. “Based on information about the area and the karst topography, the Bowling Green area is especially susceptible to radon,” Butler said. “We always recommend that people get their homes tested, especially if they have a basement.”

The most recent test data for Warren County show that of the 3,602 tests conducted here between 1998 and 2008, 63 percent were above the 4.0 picocurie action level, with the average level approximately 13.7 and the highest level approximately 330.7, Britt said, adding that smoking combined with radon is an especially serious health risk.

The Warren County lung cancer incidence rate is about 92 cases per 100,000 with 24 percent of adults in Warren County being smokers, according to a study by the University of Kentucky. In comparing Warren’s radon level of 14.0 pCi/L to Fayette County’s average radon level of 8.0 pCi/L, with a slightly lower percentage of adult smokers and a lung cancer incidence rate of 86 cases per 100,000, the increased risk is clear, Britt said.

“Radon is present in Kentucky and in some areas and situations may have high enough concentrations that prolonged exposure could certainly cause adverse health effects,” said Guy Delius, director of the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s division of Public Health Protection and Safety. “Karst areas such as what we find in some parts of southcentral Kentucky may have higher radon rates than other areas of the state. With this in mind, we want to continue to raise awareness and encourage our homes and businesses be tested for the gas. Any home may have elevated radon levels, and the only way to know is to test.”

Hot spots in the home generally include basements, first-floor rooms and garages. Radon gets into the air people breathe and can be found in any type of building. However, most people experience the greatest exposure at home, where they spend most of their time, according to the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Human Services. Radon gas decays into radioactive particles that can get trapped in a person’s lungs and, as they break down, the particles release small bursts of energy that can damage lung tissue and lead to lung cancer over time.

The EPA recommends people consider fixing their home if their radon levels are between 2.0 and 4.0 pCi/L and recommends radon testing for all homes lower than third-floor level. “People need to be encouraged to test their homes, especially in this area,” Britt said. “Testing is not something people do just once and forget about it. People are constantly moving, building, renovating and occupying lower levels. Radon tests should be done every two to five years.”

The good news is that even in the worst cases, radon problems can usually be fixed fairly easily and inexpensively. New construction now offers radon resistance options for homeowners such as passive air flow systems that pull radon out of the air, Butler said.

— For more information, contact the local health department or the Kentucky Department for Public Health’s radon office at (502) 564-4856 for a free test kit.

Choosing a company to handle radon control

By the Daily News

The U.S. surgeon general recommends that all homes in the United States be tested for radon. Most homes can be fixed for an average cost of about $1,200. New homes also can be built with radon-resistant features. In Kentucky, radon mitigation companies are not required to be licensed or insured. The Kentucky Department of Health recommends taking the following measures when choosing the best company to handle your radon control:

# In lieu of no licensure requirements, check to ensure the contractor is nationally certified and in good standing with the National Environmental Health Association or the National Radon Safety Board.

# Ensure the contractor is property insured. Ask for written verification.

# Ensure the contractor is using a licensed electrician to properly wire the radon abatement fan.

# Obtain a written agreement that specifically states the radon system installed will be in full compliance with EPA standards.

# Ask for a copy of the calibration certificate for the specific machine that will be used to validate that radon levels are reduced after installation of your system.

# Check with the secretary of state to ensure any contractor is registered and in good standing to do business.

— For more information, call the WKU Radon Program at (270) 745-2333.

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11:17 AM CST on Thursday, January 28, 2010

By RANDY LEE LOFTIS / The Dallas Morning News
rloftis@dallasnews.com / The Dallas Morning News
s Wendy Hundley and Elizabeth Souder contributed to this report.

Nearly one-fourth of the sites monitored in North Texas’ Barnett Shale natural-gas region had levels of cancer-causing benzene in the air that could raise health concerns, state regulators said Wednesday.

They emphasized, however, that gas companies have fixed the worst emission problems and are working on less-serious sites where the state still wants benzene levels to come down.

“We don’t have a widespread air-quality issue, at least according to the data,” said John Sadlier, the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality’s deputy director for compliance and enforcement.

Mayor Calvin Tillman of the tiny Denton County town of Dish criticized the study for not including enough tests in residential areas or enough long-term sampling.

The town commissioned its own monitoring last year that found extremely high benzene levels.

“I don’t think they want to find anything in a populated area, and I think their sampling reflects that,” Tillman said.

The commission report follows public worries over air and water effects from the Barnett Shale drilling boom, which has seen more than 12,000 wells drilled in metropolitan Fort Worth and areas to the north, west and south since about 2005. With wells come compressor stations and pipelines.

Earlier this month, the commission said three days of air tests from Fort Worth found no cause for concern. It gave Flower Mound a similar report. Wednesday’s study covered the entire Barnett Shale region.

In the state’s latest tests, two of the 94 places checked for airborne toxic chemicals had extremely high benzene levels – in one case, as much as a person might breathe in at a gasoline nozzle during a fill-up.

Both were in eastern Wise County, about six miles west of Dish. State officials said new tests after companies fixed leaks showed negligible benzene in the air.

At 19 other Barnett Shale sites – in Tarrant, Johnson, Hood, Parker, Wise and Denton counties – tests found benzene levels that were lower but still high enough to require reductions. Those sites are all being addressed, Sadlier said.

The other 73 sites in the commission’s investigation had benzene levels that were below the commission’s long-term effects screening level. Below that level, said commission chief toxicologist Michael Honeycutt, a lifetime exposure for 70 years would not be expected to harm a person.

“Right now, based on the data we’ve seen, there’s no need for widespread alarm,” Honeycutt said.

How study was done

The commission took air samples at 73 of the 94 sites. At the 21 others, it used infrared cameras to find airborne chemicals – the same practice that led to criticism of its Fort Worth report, in which most sites were sampled with cameras instead of actual air tests.

The site with the highest benzene level was a wellhead owned by Oklahoma City-based Devon Energy Corp. Benzene was one of 35 airborne chemicals leaking at the well in amounts above the environmental commission’s level for short-term effects, signaling the potential for health problems with only brief exposure.

The benzene level at the well, 15,000 parts per billion, was more than 83 times the short-term effects level of 180 ppb. After repairs, benzene dropped to about 0.25 ppb, the commission said.

“Essentially, somebody left a valve open,” said Honeycutt. “Hopefully, there’s not a lot of people leaving valves open.”

When that happens, he said, “they’re losing a lot of money.”

Devon Energy spokesman Chip Minty said an employee doing routine checks found a relatively small leak at a valve on a new well. The company fixed the valve before the state gave Devon the benzene test results, he said.

The other site with the highest level – 1,100 ppb – was Targa North Texas LP’s Bryan Compressor Station. The company made repairs after the state provided the test results. Follow-up tests found levels of about 0.25 ppb.

Sadlier, the environmental commission’s chief compliance and enforcement officer, said the state agency’s recently enhanced presence in the Barnett Shale had spurred companies to watch their operations more closely.

So far, however, enforcement has not been part of the state’s strategy. None of the companies that had been emitting high benzene levels has been fined, Sadlier said, since the state is relying on a “find-and-fix” program that encourages voluntary compliance.

That leniency only has a few months left before enforcement could start, he said, although he added that the maximum fine of $10,000 per violation per day might have little effect on a multinational corporation.

EPA role

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is working with the state and is conducting its own independent inspections in the Barnett Shale to ensure compliance with federal law, EPA spokesman David Bary said. The EPA wants to make sure the state’s emissions estimates for gas operations are accurate, he said.

Flower Mound resident Tammi Vajda, whose town has been divided over a gas company’s requests to expand operations, said she doesn’t oppose drilling but wants better practices.

“Every day I lose more faith in the TCEQ and feel the standards they use to test for benzene are way too high,” Vajda said. “I feel it’s time for the EPA to step in.”

Chris Tomlinson praised the report as “solid as a rock” and said it should ease concerns.

“It clearly identified some areas as having problems, but the vast majority were safe,” said Tomlinson, who holds gas leases on his property in western Flower Mound.

He said the state commission is “doing their job of protecting the people of Texas.”

Chesapeake Energy, among the biggest Barnett Shale drillers, issued a statement saying it was pleased that the state confirmed that its production “does not negatively impact the ambient air quality.”

Devon Energy’s Minty said his company wasn’t doing anything differently under increased government oversight.

“Actually, we haven’t changed our practices because we’ve been quite proactive in our operations up to now,” he said.

Staff writers Wendy Hundley and Elizabeth Souder contributed to this report.

What’s next?

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality plans to:

•Investigate residents’ complaints within 12 hours under newly instituted guidelines for oil and gas production areas.

•Install two new monitors at Dish and Eagle Mountain Lake to get a better understanding of long-term air conditions.

•Continue surveys in the area, using both ground- and air-based monitors, and conduct a special emissions inventory, including a gas analysis from each site.

•Investigate sites for proper permit authorizations and require testing of sites with continued excessive emissions.

•Review permitting rules to ensure that authorizations and permits are enforceable and protect public health.

•Continue to provide compliance assistance to small operators.

SOURCE: Texas Commission on Environmental Quality

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By Barbara Barrett | McClatchy Newspapers

WASHINGTON — Families of Marines stationed at Camp Lejeune, N.C., three decades ago might receive a sliver of military-sponsored health care to address diseases caused by drinking and bathing in toxic water.

Legislation passed by a key Senate committee Thursday would require the Department of Defense to offer health care to spouses, children and other family members who were exposed to contaminated water at the base in the 1970s and ’80s.

U.S. Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C., opposed the bill, saying it takes the wrong approach and will unfairly give false hope to thousands of struggling families.

He and U.S. Sen. Kay Hagan, D-N.C., have co-sponsored a competing bill that makes the Veterans Affairs department responsible for health care. They say the VA would do a better job.

Their bill, offered Thursday as an amendment, failed along partisan lines in the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, with Democrats on the committee unanimously opposed. (Burr is the committee’s top Republican. Hagan does not sit on the committee.)

Instead, the committee approved legislation that requires the military’s health care program, called Tricare, to treat those diseases directly linked to the exposure.

It’s unclear yet how much that would cost, and how the military would decide exactly which ailments to cover. Studies have yet to provide direct links between the toxins and a variety of cancers and other ailments among Camp Lejeune’s former inhabitants.

Burr and Hagan argue that the Department of Defense can’t be trusted to take care of Marines and family members to whom it has spent decades denying a connection.

“I can’t in good conscience agree to give these brave men and women a false hope that they’ll get health care,” Burr said. “Do you really believe the Department of Defense will accept responsibility for this health care when it still doesn’t accept responsibility for the contamination?”

He pointed out that the U.S. Department of Navy has been ordered by Congress to pay for a scientific study on the potential link between exposure and disease, but that hasn’t happened.

And he threatened to exercise what power he could until his amendment is passed.

“There will not be a Navy nominee considered on the Senate floor until this is resolved,” Burr said.

Thousands of Marines and their family members living at Camp Lejeune were exposed to tap water contaminated with trichloroethylene (TCE), tetrachloroethylene (PCE), dichloroethylene (DCE), benzene and vinyl chloride.

Military veterans already are entitled to health care through the VA system. At issue is where family members also might receive care.

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki warned the Burr/Hagan bill could apply to half a million military dependents and cost the VA $4.16 billion over 10 years.

Committee Chairman Daniel Akaka of Hawaii, who sponsored Thursday’s legislation, said he agreed with Burr that families exposed to contaminated water should receive health care from the federal government.

But he and other Democrats on the committee argue that the Department of Defense has to be held responsible for problems it created, instead of being allowed to foist health care coverage onto the Veterans Affairs Department, which already struggles with funding.

That view is endorsed by several major veterans groups.

“Family members would be better served under the Department of Defense health care program,” Akaka said.

He argued that the issue should be handled on the Senate Armed Services Committee, and recommended that he and Burr meet with that committee’s leadership, Sens. John McCain and Carl Levin, to discuss Camp Lejeune.

His bill, unlike Burr’s, also addresses contamination at another base, Naval Air Facility Atsugi in Japan. There, families were exposed to air-borne and water-borne toxins from an incinerator.

Burr, meanwhile, vowed to fight on in his cause for Lejeune veterans.

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Changing rules and budgets will improve transparency and
renew assessments of chemicals’ health hazards at EPA —
but industry-produced computer models will still be used in
some toxicity assessments, an agency official admits.

Bryant Furlow, epiNewswire

Jan. 26, 2010 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
(EPA) is overhauling its handling of chemical trade secrets,
changing several rules and regulations over the past year to
reduce secrecy and hasten the assessment of chemicals’
health hazards.

Last year, the EPA stripped more than 500 chemicals of
“confidential business information” status, allowing the agency
to add them to its inventory of what chemicals are on the
market.

This month, the agency announced that U.S. production of four
toxic chemicals, including deca-BDE flame retardant, a
suspected carcinogen, will be curtailed by 2013. The agency
also plans to start requiring manufacturers to disclose the
“inert” ingredients, including suspected carcinogens, in
thousands of pesticides.

Renewed Assessments of Chemical Health Hazards
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson has also streamlined EPA’s
Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) assessments of
chemicals’ toxicity and cancer risks, ending Bush-era rules that
allowed White House and Pentagon interference in the
program’s scientific review process.

By declaring chemicals such as the rocket fuel perchlorate—
a carcinogen and source of water and soil pollution at many
military bases—to be “mission critical,” the Defense
Department was able to stall the EPA’s assessment of that
chemical’s carcinogenicity throughout the Bush administration,
for example.

“Previously, if another federal agency felt a chemical was
mission critical, they could ask for the assessment to be
halted,” Peter Preuss, Director of the EPA’s National Center for
Environmental Assessment. “That meant an 18-month hiatus
on assessment. That step is completely gone now.”

Other inter-agency reviews previously allowed the Pentagon,
Department of Energy and White House to repeatedly raise
objections and derail the assessment process, EPA sources
tell epiNewswire. Under those rules, polluting agencies could
delay environmental cleanup regulations and costs by slowing
EPA assessments.

“We’re no longer required (to secure) anybody else’s approval
to proceed with assessments, thereby eliminating the large
number of re-reviews that were taking place,” Preuss said.
“The point of review by other agencies is to focus on the
science and the science alone—not ‘oh my God, this is going
to kill the DoD mission’.”

Under the EPA’s new rules, other agencies’ comments on EPA
chemical hazard assessments will be made public, Preuss said.
During the Bush administration, they were kept secret from the
public, he acknowledged.

“Staffing and budget remain an enormous challenge to IRIS
assessments, there’s no question,” Preuss added. “(But) we
did receive a sizable increase in dollars and staffing: $5 million
and 10 (employees), increasing our staff by roughly 25
percent. So I expect a concomitant increase in the number of
chemical assessments we do.”

For the near future, the task will be to clear the backlog of
assessments that piled up during the previous decade.

“We don’t really have a baseline to work from because of the
problems we had with the previous process and getting things
completed,” he explained. “A very large number of chemicals
need to be assessed. We have a pipeline full of assessments,
so our first objective is to try to complete the 40-plus
assessments already in the uppermost tier and get those
finished.”

Preuss acknowledged the EPA will still utilize chemical toxicity
models developed by manufacturer groups like the Chemical
Industry Institute of Toxicology (CIIT) in its chemical hazards
assessments.

“We use a model if we determine it’s a good model,” Preuss
said. “We check them very carefully. Sometimes they’re
submitted as part of industry response to comments,
notification, but often they’re published in the scientific
literature.”

Asked for specific examples of industry toxicity models used in
EPA risk assessments, Preuss paused.

“Perchlorate was one,” he said. “CIIT developed a
physiologically-based model. With modifications, we made use
of that model.”

The agency at two things when deciding whether to use an
outside model, Preuss said.

“If it’s a complex model, we ask for the computer code for the
model and check to see if there are any mistakes in the code,”
he said. “With a million lines of code, there’s always a mistake
two, or 10. So the question is, are (mistakes) of importance or
not? The second thing we look at is the parameters used in the
model, the variables—-to see if we agree with the way in which
the values are used. There, we sometimes come to conclusion
that we’d use a different value. That can make a big difference.”

Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
Environmental, health care, consumer and labor groups have
joined forces to create the “Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families”
Coalition to lobby for congressional reform of the 1976 Toxic
Substances Control Act (TSCA). (See box.)

“EPA is making great progress,” says Terry Nordbrock,
Executive Director of the National Disease Clusters Alliance, a
member of the Coalition. “It will be even better later this year
when real TSCA reform switches the burden of proof for
chemical safety onto chemical manufacturers, not EPA.”

Related reading:
Off the Books: Industry’s Secret Chemicals
(Environmental Working Group)

The Health Case for Reforming the Toxic Substances Control Act<
(Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families Coalition)

EPA’s Essential Principles for Reform
of Chemicals Management Legislation.

CHERYL WITTENAUER,Associated Press Writer
Tuesday, January 26, 2010

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Two major research institutions are launching the largest-ever attempt to identify and understand the genetic origins of childhood cancers in hopes it will lead to better diagnosis, targeted treatment and perhaps even prevention.

The urgency of childhood cancer, along with genome technology that made the project affordable, prompted the collaboration, said researchers at Washington University’s Genome Center in St. Louis and St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. They announced the three-year, $65 million project Monday.

They said it is the largest research effort to date to identify genetic changes that give rise to childhood leukemia, brain tumors and cancers of bone, muscle and other tissue.

Every cell in the body has DNA, and the collection of that genetic information is the genome, which encodes every inherited feature from height and eye color to how the body reacts to cancer-causing forces in the environment, or cancer-fighting drugs.

The research will involve 600 child patients of St. Jude who donated samples of normal tissue and tumors. Researchers will sequence the genomes of each child’s normal and cancer tissue and compare them, looking for differences that could be the cause or result of the disease.

“It’s a huge black box, and we’re struggling to understand why some kids get cancer and others live to their 90s without it,” said Dr. Rick Wilson, the genome center’s director.

He said “bits and pieces” of the genome in children have been studied, but no one has done it in its entirety. He said the difference in what researchers can learn by doing whole genome sequencing is like venturing out on a large ship with a trawler as opposed to fishing in a small boat with a rod and reel.

The genome center described similar work on an adult leukemia patient in St. Louis for the journal Nature, and found 10 mutations. It’s since done dozens on adult patients.

Wilson said the large sample in this research is buttressed by rich clinical information on each child that was collected at St. Jude. Since the 1970s, the hospital has maintained a bank of tumor tissue that was surgically removed and frozen for research with families’ consent.

Dr. William Evans, CEO and director of St. Jude, said childhood cancer accounts for 70 percent of its work.

“It’s still the No. 1 cause of death in U.S. children,” he said.

Evans explained that while smoking and other activities may raise the cancer risk in adults, “in children, we don’t know the cause, what genes have been mutated.”

He said the three-year effort won’t solve the mystery, and likely will raise even more questions.

Evans said St. Jude’s $55 million share of the funding will come from individual donors including Kay Jewelers, which committed $20 million. The rest, he said, will come from St. Jude’s budget over the next three years. He said Washington University will fund the remainder over time from existing resources.

___

On the Net:

Washington University Genome Center: http://genome.wustl.edu/

St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital: http://www.stjude.org

School Principal Leon Muhammad shows NDCA science advisor Zoe Kelman the superfund site next to the playground.

NDCA representatives visited the Bayview neighborhood in South San Francisco last week, receiving a tour of the area affected by the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard superfund site. The community has several specific requests:

1. The Navy should clean up the remaining contaminated sites, and not just cap them.

This is especially important given the risk that an earthquake will cause the harbor fill under the superfund site to dissolve in a process known as liquefaction Unsteady Ground: Lennar, liquefaction and other related meltdownsSF Bay Guardian, 12/31/2008.

2. Construction should be stopped until it is shown that the clean-up will be conducted in a manner that ensures the safety of the schoolchildren and nearby residents.

3. Health testing and bio-monitoring should be conducted to assess if the children and residents have already suffered health impacts from this site.

4. Homes and schools should be tested for contamination associated with the superfund site.

5. Long term health monitoring should be provided to the community because some associated health effects can have long latency periods before the onset of disease.

Other Resources

ARC Ecology’s “Community Window on the Hunters Point Shipyard” with multiple maps, descriptions of contaminants found on various parcels, and links to clean-up documents.

EPA page on Hunter’s Point

Greenaction’s page on Hunters Point

Beyond Toxic: Pollution in Bayview Hunters Point photo journal page.

S. Boston cluster may be genetic, not environmental, but true cause is elusive

Elizabeth Lombard is among the residents of South Boston who has scleroderma, the autoimmune disease that hardens muscles and internal organs. Elizabeth Lombard is among the residents of South Boston who has scleroderma, the autoimmune disease that hardens muscles and internal organs. (Suzanne Kreiter/ Globe Staff)

By Meghan Irons
Globe Staff / January 25, 2010

Elizabeth Lombard’s right hand is stiff and wooden, unable to flex or move.

“It won’t bend,’’ she said, displaying the tightened skin that is pulling back her fingers into a crooked and clawlike form.

Lombard has scleroderma, a rare, life-threatening autoimmune disease that hardens muscles and internal organs, and causes the body’s immune system to attack itself.

The disease, which has no cure, has long confounded South Boston, where a cluster of longtime residents from the City Point section – most of them middle-aged women – were falling ill with it. The residents, who lived near a power plant and hazardous waste sites, believed they were victims of their environment.

Their case gained national media attention and sparked an 11-year investigation by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health. In their findings, released earlier this month, state researchers acknowledged “higher than expected cases’’ of scleroderma in South Boston, a neighborhood of roughly 30,000 people.

But it determined that genetics, not the environment, played a significant role.

“It’s not necessarily that the community they were living in was producing this disease,’’ said Robert Simms, the chief of rheumatology at Boston Medical Center and a researcher in the study. “When you look at the data, it does not support that.’’

Researchers also said low participation in the $1.75 million study may have limited their ability to find an environmental link.

Without a large enough sample, Simms said, it was difficult for scientists to gather reliable estimates on scleroderma’s link to the residents’ proximity to toxic wastes and other pollutants.

“Those are the things the South Boston study tried to do and came up short,’’ said Simms, who added that the study now opens the door for much larger, national research.

The study found that people with a family history of specific autoimmune-rheumatic diseases, such as rheumatoid arthritis, Raynaud’s disease, lupus, and thyroid disease, were more likely to develop scleroderma.

For the women afflicted with the disfiguring disease, the findings have come as a bitter disappointment.

“I thought that if we had an answer then we could fix it,’’ said Lombard, whose eyebrows have fallen out and whose face is tight and covered with red blotches. “It would help us make sense of why so many of my neighbors have this horrible disease.’’

Ann Dilorati Macaulay, another woman with scleroderma, recalled being slick with oil after swimming in the bay and seeing soot raining down from the oil-burning former Boston Edison power plant, blackening residents’ clothing and backyard laundry. The plant now uses natural gas.

“I still believe that there is something in the environment that is causing this,’’ Macaulay said. “I do think there is a genetic component, but when we are exposed to it, it triggers the disease.’

read full article

The Wall Street Journal
By SIOBHAN HUGHES

WASHINGTON—The Obama administration set stricter limits on the amount of nitrogen dioxide in the air for short periods of time along busy roads and is requiring states to install monitoring equipment in big urban areas in an effort to crack down on pollution during periods of high traffic.

Vehicles are a major source of nitrogen dioxide, which can cause respiratory problems.

The Environmental Protection Agency issued the new standard Monday, seven months after first proposing new short-term limits. Businesses said the new standard is too strict while environmentalists said it didn’t go far enough. The EPA set the acceptable amount of nitrogen dioxide in the atmosphere at 100 parts per billion over any hour-long period. The EPA last year proposed a limit of as little as 80 parts per billion.

The rules are years from having a practical effect. The EPA said that monitoring equipment must be in operation in 2013. After that, three years of data will be needed to determine which areas are out of compliance. Currently, Cook County, Ill., the home of Chicago, is the only urban area that measures emissions on an hourly basis and thus the only urban area known to be out of compliance with the new standard. Failure to comply could lead to the loss of federal highway funds.

Under the EPA rule, monitors must be located near roadways in cities with at least 500,000 residents.

“EPA is over-regulating this air quality standard for political—not health—reasons,” the American Petroleum Institute, the oil industry’s trade group, said in a statement. “Today’s standard is bad public policy and does not justify the additional economic burdens placed on consumers, states and industry.”

Frank O’Donnell, the president of Clean Air Watch, an environmental group, said, “This standard is a step forward for public health protection, but it is also a missed opportunity to do something better for the breathing public.”

The EPA first set standards for nitrogen dioxide in 1971 to protect health and the environment. Until now, the EPA has set only annual limits.

Write to Siobhan Hughes at siobhan.hughes@dowjones.com

online

By WENDY HUNDLEY / The Dallas Morning News

State health officials will launch an investigation to find out if there is an unusually high number of childhood leukemia cases in Flower Mound.

“We will do a statistical analysis to determine if there’s anything statistically significant compared to rates throughout the state,” said Allison Lowery, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.

The investigation is expected to begin at the end of the month, when the state agency receives 2007 data from the Texas Cancer Registry. It should be completed in February.

The study will focus on two ZIP codes – 75022 and 75028 – that cover most of the southern Denton County town. Investigators will look at childhood leukemia cases between 1998 and 2007, the most recent year with complete data, Lowery said.

The agency decided on the study after several residents contacted the agency in December, Lowery said.

Some residents are concerned about the health effects of gas drilling. The issue came up at recent public hearings about a company’s request to expand its operations.

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# # # For more information:

WFAA-TV story: Health officials to investigate cancer cases in Flower Mound.

Flower Mound Citizens Against Urban Drilling
Our Mission: To work in a legal, ethical, and civil manner to stop urban gas drilling in the highly residential areas of North Texas. We are not against all gas drilling, but rather that which will adversely affect the public safety, the enjoyment of our homes, and our overall quality of life. We support the need for better regulation and accountability of the Oil & Gas Industry in rural and urban areas of Texas.