Frederick News-Post

Frederick, MD–State and federal agencies requested the Army test for Agent Orange near Fort Detrick, a Maryland Department of Environment spokeswoman said Thursday.The Maryland Department of Environment and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene released a statement Thursday outlining efforts to address environmental contamination at and around Fort Detrick, as well as allegations the contaminants resulted in a cancer cluster.

The statement said the two agencies requested Fort Detrick test for Agent Orange, in addition to the Army post’s continued obligation to test for chemicals, including PCE and TCE, that in 1992 were found to have leaked from Area B.

“MDE and EPA made that request to the Army in conversations in late July — and the Army agreed to do the sampling,” wrote MDE spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus in an e-mail Thursday.

“Right now, the Army is doing record review on their historical use of Agent Orange. Then the Army will submit a sampling plan based on their records and propose areas to be tested and what they will be tested for. We know that this will include Area B and adjacent properties.”

MDE and EPA would need to approve the sampling plan, she said.

MDE and DHMH also are “in ongoing communication” with the Kristen Renee Foundation, which claims Fort Detrick is responsible for a cancer cluster in the neighborhoods surrounding the Army post, according to the statement released by MDE secretary Shari Wilson and DHMH secretary Frances Phillips.

“We understand the serious questions and concerns that remain, particularly when a loved one’s health is at stake,” the statement said, adding the groups had scheduled public meetings for the first Thursday of every month, to be held at 6:30 p.m. at Winchester Hall. The first of those meetings was held Aug. 12 and ran longer than the two-hour schedule.

DHMH is working with the Frederick County Health Department to review data from the Maryland Cancer Registry to determine the numbers and types of cancers in three census tracts around Fort Detrick, which is more or less a one-mile radius around the post.

Officials must determine whether the data in the registry and provided by the Kristen Renee Foundation constitutes a cancer rate that is statistically significantly higher than the cancer rates for the county or state. This process could take until the end of September, Clifford Mitchell, chief of DHMH’s Center for Environmental Health Coordination, said at the Aug. 12 meeting.

Frederick County health officer Barbara Brookmyer said at that meeting not all types of cancers would be looked at. The departments would focus on the most common types of cancer — lung, colorectal, breast and prostate —-as well as the types associated with the contaminants found at Fort Detrick — kidney, liver, brain and blood cancers.

Additionally, the investigation can look at cases from 2000 to 2007 only. Data can take up to two years to be verified before being added to the registry, so 2007 is the last complete year available. The census tract system used was created in 2000, and that system is the only good way of calculating the population near Fort Detrick.

“I do admit it’s not a perfect solution, but it’s the best chance we have at this point of developing some rapid, quick data, some quick information to bring back. it’s not going to be the final answer, that I promise,” Mitchell said at the meeting.

Gov. Martin O’Malley, during a visit to Frederick this week, said the state was involved in investigating the cancer cluster, but he said he wasn’t sure what the state could do to push forward an investigation into the Army’s use of Agent Orange. He said “there probably would be a way” but that he needed to look into the matter.

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