Concern about possible cancer clusters prompted project

by Susan Singer-Bart, Staff Writer
The Gazette

Poolesville, Md.-Poolesville is planning to install a radon and uranium removal system on three of its 11 wells.

It is the first community water system in the state to make the installation, said Jay Apperson, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Wells 7 and 10 were taken out of service as a precaution in 2007 after uranium levels were found to be in danger of exceeding the maximum allowable contaminant level.

Since that time, well 7 has exceeded the level, but well 10 has not.

The Environmental Protection Agency sets the maximum allowable contaminant level for uranium at 30 micrograms per liter. It has not established a maximum level for radon.

Poolesville’s 2010-2011 water report found the level for well 7 to be 33.5 micrograms per liter. The level at wells 9 and 10 is 12.05 micrograms per liter, but the radon and uranium removal system is being used to avoid cross-contamination on those sites.

Water seeping from a contaminated well could affect water in another.

“It’s our responsibility to supply the best water we can,” said Paul “Eddie” Kuhlman II, president of the Poolesville Town Commission.

The project started out of concern there might be a cluster of cancer cases in Poolesville, a town of 5,300. A study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention concluded in 2009 that was not the case, but the concern was the catalyst for the project, Kuhlman said.

Concentration of radon in drinking water minimally increases the lifetime risk of cancer, said Olga Naidenko, a scientist with the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit group based in Washington, D.C., with a mission to protect public health and the environment.

“The only safe level is zero,” she said.

“Under no circumstances should water from well 7 be consumed by people,” she added.

Some level of radon and uranium is present in the environment, she said.

Poolesville’s water supply comes from groundwater pumped at 11 wells around the town.

Often when a utility has several wells and one has chemical contamination levels above EPA standards, the water from several wells is blended to dilute it and meet the standards, she said.

She said she is happy to hear Poolesville has not done that.

Poolesville plans to install an ion-selection filtration system, Apperson said. The department is charged with implementing the federal Safe Water Drinking Act in the state.

The town has been planning the project for almost five years, said Town Manager Wade Yost, and has set aside $750,000 for it. The town applied to the Department of the Environment for a construction permit in 2009 and received it in June, Yost said.

The removal system will be housed in a building alongside the well house on Budd Road.

Poolesville is accepting bids for the project and hopes work will begin in October. Work should be completed next spring, Yost said.

ssingerbart@gazette.net

Radon linked to lung cancer, other development issues

The following information is provided by the EPA:

-Radon is a colorless, odorless, tasteless and radioactive gas.

-It is formed by the normal radioactive decay of uranium and radium. Underground rock containing natural uranium continuously releases radon gas into groundwater.

-Exposure to radon in the home is more commonly due to radon from rock or soil seeping into homes through foundation cracks than through water. Radon can reach harmful levels if trapped indoors.

-A 1998 report by the National Academy of Sciences confirmed that radon in drinking water is related to cancer deaths, primarily lung cancer.

-Most of the risk from radon in drinking water comes from the transfer of radon into the air and inhaling it or ingesting water containing radon.

-In addition to being present in drinking water, radon in well water becomes airborne through washing dishes and laundry, showering and flushing toilets.

-Drinking water contains dissolved radon and the radiation emitted by radon and its radiation decay products exposes sensitive cells in the stomach and other organs.

-About 21,000 lung cancer deaths in the U.S. each year are radon-related. Exposure to radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after smoking. The number of lung cancer deaths is 160,000 per year. A National Academy of Sciences report found 184 deaths per year attributable to radon in drinking water.

-Drinking water accounts for 20 of the 13,000 deaths per year from stomach cancer.

-The EPA set a maximum contaminant level for uranium at 30 micrograms per liter of water. No data show a threshold below which exposure to radon is harmless.

According to the Environmental Working Group, a nonprofit environmental watchdog based in Washington, D.C., human exposure to radon has been linked to severe respiratory disease, harmful kidney effects, sexual maturation effects, mutations and increases in lung cancer deaths.

By Megan Eckstein
News-Post Staff

Frederick, Md.–High levels of arsenic in soil near Fort Detrick’s Area B have local activists concerned, saying the Army post’s past use and testing of arsenic may be contributing to cancer cases in Frederick.

The Kristen Renee Foundation has been regularly taking soil samples around Area B and testing them for contaminants, publicist Rachel Kelley-Pisani said. In April, the foundation tested two new locations, one along Rocky Springs Road, the other from a cistern near Kemp Lane. The lab report showed high arsenic levels, something that had not come up in any of the other samples.

As much as 94.6 milligrams of arsenic per kilogram of soil was found near Kemp Lane, and 4.3 milligrams per kilogram was found near Rocky Springs Road, Kelley-Pisani said.

This geographic area is known for high levels of arsenic in the soil, and Frederick has an even higher level than other parts of the state, according to data from the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Whereas eastern Maryland has about 2.3 milligrams of arsenic per kilogram of soil and central Maryland has 3.3 milligrams per kilogram, Frederick has 4.9 milligrams of arsenic per kilogram of soil, MDE spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus said in an email.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, arsenic was used in Frederick as an agricultural pesticide in orchards and crop fields, and as an industrial herbicide along railroads, she said. It is now known that chronic exposure to arsenic can increase a person’s risk of developing skin, lung and bladder cancers.

Kelley-Pisani acknowledged the naturally occurring arsenic in the ground but said she had reason to believe Fort Detrick could have exacerbated the problem.

“There are levels of arsenic that are naturally occurring, but you wouldn’t see an exceedance like that, you wouldn’t see it to that extent,” she said Tuesday afternoon.

Kelley-Pisani said the Kristen Renee Foundation would not yet release information it has on past research at Fort Detrick and how it relates to arsenic, but she said the foundation is in contact with several former Fort Detrick researchers who have agreed to turn over lab notes outlining what carcinogens they worked with at Fort Detrick.

Dozens of people who live or lived near Fort Detrick who have developed cancer are submitting liability claims to Fort Detrick for as much as $5 million each.

The only liability claim Fort Detrick has ever paid out was in 1951, when 11 cows died near Fort Detrick’s fence line from arsenic poisoning. Kelley-Pisani said the foundation was aware of this incident, which was part of what inspired the group to investigate whether arsenic could be behind what the foundation believes is a cancer cluster, though health officials have not found evidence that one exists.

In 1951, a contractor sprayed a weed killer along the Fort Detrick fence line that contained sodium arsenite, according to The Frederick News-Post’s archives. The cows ate grass covered in arsenic and died over a three-day period.

Fort Detrick spokesman Chuck Gordon said current Fort Detrick leaders were familiar with the 1951 incident, but he said Fort Detrick regularly tests its groundwater and soil and there is no evidence of arsenic contamination on post.

When 26 wells and a spring were tested in September for metals, including arsenic, only one well tested positive for arsenic. That well had about 5 parts per billion. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows 10 parts per billion, he said. Gordon added that MDE has reported groundwater in Frederick County may naturally contain anywhere from 1 to 26 parts per billion.

Rederick News Post

Randy White, upper left, with his daughters Kristen, center, and Angie, son Brandon and ex-wife Debra Cross.

Family calls on Congress for help

Thursday, 18 Nov 2010

Roby Chavez
roby.chavez@foxtv.com
By ROBY CHAVEZ/myfoxdc

FREDERICK, Md. – The recent death of another person in the family closely connected to the ongoing cancer cluster investigation near Fort Detrick has turned personal loss into rage.

Debra Cross, the ex-wife of local activist Randy White, died Friday night after battling stage four renal cell carcinoma for months.

Many people in Frederick blame a soaring number of cancer cases on the Army post’s track record of testing dangerous chemicals.

Last month, the Maryland Department of Health declared there was no cancer cluster.

The latest victim’s family is at the center of that fight for Frederick families. On Wednesday, they are sending an emotional message to Congress.

“I collapsed on the floor because it was a replay of what I had just been through two years ago with my daughter in this exact funeral home,” said Randy White, as he grieved at a Frederick Funeral Home.

White’s daughter, Kristen Renee, died of brain cancer two years ago. Now his ex-wife has died too.

“The people in Frederick need to be aware that there is a serial killer in the back yard,” he said.

White has spent $220,000 on his own independent research and testing to investigate contamination. He says it found high levels of chemicals in the ground and water.

With another death in his family, he’s making an urgent plea.

“I’m calling on Senator Barbara Mikulski and Senator [Ben] Cardin to get behind this. They need to get behind this because the people of Frederick need to be aware of what’s happening in their own backyard,” said White.

That backyard, Fort Detrick, used to be the place where White’s children used to play.

Fort Detrick officials have already admitted to testing Agent Orange and nerve gas in the past.

For the two surviving White children, the death of their mother brings sadness and fear about their own young lives. Angie has already had benign stomach cancer.

“Me and my brother live in fear if we’re going to be next. I wish I could say she died a peaceful death. It was horrific,” said Angie Pieper, Cross’ daughter.

“She couldn’t walk. We had to carry her and take care of her physically. She deteriorated. She couldn’t eat. Slowly we watched. The hardest thing I had to face besides my sister’s death,” said Brandon White, as he described his mother’s last days.

White painfully recalled his ex-wife’s dying words just days ago.

“She told me don’t quit. She looked at me and said you fight. Don’t let any other families go through the pain we’ve been through. It’s why I’m doing it,” said White as he wiped away tears.

White says by his count, his wife is the fourth person in 21 days with ties to Fort Detrick to die of cancer in Frederick.

Fort Detrick maintains it is still collecting information and reviewing government records. It is also working with the health department on its ongoing study.

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Kristen Renee Foundation