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CANCER RISK FROM INDUSTRIAL
CHEMICAL RISES, STUDY FINDS
By Ralph
Vartabedian
Reprinted here from Rachel's
Democracy and Health News #886. Aug. 3, 2006.
[Rachel's introduction: Trichloroethylene, or TCE, is commonly found in
drinking water, air, and soil. A new report from the National Research
Council says evidence is growing that TCE causes cancer. What are
the
implications?]
After a detailed study of the most widespread industrial contaminant in
U.S. drinking water, the National Research Council will report today that
evidence is growing stronger that the chemical causes cancer and other
human health problems.
The
379-page report clears a path for federal regulators to formally raise
the risk assessment of trichloroethylene, known as TCE, a step that has
been tied up by infighting between scientists at the Environmental
Protection Agency and the Defense Department.
California has some of the nation's worst TCE contamination, including
vast tracts of groundwater in the San Gabriel and San Fernando valleys
that are a drinking source for more than 1 million Southern Californians.
The state's 67 Superfund sites with TCE contamination are clustered in Los
Angeles and Santa Clara counties.
If the risk posed by TCE is significantly higher than previously thought,
it could prompt lower limits for TCE in water, as well as stricter
cleanups of hundreds of military bases and other polluted facilities. The
contamination occurred because TCE, a chemical solvent, was widely dumped
into the ground.
Already, some EPA offices are forcing tougher cleanups based on evidence
that the chemical poses a greater-than-expected cancer risk.
The EPA attempted to issue a risk assessment in 2001 that found TCE to be
two to 40 times more carcinogenic than previously thought, but that action
was opposed by the Defense Department, the Energy Department and NASA. The
Pentagon has 1,400 properties contaminated with TCE.
The Bush administration sent the matter to the National Research Council
for study, based on military assertions that the EPA had overblown the
risks. But the new report does not support that criticism.
"The committee found that the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other
health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened since
2001," the report said.
The report urged federal agencies to complete their assessment of TCE
risks as soon as possible "with currently available data," meaning they
should not wait for additional basic research, as suggested by the Defense
Department.
The report is to be formally released today by the National Research
Council. An early copy was provided to The Times by the Natural Resources
News Service, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that investigates
environmental issues. The authors of the study also briefed members of
Congress on Wednesday.
"It is the strongest report on TCE that we have had," said Rep. Maurice D.
Hinchey (D-N.Y.), whose district includes hundreds of homes that have air
filtration systems to eliminate TCE vapors from the ground. "The fact that
we have this TCE-laden drinking water used by millions of people is
abominable."
Hinchey and others in Congress are demanding stronger cleanup standards
and lower limits for the chemical in drinking water. Currently, the EPA
allows 5 parts per billion; that could be lowered to as little as 1 part
per billion for drinking water if the risk assessment sidetracked in 2001
is adopted, according to an analysis by the Air Force.
It would drive up cleanup costs by billions of dollars but potentially
save thousands of lives, scientists say. The report's authors told
Congress on Wednesday that they did not think the EPA should throw out its
2001 draft risk assessment and start over. Instead, they hope the TCE
analysis can be completed within six months to a year.
Dr. Gina Solomon, an environmental health expert who served on a
scientific advisory board that reviewed the original assessment, said the
new report could have a profound effect on the issue.
"That is a very strong statement, a ringing endorsement of the EPA's 2001
draft risk assessment," said Solomon, an associate clinical professor of
medicine at UC San Francisco and a staff scientist at the Natural
Resources Defense Council.
Solomon said the report also rejected a key position of the chemical
industry and Pentagon environmental experts that TCE was not dangerous at
low levels of exposure.
Federal regulators should stick with the current scientific model that the
cancer risk posed by TCE is proportional to the level of exposure, the
National Research Council said.
In its report, the council found the evidence of TCE risk was greatest for
kidney cancer, but not as high for liver cancer. It did not study other
diseases that could be connected, including leukemia.
The report found merit in the Pentagon's criticism of EPA methodology on
epidemiology, which is the study of how disease is distributed in the
population. It called for a new survey of prior research.
The report from the National Research Council has been awaited by
communities exposed to TCE across the country.
"We can't afford any more delays," said Jerry Ensminger, a former Marine
drill sergeant who served at Camp Lejuene, where drinking water supplies
were tainted. His daughter died at age 9 in 1976 from leukemia, which
Ensminger blamed on TCE exposure.
Ensminger said he was heartened by the report's conclusions, but remained
concerned about whether the government would move quickly to deal with the
chemical contamination.
"I want to know why the Bush administration does not err on the side of
life when it comes to the environment," he said.
Originally published in the
Los Angeles Times, July 27, 2006
Copyright 2006 Los Angeles Times |