The Los Angeles Times’ Ralph Vartabedian, author of an important series of articles on the politics and health impact of trichloroethylene (TCE), got his hands on an advanced copy of the National Academies’ TCE health risks report (slated for official release later today). He writes:
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.
If you recall, in 2001, EPA’s Draft Health Risk Assessment for Trichloroethylene found TCE to be more toxic than previously thought and characterized TCE as “highly likely to produce cancer in humans”. According to the Department of Defense, these findings were to be the basis for more stringent clean-up standards at thousands of TCE-contaminated sites across the country and were likely to cost billions of dollars for DOD, the world’s largest and most powerful TCE polluter.
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.
Congressman Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) was part of the congressional briefing on Wednesday where the NAS presented their findings. In Hinchey’s district, where widespread TCE contamination has impacted the air inside people’s homes, a health study found that rates of kidney cancer, testicular cancer, and birth defects were elevated with statistical significance. On the Academies’ report, Hinchey says:
“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.”
Reached for comment by the Times, the National Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Gina Solomon offers:
“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.
Jerry Ensminger has been engaged in a 9-year battle with the federal government over a community’s exposure to TCE at Camp Lejeune, NC. He was reached for comment by the Times:
“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.
The report becomes available to the public at 4 pm EDT today. It will be posted to the National Academies website and linked here as soon as we can get to it. For the full LA Times story, see here.
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