Standing with Hopewell Junction families who have suffered from cancer and other health problems due to groundwater contamination and vapor intrusion by the carcinogenic chemical trichloroethylene (TCE), U.S. Rep. John Hall (D-NY19) today unveiled legislation to help communities deal with TCE contamination. The TCE Reduction Act, which Hall is introducing with U.S. Rep. Maurice Hinchey (D-NY22), would require the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to set stricter regulations to protect the public from exposure to TCE.

"Growing scientific evidence shows the danger TCE pollution poses to people," said Congressman Hall. "Yet the EPA continues to drag its feet instead of setting a new standard that would help the residents of Hopewell Junction and similar communities throughout the country."

TCE and other contaminants have plagued Hopewell Junction residents as the result of Hopewell Precision’s disposal of painting and degreasing wastes directly on the ground, resulting in a 1.5 mile long groundwater contamination plume. Chemicals have been detected in local drinking water wells and many homes have experienced significant problems caused by vapor intrusion. The site was listed on the Environmental Protection Agency's Superfund National Priority List, a list of the most severely polluted sites in the country, in 2005. Yet residents are still suffering from significant TCE contamination.

"TCE is a pervasive, toxic chemical that cannot be allowed to continue to pollute our communities," said Congressman Hall. "Study has shown that it is a likely carcinogen, can cause nerve damage, lead to developmental difficulties in children, and pose a significant threat to public health. We expect our government at all levels to provide security. When the fire alarm rings, we expect the fireman to show up and put the blaze out. EPA is no exception. But what did EPA do when the alarm rang about TCE spill here and throughout the rest of the country? It recommended more study."

In 2001, a draft EPA Risk Assessment found TCE to be as much as 40 times more carcinogenic than previously thought, but instead of setting a more protective standard for TCE in drinking water, the Bush Administration called for more study. The National Research Council (NRC) was directed to conduct an in depth study of the health studies involving TCE. The final NRC report, issued in 2006, found that "the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened since 2001." The report went on to say, "The committee recommends that federal agencies finalize their risk assessment with currently available data so that risk management decisions can be made expeditiously."

"No action has been taken by the EPA to update the water standard," stated Debra Hall of Hopewell Junction Citizens for Clean Water. "There is no federal standard to deal with vapor intrusion even though this is a very dangerous environmental issue. I applaud Congressman Hall for taking action to force stricter regulations related to TCE. People living here in Hopewell Junction and the entire nation will benefit greatly when this bill becomes law. Stricter standards will allow more homes to be mitigated. It is obvious that legislation is needed to force protection against cancer and other health issues that are caused by TCE."

Hopewell Junction resident Sharon Whalen testified that her father developed prostate cancer after living in her home. The house was also dubbed "the sick house" because everyone living there became almost constantly ill. Whalen's home is impacted by vapor intrusion only and at the highest amount of the entire superfund site.

The TCE Reduction Act addresses both groundwater contamination and vapor intrusion caused by TCE and would require the EPA to:

• Issue a revised health advisory for TCE within 6 months of enactment.
• Issue revised draft health standards for TCE in drinking water within 12 months of enactment, and final drinking water standards within 18 months.
• Issue a health advisory standard for TCE vapor intrusion within 12 months of enactment.
• Establish an integrated risk information system reference concentration for TCE vapor which is protective within 18 months of enactment.
• Ensure that all standards set under the bill fully protect susceptible populations (including pregnant women, infants, and children) from the adverse health affects of TCE.

After graduating from Florida State University with a journalism degree, William J. P. Smith, Jr. served in the USMC from 1956 until 1959, stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, the majority of the time with the Globe as sports editor and acting editor of the largest Corps newspaper at the time. While there, he married, residing at the trailer park on the base and later in Midway Park, while fathering two girls.

In 1994, Bill was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had a radical modified mastectomy with 30 lymph nodes removed from his left side. He was treated with Tamoxifin for five years, and has had no reoccurance. It should be noted that there was no history of any kind of cancer in the Smith family. His former wife and two girls have had no symptoms of the disease.

On behalf of women, Bill has been a fund raiser and is the subject of two books, Living with Breast Cancer, the Story of 39 Women and One Man by Perry Colemore and Lisa Adelsberger, and Messages from Somewhere, Inspiring Stories of Life After 60 by Harriet May Savitz. He has also written an autobiographical screenplay on his experience. The irony of all of this is that Bill was part of the team at Xerox Corporation that introduced xeroradiography for the early detection of breast cancer in 1969 at Hutzel Hospital in Detroit. Every once in a while, he takes the press kit from his library shelf and shares it with his students, who find it hard to believe that men can contract the horrific disease.

Today, Bill resides in Tallahassee, FL with his wife Kathy, teaches at FSU and runs an integrated marketing communications consultancy, Huckleberry Finn Tomorrow.

• What are the odds of finding 4 cases of male breast cancer from the same contaminated military base?
• How many other military men have developed breast cancer?

During the last 20 years, Tallevast residents say dozens of their neighbors have died prematurely. Others are still fighting cancer and beryllium-related health issues.

But a draft Florida Department of Health report on the community blighted by more than 200 acres of polluted ground water found just four cases of cancer.

The report could hardly be more different from a survey by residents that showed about 90 cases of cancer or beryllium-related diseases in the mainly black community.

DOH officials who met with the neighborhood group FOCUS on Monday agreed that their numbers, based on a state database and figures from a local hospital, were wildly off the mark. They also admitted they had studied the wrong ZIP code.

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Although Tallevast has a post office, most Tallevast residents live in a Sarasota ZIP code.

"That's one of the problems of dealing with a statewide database," said Randy Merchant, a DOH administrator. "It's hard to get a handle on what is happening in so small an area."

The results left community leaders upset that state officials had not worked more closely with them to ensure errors like this did not happen.

"We're angry," said Wanda Washington, vice president of FOCUS. "We're just not sure what road to take. No one ever came into the community to do a study. If you are doing it from behind a desk, you're going to miss a lot."

FOCUS' figures on incidences of cancer came from a door-to-door survey quizzing families about their medical histories.

The community of about 80 homes sits above more than 200 acres of polluted ground water left behind by the former American Beryllium Co., which built parts for nuclear warheads for the federal government for nearly 40 years.

State officials said they will likely get an epidemiologist to conduct a similar door-to-door survey.

The cost would be about $125,000, they said.

State Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said if the DOH cannot fund it he will look for other funding sources.

"I've committed myself to help see that that happens so that the question can be answered and a more accurate picture developed," Galvano said.

Residents in Tallevast have asked Lockheed Martin, the company responsible for the cleanup of the site, to pay for them to move. They have also filed several lawsuits against Lockheed and other companies that operated at the site seeking damages for health issues and falling property values.

Lockheed became the owner of the Tallevast site after the company acquired the former Loral company in 1996. It shut down the plant and sold the property, but not before discovering soil and ground-water pollution on and around the site.

In 2000, Lockheed notified county and state officials of the pollution, which included trichloroethylene, or TCE, a compound linked to liver and kidney cancer and other ailments.

Residents, who were not informed for almost four more years, continued to use well water. Their homes were switched to the county drinking water system in 2004.

FOCUS leaders said they would welcome state officials' repeating their survey.

"We think the state will be better at it," Washington said. "You need to put your feet on the ground and come out here and collect that information."

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Poisoned at Camp LeJeune, snookered by Uncle Sam

Bill Berlow
Associate Editor

Mike Partain, son and grandson of Marine Corps veterans, grew up steeped in traditional American values — a rock-solid Reagan Republican whose life, even before birth, began among the few, the proud, at Camp LeJeune, N.C.

But for the past year, the 40-year-old Tallahassee insurance claims adjuster's faith in his government has been shaken to its core.

He'd always assumed that Uncle Sam, first and foremost, had the health and welfare of U.S. citizens at the top of his priority list — especially if they'd worn the uniform.

Now he's much less sure.

Partain's crisis of doubt began a year ago, when his wife gave him "a hug that changed my life." She found a lump, which turned out to be a cancerous tumor. A 14-inch surgical scar where Partain's right breast used to be is the physical evidence of his breast cancer.

Less obvious is the psychological scar — both as a cancer survivor still undergoing treatment and as one who feels his government betrayed a trust.

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Not long after he learned he had cancer, Partain found out that his recurring rash since birth and his breast cancer — rare among men, particularly those with no family history of the illness — probably stemmed from his exposure during fetal development and the first year of his life to water contaminated with tetrachloroethylene, a solvent used in dry cleaning.

Just two months after Partain's wife felt the lump, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry acknowledged that Marines and their families who between 1957 and 1987 lived in the LeJeune neighborhood where his family lived, drank water contaminated with extremely high levels of the carcinogenic chemical.

Partain and a network of former LeJeune residents who believe their serious health problems are due to the poisoning point out, however, that the government first knew of the contamination in the early 1980s — but did little or nothing to let the former Marines and their families know they were at risk.

"At this time last year, I was dying and I didn't know," Partain said. "The government knew I was dying and didn't tell me. That burns me up."

The LeJeune families can't sue the feds, since the government hasn't waived its sovereign-immunity protection. The military, meanwhile, is protected by the Ferris Doctrine, a 1950s-era ruling that protects the armed services from legal action by the men and women who serve — the idea being that if a soldier was wounded in battle because of a commanding officer's dumb decision, the country would be worse off if the government had to battle personal-injury lawyers as well as foreign enemies.

I first met Partain in the fall of 2006, several months before his diagnosis. He was the adjuster for an insurance claim we filed. A former teacher from Winter Haven, where he grew up, he and I talked of his deep regret about having to give up teaching to support his wife and four children. That conversation even helped inspire a column about ex-teachers in November of that year.

Last year, after he told me his illness motivated his involvement in a crusade to reveal the truth behind the LeJeune environmental debacle, the Tallahassee Democrat reported his story on July 9, a few weeks after a congressional hearing on the LeJeune families.

A congressional investigation is still under way, and Partain has gotten help from U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, who called Partain's story and that of other LeJeune families "deeply troubling, to say the least."

Boyd's office, which has tried to navigate the federal and military bureaucracies for Partain, said he is one of seven constituents in the congressman's North Florida district who are seeking more information related to the LeJeune contamination.

Now Partain reluctantly acknowledges that he's an activist, a word he's still not comfortable with because of his conservative upbringing and beliefs.

When I likened the experience of the LeJeune Marine families to military victims of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, Partain agreed.

"Defend, deny and delay," he said, describing the government's strategy in the face of claims that Agent Orange was responsible for a slew of veterans' illnesses. "And that's what they're doing to us."

Partain (strashni@comcast.net) was to share his story last night with vets at the American Legion post on Lake Ella. Even though he doesn't realistically expect compensation from the government, it's part of his personal commitment to spread the word about those exposed to the poison, estimated to number upwards of a million Americans.

It's one more example of a government's betrayal — always shocking, but, sadly, no longer surprising and, as Partain says, quickly forgotten.

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Drinking water supplies for tens of thousands of people near three active Superfund sites in the Bountiful and Woods Cross areas have been at risk or even polluted because of groundwater contamination.

The pollution is so bad that the federal government decided to join state regulators in directing long-term cleanup efforts of those sites.

Business owners who bought property in the affected areas, but were unaware that sources of contamination within the Superfund sites were beneath them, are expected to pay for removal of tainted soil and old polluting underground tanks that were put in long before they came along. Federal funds for cleanup are available for Superfund sites if they are active on the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List, but some property owners still pay.

Utah Division of Drinking Water director Ken Bousfield said last week that water suppliers in Bountiful and Woods Cross are, based on the most recent tests, providing clean drinking water. Bousfield also is aware of the plumes of contaminated groundwater in those areas and how test results can change.

"That's why you monitor," he said.

The EPA lists at least 14 active Superfund sites in Utah that are among the worst hazardous waste sites in the country. Two sites in the Woods Cross and Bountiful areas are active due to three plumes of groundwater polluted by chemicals used in the past by dry cleaners, automotive garages and other industry.

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A third Superfund project on the EPA's active National Priorities List is called the Intermountain Waste Oil Refinery site, located in Bountiful in the area of 995 South and 500 West. That site, listed in 2000 as a federal priority, has been deemed by the EPA as "under control" in terms of risk for human exposure to the chemical pollutants.

At one time, however, the Utah Department of Environmental Quality and EPA were looking into whether those who rely on the so-called East Shore aquifer for drinking water — about 68,000 people — were "potentially affected" by a release of dichloroethylene into the aquifer.

Woods Cross public works director Scott Anderson follows state and federal testing regulations, which call for sampling of two wells every three years. He said municipal drinking water in his city is safe, serving about 7,400 people.

"Safe as anywhere else in the country," Anderson said. "I think it's very safe."

Still, Woods Cross shut down one of its four drinking water sources, which supplied half the city, due to contamination by tetrachloroethylene, which the EPA said consistently was above the Cancer Risk Screening Concentration. Karla Scott can see the well from her home, where someone representing Woods Cross showed up about five years ago asking to test her water.

"He said it was OK," Scott said. "You just go on with your life and don't worry about it."

If she wanted to, Scott could take a water sample for testing to the Utah State Health Lab, which sometimes takes special individual cases on, or to the private Chemtech-Ford Laboratories in Murray. The state lab does rigorous testing for water utilities throughout Utah.

Anderson said a test in 2004 showed that one of the three remaining active wells in Woods Cross turned up traces of trichloroethylene (TCE), but not at a level unacceptable by federal standards.

Bousfield said that in a few past isolated cases elsewhere in Utah, contamination has been so bad in drinking water supplies that people could actually smell chemicals in the water. When that happens, he added, there is a potential for an immediate health risk.

"It's such a rare occurrence," he said, unable to come up with a specific example over the phone. "I'm sure they do exist."

5th South Plume

One of two large plumes of polluted groundwater in the Bountiful and Woods Cross areas, defining one Superfund site, is bad enough that seven of 26 domestic wells in the affected area are believed to have been contaminated by chemicals at concentrations that exceed acceptable federal levels. The potentially cancer-causing chemicals connected to that site are perchloroethylene (PCE) and TCE.

The EPA calls those two plumes the Bountiful/Woods Cross 5th South PCE Superfund Site, a place the EPA has assessed as "Human Exposure Not Under Control." Mario Robles, the EPA's project manager over the 5th South site, federally listed as a priority in 2001, said last week that cleanup of those plumes migrating under about 450 acres could take about 15 years.

"Really, nobody knows — it could be more, it could be less," Robles said on the phone regarding a remediation time line.

So far, the plume contaminated with PCE has made its way into two residential drinking water wells, with one homeowner accepting the EPA's offer of being hooked up to municipal water without charge. The other homeowner, Robles said, is opting to rely on filters for clean drinking water, preferring its taste over city supplies.

"The issue is if they change it often enough," Robles said about the filter. "We explained the risks to them."

The remaining five of the seven affected domestic wells are used primarily for irrigation, and Robles said there is not a risk of human exposure to the polluted groundwater around those wells. State regulators don't keep track of water quality in private wells.

The two plumes, located roughly in the area of 500 South and 800 West in Bountiful, are slowly moving west, and the area of impact could spread, increasing the potential for future exposure from ingesting contaminated groundwater or by inhaling vapors as people use the groundwater for irrigation, according to the EPA.

Robles said that as soon as next month the EPA will decide whether soil near the Bountiful Family Cleaners, in operation since the 1940s but under different ownership, is contaminated enough with PCE to warrant removal and replacing. If that happens, the current owners of the cleaning business may have to cover some of those costs. PCE has been a preferred chemical used by dry cleaners for decades, dating from long before more strict disposal standards for PCE were put in place.

Ronald Bangerter bought the business in the 1960s and now owns it with his eight sons. One son, Bryce, said he hopes Bountiful Family Cleaners won't have to pay any more than the $100,000-plus it already has spent during the past six years on legal fees and to look for pollution under the property.

"Sleepless nights, gut-wrenching, worried, what's going to happen to the business," is how Bryce Bangerter describes those six years. "We've run a clean ship since the '60s."

Prior to Bangerter's family owning the business, waste went into a septic tank that drained into a field. But it's unknown, Bangerter said, if the tank is still underground.

Until cleanup of the two 5th South plumes begins, the EPA is checking eight monitoring wells around the 400-acre PCE plume and 13 monitoring wells around the 50-acre TCE plume to watch how and where they move. The EPA believes the TCE plume has not impacted any wells.

The EPA's plans for cleanup of the two plumes includes drawing the groundwater out, cleaning it and putting it back into the ground. Another method being considered involves adding nutrients into the polluted groundwater to speed up a natural degradation process.

Five Points Plume

A second Superfund site in the area, which is known by the EPA as the Five Points PCE plume, is a third plume of contaminated groundwater. It is located in the area of approximately 1500 South and State Highway 106, and received its active Superfund priority listing just last year.

The EPA's on-scene coordinator, Duc Nguyen, said Your Valet Dry Cleaners owner Jim Patterson paid just under $100,000 last year to remove 43 cubic yards of contaminated soil and an old 1,000-gallon underground tank that Patterson said was leaking "bad gasoline." The irony is not lost on Patterson that he had to pay for removal of a contamination source that wasn't even linked to the dry cleaning industry.

"We pretty much feel confident that we removed the source of contamination," Nguyen said.

Excavation stopped, however, partly because of so many underground utility lines and the area's proximity to busy streets. And Woods Cross shut down one of its four drinking water wells because of consistently high amounts of potentially cancer-causing chemicals showing up in tests. The EPA said that migration of the plume is likely to increase contamination in wells over time.

Nguyen added that the EPA does not yet know the size of the Five Points plume west of Patterson's business, located just up the hill from Karla Scott's home of 40 years. Although there is one old monitoring well a block away, and the EPA will be installing new monitoring wells in the coming year, at this point it's unknown what the impacts are from that plume, which the EPA said contains PCE.

Patterson recalled two other dry cleaners near the old Five Points Mall that possibly could be held accountable for the Five Points plume, but he said they are no longer in business. Patterson bought his Bountiful location in 1963. The money he spent on testing and clean-up is not covered by insurance, although the expenses do qualify as a tax write-off.

"You don't get much of a sympathetic ear, because you own the land, and who owns the land pays," Patterson said. "If I could go back on who had the tank, I might seek recovery from them."

Even though the Five Points plume got its official EPA priority listing last year, Patterson has been dealing with state and federal officials for about nine years, drilling and testing to see where and what type of contamination existed. It is all a result of a drinking water test years ago that found unacceptable levels of PCE present.

Your Valet now says on its Web site it is the first dry cleaner in Utah to offer a new process called GreenEarth Cleaning, which instead of PCE uses a silicone-based cleaning solution developed by General Electric in the 1990s. It is a modified liquid silicone similar to what's found in cosmetics, shaving creams and deodorants that "will not pollute our water, soil or air."

Patterson said only one of his six locations still needs converting to GreenEarth, at a cost of about $15,000. There's no law that says he has to make the conversion, but it's something he said he's doing in good conscience.

"There's not a lot more that I can do, short of tearing up the intersection and knocking the building down," he said. "It's expensive, and we've done what we can do. I hope it's over."

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The Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water site in Aberdeen, North Carolina has been proposed for addition to EPA’s National Priorities List (NPL) of hazardous waste sites. It is one of six hazardous waste sites to be proposed for addition to the NPL, while twelve sites nationally are being added to the list.

The Aberdeen Contaminated Ground Water site is about 1 acre in size and located on highway Route 211 in Aberdeen, Moore County, N.C. Powdered Metal Products (PMP) manufactured precision machine parts at the facility from 1980 until 1995. The operation utilized a trichloroethene (TCE) dip-vat as part of the manufacturing process. During the investigation of ground water contamination at the Geigy Chemical Corporation NPL site in 1990, which is located just on the other side of State Route 211, TCE, lead and pesticide contamination was detected in numerous private wells along Crestline Lane and Route 211. Investigations have identified contaminated soils in the vicinity of the former TCE dip-vat utilized by PMP as the source of TCE contamination in the ground water.

Trichloroethene also was detected in the town’s municipal water supply wells No. 5 and No. 9, according to an EPA report [PDF]. The level of the chemical exceeded the federal Safe Drinking Water Act maximum contaminant level.

The report said the town took the wells offline for some time and is now blending water from those wells with water from other municipal wells to reduce the trichloroethene levels.

The EPA provided municipal water supplies to 56 residences and businesses in the area, according to the agency.

People living in and around a special economic zone in Cuddalore are “2,000 times more” likely to be affected by cancer than the normal population, says a report prepared for the Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board. In a normal sample population, cancer occurs in one person in a million. But in and around the State Industries Promotion Corp of Tamil Nadu known as SIPCOT industrial park nearly 300 km south of Chennai, two in every thousand are likely to have cancer, say anti-pollution campaigners.

The Nagpur-based National Environmental Engineering Research Institute (NEERI) has prepared the report.

The study confirms the decades-old complaints by local residents that pollution from the chemical factories in the park is worst at night, especially in the village of Eachangadu.

The NEERI submitted the report in August 2007 to TNPCB without any public information. It came to light after an RTI plea by the local environment watchdog, Community Environment Monitoring (CEM).

[...]

The NEERI study found that areas near Shasun Chemicals, and the village of Eachangadu, were the worst affected.

Risk levels near Asian Paints and Tagros Chemicals are also high, the report said.

According to the report, children, elderly and the infirm were the most vulnerable. NEERI attributes this to “air transport of pollutants”.

Levels of Benzene - a chemical that causes blood cancer among children - were 125 times higher than safe levels.

Other carcinogens like chloroform, carbon tetrachloride, methylene chloride and trichloroethylene were 881, 553, 32.5 and 21.8 times respectively higher than acceptable levels, the NEERI report said.

NEERI says “the results are a conservative estimate” as “most of the industries are not operating to capacity on days of sampling”.

“If all the industries in the study area function to the full capacity, it may be expected that concentrations of pollutants will increase three-fold,” the institute told TNPCB.

List of Chemicals Detected with Highest Levels Recorded

Name of Chemical	Highest Level (microgram/m3)	Location	Times above safe levels
Benzene	31.174	Asian Paints	125
Carbon tetrachloride	72	Tagros Chemicals	553
Chloroform	74	Shasun	881
Methylene Chloride	133	Tanfac	32.5
Trichloroethylene	24	Aurobindo Chemicals	21.8

A dry-cleaning shop on busy U.S. 1 has been proposed as a federal Superfund site after tests found nearby soil and groundwater contaminated with hazardous chemicals.

An Environmental Protection Agency official said the site presents no immediate health risk, but Broward County's pollution prevention chief said he isn't so sure.

Flash Cleaners, at 4131 N. Federal Highway [map], polluted the ground with a variety of chemicals used in the dry-cleaning business, most likely through spills and disposal of waste through a septic system, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Tests of soil and groundwater found concentrations of several chemicals exceeding federal safety standards, including dichloroethene, trichloroethene, tetrachloroethylene and vinyl chloride.

Although the shop still takes in dry cleaning, it no longer processes it on site.

Barbara Schuster, project manager for the EPA, said there's no immediate danger to public health. Eight drinking-water wells, serving Hillsboro Beach and other portions of northern Broward County, are within a mile of the site. But Schuster said there is little danger to the wells because they lie northwest or southwest of the site and the groundwater flows east, away from the wells.

Jeff Halsey, Broward County's director of pollution prevention and remediation, said there is not enough information to determine how much danger is posed by the underground spread of hazardous chemicals. Among the possible health effects of these chemicals are liver and kidney damage, neurological diseases and cancer, according to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"Until we can get an assessment done and know exactly where the plume is going, we're going to be very, very concerned," he said.

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The exact cause of the contamination is unknown, although environmental inspectors documented unsafe practices at the shop, according to EPA records. They found machinery and waste containers on a bare concrete floor without secondary containment. Wastewater from the dry-cleaning work was discharged into an on-site septic tank, which caused contamination of soil and water, according to the EPA.

The Superfund program, established after the discovery of thousands of tons of hazardous waste in the Love Canal neighborhood of Niagara Falls, N.Y., takes on the most serious contaminated sites. Under the program, the EPA tries to find the parties responsible for the pollution and make them pay for cleanup. Failing that, the Superfund pays, although its funds have dwindled since the expiration of a special tax on industries that pollute.

The owners of the shop, John and Susan Ferrel, say they didn't cause the contamination and can't afford to pay for cleaning it up. They bought the store in 1977 after working there for a year, and they've worked there ever since. They said they disposed of the waste properly and have been forced to pay for a preliminary environmental study because a state inspector found a small amount of dry-cleaning chemicals at the bottom of an unused machine.

"Because of that one thing, we spent a lot of money over the years trying to do what the county wanted and what the EPA wanted," Susan Ferrel said, speaking from their home in Sebastian. "We just can't afford this. It will take all our retirement."

The EPA will conduct a study of the site and figure out a cleanup plan. Among the most likely options are digging up the soil and taking it to a landfill or pumping up the water and treating it to remove the contaminants. It is unknown what will happen to the business.

The one-story, peach-colored shop stands just back from the noisy traffic of Federal Highway. An American flag hangs in the window. A sign in the door states that it is closed Monday. Behind the shop is the Beacon Heights neighborhood, consisting of small apartment buildings and one-story houses.

"This is the first I've heard of it," said Bob Manko, standing on the porch of his house on Northeast 42 Street. "If there's something bad there, it ought to be cleaned up."

But he said he hoped a small business wouldn't be harmed by having to spend an excessive amount, unless the cleanup is necessary.

"Common sense should prevail," he said.

David Fleshler can be reached at dfleshler@sun-sentinel.com or 954-356-4535.

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Toxic air and contaminated groundwater blamed for chronic illnesses in multi-million dollar lawsuit

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MARCH 14, 2008

CAMBRIDGE, ON – Northstar Aerospace, GE Canada and Rozell Inc., are amongst the Cambridge-based businesses named in a multi-million dollar environmental lawsuit. Spearheaded by Denis and Deborah Vitez, the suit points to these businesses as being responsible for groundwater contamination and toxic air in local residents’ homes, and in the case of the Vitez family, resulting in chronic breathing problems, Parkinson’s Syndrome and neurological damages which have escalated over the past five years. The suit claims that the companies were aware that toxic levels of the human carcinogens Trichloroethylene (TCE) and Chromium were seeping into the groundwater in the vicinity of their Bishop Street plants.

The Vitez family is seeking punitive and general damages, citing negligence, failure to disclose information, misconduct, and failure to comply with the Environmental Protection Act, among other claims against the defendants. TCE, a solvent used for degreasing metal parts, is considered a toxic substance and probable human carcinogen under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Chromium is also classified by health organizations as a human carcinogen. Due to the companies’ failure to properly handle, store and dispose of the substances, the Vitez family has suffered through years of discomfort and pain, culminating in the diagnoses of asthma and severe sinus infection in Mrs. Vitez, and symptoms indicating Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinsonism – a group of nervous disorders with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease – in the case of Mr. Vitez.

Paul Mann, Counsel for the Vitez family, and one of Canada’s top litigators in health-related matters, explains, “These companies knew they were contaminating the water and air with toxic chemicals, failed to warn homeowners that levels were in excess of Ministry of Environment (MOE) standards, and failed to prevent further release of the chemicals after they first learned of the leakage and discharge. Denis and Deborah Vitez may never get their health back as a result and it is time for justice to be served.”

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Denis and Deborah Vitez married in November 2003, and she moved into the house that the widower had shared with his first wife Donna since 2000. Donna had often complained about a strange odour in their house before she died in 2002 from brain cancer that had mysteriously resurfaced after three years in remission. Additionally in late 2003, Northstar Aerospace conducted tests on their Bishop Street property and concluded it was contaminated with TCE and Chromium at levels that exceeded MOE standards (a reading of over 230). Testing was expanded to include a wider area, but it took the company over a year to publicly state that the property was severely contaminated, that TCE had migrated through the groundwater and that TCE vapours had seeped into some of the buildings and properties in the area.

The company promised to take measures to resolve contamination issues in affected homes, including gutting and resealing basements, and removing toxic vapours through the installation of Heppa filters and air exchangers. Work at the Vitez residence commenced in December 2005 with a promise of completion within two months. Just days into the process, the Vitez family was forced to vacate for 11 days due to a noxious odour. Then, in early 2006 their recently resealed basement was torn up for plumbing modifications by Northstar’s contractors. During the three weeks of this construction, the Vitezes remained in their house, assured by company PR representatives that the toxicity levels were nothing to worry about. However, no air quality tests were conducted during this time period. Work was still underway well into May 2006.

Denis Vitez’s first tremors appeared in late autumn 2005. He was also waking nightly for months due to tingling and pain in his extremities. Deborah Vitez subsequently began having breathing problems and embarked upon an exhausting and frustrating course of treatment for what would be diagnosed as severe asthma, throat and sinus infections. For the next two years both would see various doctors and specialists, including a neurologist for Denis, who ordered numerous tests, blood work and brain scans. The ultimate diagnosis was Parkinsonism, with additional symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis.

“We were devastated by this news,” says Denis. “We were both feeling unwell and dealing with so much stress. Then in August 2006, Northstar began digging on our property without our consent. Two weeks later, we learned the contamination under our home was dangerously high. We moved out immediately on our own expense, and haven’t returned since. It’s too much of a risk. We want the responsible parties to own up to their negligence and irresponsibility.”

Paul Mann is a sole practitioner who operates his practice in the City of Cambridge, Ontario. He has been litigating complex medical malpractice issues, for plaintiffs only, for approximately 30 years. Mr. Mann has won the Bruce Hillyer Award for litigation and the advancement of justice on two separate occasions. He was also honoured by the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association with the “Celebration of the Personal Injury Bar” award as a leader in his profession for the year 2007. Ron Culley, co-council on this case, has extensive experience with health-related matters as a trial lawyer and practises in Waterloo, Ontario.

For further information or to arrange an interview with Paul Mann, Denis or Deborah Vitez, contact: Sandra Perron or Pat Hayward at 519-623-0700.

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• Hidden Lane Landfill in Sterling, VA; [see previous TCE Blog coverage]
• Lusher Street Ground Water Contamination in Elkhart, IN;
• Chem-Fab in Doylestown, PA;
• San German Ground Water Contamination in San German, PR;
• Midessa Ground Water Plume in Odessa, TX. [see previous TCE Blog coverage]

The Natural Resources Defense Council and two residents of Dickson, Tennessee have filed a lawsuit against the Dickson County and city governments. They allege that trichloroethylene, TCE, an industrial chemical disposed at the Dickson Landfill that has been linked to neurological and developmental harm and cancer, poses an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health and the environment.

Dickson, a town of some 12,000 people is located about 35 miles west of Nashville. [map]

The Dickson County Landfill, 74 acres off Eno Road, sits within 500 to 2,000 feet of approximately 40 homes, most owned by blacks. This community group is fighting to rid their area of contamination from the Dickson County landfill.

One African American family in particular, the Holts, a family of black landowners, has been especially harmed by the chemical. Many Holt family members are struggling with cancer and other illnesses, and two of its members are plaintiffs in this lawsuit.

The environmental group and Sheila Holt-Orsted and Beatrice Holt allege that TCE pollution has seeped beneath the landfill to underlying groundwater and has spread through a large area of Dickson County.

TCE contamination has rendered water from wells and springs as far as two to three miles from the landfill unfit for human consumption, the plaintiffs claim.

Polluted spring water is flowing directly into the West Piney River, a fishing stream and a major source of drinking water for the Water Authority of Dickson County. Several square miles of Dickson County have been recognized as an ‘imminent threat’ area by the county.

TCE contamination above drinking water limits, and orders of magnitude above U.S. Environmental Protection Agency screening levels for drinking water, has been found in at least one well even beyond that threat area.

In some areas, this TCE contamination may be growing worse, the plaintiffs claim, but the city and county have not done anything to remove the contamination.

"Some two decades after TCE was first detected in nearby drinking water sources, those responsible have not even fully characterized the present extent and likely future spread of the contamination. Defendants have, in effect, surrendered the ground and surface water of Dickson County to the slow spread of an invisible and toxic chemical," the complainants said in a statement.

The complaint asks the Court to require the defendants to investigate the present extent and future spread of TCE contamination from the landfill in the soil, surface water, and groundwater of Dickson County; to remediate and abate TCE contamination.

Holt-Orsted has undergone six surgeries and chemotherapy for breast cancer. The Holts originally filed lawsuits in 2003 and 2004, naming the city and county of Dickson and the state of Tennessee, and claiming the family was a victim of negligence that resulted in their cancers and other health problems.

Attorneys for the county and state deny the claims in the earlier lawsuits.

An article [entitled Deadly Tenessee Two-Step Pushes Leaky Landfill Away from Officials' Homes] by Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, gives background and detailed water test information.

The Department of Environmental Protection will hold a public meeting at 7:30 p.m., on Wednesday, March 26, in Collegeville to update residents on efforts to reduce airborne trichloroethylene (TCE) levels in that area of Montgomery County.

The meeting will be held the Perkiomen Valley Middle School East auditorium, 100 Kagey Road.

"Since releasing our January 2007 air monitoring report, our agency has worked closely with Accellent and Superior Tube to develop emission reduction strategies that would effectively reduce TCE emissions by these narrow tube manufacturers," said DEP Regional Director Joseph A. Feola. "The department has been, and will continue to be, fully engaged in this effort, and will use this opportunity to update the community on the significant emission reductions that have been achieved to date."

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Recent data from the stationary air monitor in Evansburg State Park show levels of airborne TCE are diminishing, with many days registering no measurable levels of TCE in the air. That trend is expected to continue at both the existing and planned monitoring stations given the companies' voluntary efforts to reduce emissions.

Superior Tube completed reformulation and degreaser removal projects that are expected to reduce TCE emissions by more than 50 percent this year. On Feb. 13, the company announced it is taking steps to eliminate the use of TCE from its manufacturing process completely.

The company is seeking approval from DEP to replace TCE with an alternative approved by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency -- n-propyl bromide, or nPB. Unlike TCE, nPB is not considered an air toxic.

Accellent, meanwhile, is operating the first of two carbon absorber units to control TCE emissions from the company's large degreasers. Accellent had the first unit operating on Oct. 2 and received the second unit on Feb. 8. This second unit is being installed now and should be operational by early March.

While the manufacturer for the carbon absorber equipment guarantees an overall emission reduction of 35 percent, DEP believes this is a very conservative estimate. Emission reductions of 90 percent or greater usually result from this type of installation.

Complete progress reports and other related information have been posted on DEP's Southeast regional Web page since a public meeting in February 2007. DEP created this web-based resource so area residents and local officials could obtain news and background information about Collegeville-area air monitoring and TCE emission reduction efforts.

The site can be accessed at http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/, keyword: Collegeville.

A recent addition to the Web page, "Additional Monitoring Under EPA Grant," provides a link to DEP's December 2007 work plan for additional monitoring efforts. The agency was awarded a $269,000 grant by EPA to expand its air monitoring efforts for TCE and other compounds in the Collegeville area.

This community-wide monitoring project will develop baseline references of airborne TCE concentrations to support exposure estimates. The project will track long-term measurements of air toxics following the already implemented emission reduction strategy in the area.

Residents who have questions or concerns prior to the meeting may contact DEP Community Relations Coordinator Lynda Rebarchak at 484-250-5820, or by email at lrebarchak@state.pa.us.

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Advocates and community members gathered Tuesday in front of State Senator Frank Padavan’s Bellerose office to protest his lax legislation concerning environmentally contaminated school sites and to announce a leafleting campaign to educate constituents in Padavan’s district about the issue.

The meeting was hosted by Dave Palmer, a lawyer for New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, which represents community groups dealing with environmentally contaminated school sites. School sites leased by the City do not require the same type of community, political and environmental review processes as schools owned by the City. This loophole allows for schools to be located on contaminated sites posing health threats to children, according to the organization.

“All of that we think places children at risk,” Palmer said.

“Children are most vulnerable to the effects of toxic chemicals.”

In June, the State Assembly passed a bill sponsored by Cathy Nolan (D-Ridgewood) that NYLPI believed strongly addressed the issues surrounding leased school sites. Palmer said community groups also had an assurance from Padavan that he would sponsor an equally strong bill in the Senate, though they say the bill that was past last session did not contain strong enough provisions for community notice, City Council review and environmental review.

Padavan said in a June statement, “Through discussions with the City and environmental advocates, we have crafted legislation that addresses concerns relative to school leasing in the City. The legislation that we have developed ensures that any proposed leased site for a school undergoes a two-phased environmental review process with adequate time for public review and comment on any site remediation plan impacting students, parents and community.”

Advocacy organizations and community groups plan to begin distributing leaflets Saturday throughout Padavan’s district, which encompasses parts of northeastern Queens, in an effort to get his constituents to pressure him to draft legislation that more closely reflects their concerns about leased schools.

At the meeting Tuesday, Katie Acton, whose daughter attended PS 65 in Ozone Park from 1999 to 2002 spoke about the toxins beneath the school that she believes led her daughter to develop asthma. Acton belongs to PS 65 Parents and Neighborhood Against TCE, which now has a lawsuit against the City. The school is located is a former airplane parts factory.

“Leaving the school, her health has improved and so have her grades,” Acton said. “It is my understanding that the Department of Education knew of the contamination before the families.”

It has also been reported that the site of the Information Technology High School in Long Island City, a former factory, is contaminated.

Groundwater contamination in the vicinity of the Behr Dayton Thermal Products Plant is severe enough to merit putting it on the National Priority List of the U.S. EPA's Superfund program, federal officials said.

The list represents the highest level of urgency for cleanups in the nation.

If the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approves later this year, an effort to cleanup groundwater at the site would rank among five others in Montgomery County on the National Priority List.

There are 22 active Superfund sites in the county where work is being planned or is under way.

Priority sites are considered the worst in the nation in terms of hazard and are eligible for cleanup using Superfund Trust money. The Behr project is still in the investigational stages, which typically can take two years and cost millions, officials said.

So far, the contamination has led to the closure of McGuffey Elementary School, 1032 Webster St., and the installation of air evacuation systems in 100 homes affected by indoor air fumes from the groundwater, which is tainted with the degreaser trichloroethylene — TCE — and other organic chemicals.

It's unknown when the school will reopen. A handful of homes that have dirt basements still have indoor air contamination slightly above strict exposure levels. In the Superfund program, those responsible for the contamination fund the cleanup.

According to documents obtained by the Dayton Daily News, federal investigators believe four industrial businesses could share responsibility: Gem City Chemicals Inc., Aramark Uniform Services, Chrysler, and Behr Dayton Thermal Products.

Aramark didn't return a call for comment. Gem City declined comment.

Public Health Dayton & Montgomery County is launching a cancer incidence survey among residents near the Behr Dayton Thermal Products plant, where groundwater pollution has prompted regulatory action to address indoor air quality.

Mark Case, director of environmental health for the agency, said Monday, March 10, that the survey could take up to a year and is being conducted with the Ohio Department of Health.

The survey will examine medical records and compare cancer levels in the neighborhood with overall cancer levels in the county, state and nation, he said. "By comparison, you get a sense whether something is out of line or not," Case said.

The Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System will be tapped for data, he noted. All diagnosed cancer cases in Ohio are supposed to be reported to the system. The area will include the census tract of the Behr plant and residential neighborhoods where 100 or so indoor air vapor abatement systems have been installed.

A similar survey was performed in 2005 in Kettering neighborhoods near the former Gentile Air Force Station. Residents of the Wiles Creek neighborhood there complained about pollution from the former Defense Electronics Supply Center. The survey found no abnormalities.

Case acknowledged that a cancer survey could have some limitations.

"We don't know how long the vapors have been in people's homes," he said.

The exact chronology of Behr plant pollution is unclear. Former plant owner Chrysler has said it discovered TCE, or trichloroethylene, contamination in 1996, but it wasn't until Ohio EPA tests in 2006 that hazards to homes were suspected.

Cancer can develop over decades and take the form of many different types of tumors, Case said. In its Ninth Report on Carcinogens, the federal National Toxicology Program determined that TCE is "reasonably anticipated to be a human carcinogen." The International Agency for Research on Cancer has determined that TCE is "probably carcinogenic to humans," according to the Agency for Toxic Substances & Disease Registry.

In a related development, a community outreach survey sponsored by the Environmental Sustainability Research Group at the University of Dayton will examine health problems in the area. A public meeting on the survey could occur in April, a spokeswoman said.

Costly taxpayer-financed plans to address toxic-chemical contamination in residential pockets of northeast Rochester and central Brighton will be detailed at separate public meetings this week.

The state Department of Environmental Conservation has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday evening to discuss a $1 million proposal to remove tainted soil and take other steps to address contamination at a now-closed business at Fernwood and Portland avenues in northeast Rochester.

The DEC first learned in 2000 that Preferred Electric Motors had spilled solvents and other potentially harmful materials in the course of its work refurbishing electric motors. Trichloroethene (TCE), tetrachloroethene (PCE) and other solvents are contaminating groundwater near the former business, prompting the state to install ventilation systems in two homes to guard against the build-up of toxic vapors.

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The proposed cleanup would remove about 450 cubic yards of contaminated soil and include steps to speed the degradation of solvents in the groundwater. The floor of the building, which is contaminated with cancer-causing polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), would be cleaned and sealed.

The building was purchased three years ago by a Greece carpet company that stores product there, according to the DEC.

On Thursday, another group of state officials will convene a meeting in Brighton to discuss a proposed $3.7 million plan to address a complicated PCE contamination problem underneath a section of Brighton just southeast of the Twelve Corners.

The solvent contamination there first came to light during investigation of a 2003 petroleum spill at a service station at the corner of Brooklawn Drive and Monroe Avenue. Officials first pointed the finger at Carriage Cleaners, at that same intersection, as the source of the PCE, a common dry-cleaning solvent.

Then last year, DEC said they had found high levels of PCE in soil and groundwater near a former Speedy's Cleaners just across Monroe Avenue from the other two businesses. It also was identified as a likely source of the solvents. Vapor ventilation systems had been installed in at least 11 structures to address petroleum vapors. PCE vapors prompted installation of systems in three residential and one commercial building.

As part of its long-term cleanup plan, the environmental agency now proposes to install systems that would extract both air and groundwater from below the surface for treatment to remove any solvents. About 720 cubic yards of tainted soil also would be excavated.

Both central Brighton and northeast Rochester are served by public water, meaning no one should be drinking the contaminated groundwater. But in recent years, officials have recognized that solvents can evaporate underground and rise through the soil — and can, in some cases, the vapors can accumulate inside homes or businesses above.

Both TCE and PCE may cause cancer or other serious health problems in people exposed to high levels. The affects of low-level exposure are less clear — but the DEC and the state Department of Health have given special attention in recent years to possible intrusion of solvent vapors.

Both cleanup projects would be paid for with money from New York's Superfund, which finances work at hazardous waste disposal sites when the responsible parties do not step in. The DEC's written cleanup proposals, provided by the agency Friday, indicated that companies judged responsible for the Rochester and Brighton contamination have declined to pay for the work. The DEC may pursue legal action against them to recover its costs, the proposals said.

Residents of the neighborhood affected by the petroleum and PCE spills in Brighton filed a civil suit in 2004 against the companies that owned the service station and the two dry cleaners, as well as the town of Brighton.

The plaintiff's lawyer, Alan Knauf, could not be reached for comment late Friday. But a January letter from Knauf in the case file in U.S. District Court said the plaintiffs had reached a settlement agreement with all the defendants except for Speedy's.

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Barring a flood of public comments, state environmental officials could decide early next month on a cleanup option for a site in northeast Rochester where soil and groundwater are contaminated with toxic solvents.

And judging by attendance at a public meeting on the site Tuesday evening, a flood of further comments is unlikely. "It's sad in the neighborhood — there's just no interest," said Sue Buehner, one of two or three citizens who attended the meeting in the library at School 36.

The session focused on problems at 42 Fernwood Ave., a small commercial building where Preferred Electric Motors reconditioned motors from the early 1950s until the business closed eight years ago. In the process, the company spilled or dumped toxic solvents, including trichloroethene, or TCE.

After an anonymous tip about leaking chemical drums in 2000, state Department of Environmental Conservation officials found solvents in soil and groundwater.

They also discovered very high levels of TCE vapors infiltrating a neighboring rental home, and health officials ordered that it remain unoccupied until a system was installed to pull the potentially harmful vapors from the soil.

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The DEC paid for removal of soil and an underground storage tank in 2001. In more recent years, state officials returned to the area to test a dozen structures for vapors, and installed a ventilation system in one home.

Now the agency has proposed a permanent cleanup that would involve removal of more tainted soil, capping that area with asphalt, cleaning the building's floor and placing material underground that would promote degradation of the remaining solvents.

The work would cost $1.1 million. "It blows my mind that they're going to spend $1 million to do what they're going to do," said Buehner, whose home abuts Preferred Electric's former property.

During the session, she asked DEC and state Department of Health officials several questions about how much contact they've had with residents since the contamination was found.

"We tried to inform the surrounding community as best we could," responded Melissa Menetti, a public health specialist.

After the meeting, Buehner said she was pleased that so many experts — about 10 — were present to answer questions. She and her husband John, who also attended, said they were assured Tuesday that their home would be tested for TCE vapors next year.

A formal cleanup decision likely will be made in April, said Valerie Woodward, the DEC project manager. Work would start in one to two years.

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Even as state environmental officials are publicizing cleanup plans for two Rochester-area toxic dump sites, another local contamination site has been placed on the to-do list.

The new site, off Brighton-Henrietta Town Line Road, is a commercial property where the once-ubiquitous industrial solvent trichloroethene, or TCE, was used — and apparently spilled. Groundwater near the building at 235 Metro Park in Brighton contains relatively high concentrations of TCE, as well as other solvents.

A fact sheet from the state Department of Environmental Conservation said the solvents apparently originated with Fischbach & Moore Electric, a large commercial contractor that occupied the building for years.

The DEC notified nearby property owners last week that it has added the site to its registry of hazardous waste disposal sites. It is listed a Class 2 site, meaning it poses a significant threat to the environment or public health, and must be cleaned up.

St. Louis Park, Minn., Vapor Intrusion Study Update Meeting March 19

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 will host a public meeting to update residents on findings of the vapor intrusion study being conducted in the vicinity of Highway 7 and Wooddale Avenue. The meeting will be 7 p.m., Wednesday, March 19 at the St. Louis Park Rec Center, 3700 Monterey Drive, St. Louis Park, Minn.

Vapors from volatile organic compounds, or VOCs, have been found in some area ground water and could get into homes and commercial buildings. EPA has screened about 250 St. Louis Park properties since December. A Web site is at http://www.epa.gov/region5/sites/stlouispark/index.htm

Officials from partner agencies are expected at the meeting. Partner agencies include Minnesota Pollution Control Agency, Minnesota Department of Public Health, Hennepin County and the city of St. Louis Park.

For more information or special accommodations at the meeting, contact EPA community involvement coordinator Don de Blasio, 800-621-8431, Ext. 64360 (weekdays 9 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.) or deblasio.don@epa.gov.

SOURCE U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5

Autoimmune diseases -- a group of about 100 conditions in which the body's immune system turns on the body itself -- are reaching epidemic proportions. In the past decade, 15 top medical journals have reported rising rates of lupus, multiple sclerosis, scleroderma, Crohn's disease, Addison's disease and polymyositis in industrialized countries around the world. Over the past 40 years, rates of Type 1 diabetes have increased fivefold; in children 4 and under, it's increasing 6 percent a year.

If I wanted to make a movie about my life, I'd pitch it to Hollywood as "The Diving Bell and the Butterfly" meets "An Inconvenient Truth," the Academy Award-winning Al Gore documentary about global warming. Rising levels of autoimmune disease may well prove to be the next environmental disaster -- only in this case, the changes taking place degree by degree are in the interior landscapes of our bodies.

[...]

I've spent the past two years interviewing leading experts at top medical institutions nationwide to find out why cases of autoimmune disease are skyrocketing. In recent years, many allergists and immunologists have been attributing the rise to the "hygiene hypothesis" -- the theory that our germ-free homes and childhood vaccinations have eliminated challenges to our immune systems so that they don't learn how to defend us properly when we're young. The scientists I interviewed tended to discard the idea that this alone is responsible. They agreed almost to a person that our day-to-day exposure to environmental toxins -- through the air we breathe and the chemicals we absorb through our skin -- is a major trigger of autoimmune disease. "Exposures from our environment are a significant contributor to today's rising rates," says Douglas Kerr, director of the Johns Hopkins Transverse Myelitis Center and a top clinician at the Johns Hopkins Multiple Sclerosis Center.

In 2003, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sampled 2,500 people nationwide looking for the "body burden," or amount of chemicals and pollutants each individual carried. They found traces of all 116 chemicals and pollutants they tested for, including PCBs, insecticides, dioxin, mercury, cadmium and benzene, all highly toxic in higher doses. Then, in 2005, researchers from the Environmental Working Group found something more alarming: a cocktail of 287 pollutants -- pesticides, dioxins, flame retardants -- in the fetal-cord blood of 10 newborn infants from around the country. [Ed. Note: More on these can be found in the following PDF: National Learning and Developmental Disabilities Advocacy Groups Analyze Body Burden Studies]

Because most toxins are found in only trace amounts, it has been difficult to gauge what effect they might be having on our health. Yet studies of both lab animals and people provide disturbing insights into how even low exposures can cause our immune systems to go haywire. Mice exposed to pesticides at levels four times lower than the level the Environmental Protection Agency sets as acceptable for humans are more susceptible to getting lupus than control mice. Mice that absorb low doses of trichloroethylene -- a chemical used in dry cleaning, household paint thinners, glues and adhesives -- at levels the EPA deems safe and equal to what a factory worker might encounter today, quickly develop autoimmune hepatitis. And low doses of perfluorooctanoic acid, a breakdown chemical of Teflon found in 96 percent of humans tested for it, impair rats' development of a proper immune system.

The Army Corps of Engineers will apparently “do the right thing” when it comes to taking responsibility for treating one source of Cheyenne’s drinking water for trichloroethylene, or TCE, which is a result of Cold War-era nuclear missile maintenance east of Cheyenne.

Paul Johnston, public affairs officer for the Omaha district of the Army Corps of Engineers, said the Corps is charged by the Department of Defense to administer the FUDS (formerly used defense sites) program.

That means taking care of a range of sites, “from missile sites to old training grounds to WWI and