|
|
Search | Index | Home | Glossary | Contact Us |
|
|
|
Mr. Chairman and distinguished Members of the Sub-Committee. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is pleased to provide written testimony to you in support of the President's FY06 budget request of $ 76.024 million. This funding will support ATSDR's ongoing activities and provide support for critical programs, including programs to enhance the understanding of health impacts from exposures to hazardous materials.
As an Agency newly under your jurisdiction we would first like to introduce ourselves to you. We would also like to give you some highlights of our Superfund site work, demonstrating how we've succeeded in meeting our goal to mitigate the risks of health effects at toxic waste sites and how we've assisted the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in documenting the effectiveness of their remediation efforts. This testimony will address: (1) ATSDR's achievements in carrying out its mission under the Superfund to assess potential health impacts from exposures of hazardous waste sites; (2) ATSDR's education of the public and the medical community about potential health problems facing communities around the nation; (3) ATSDR's partnerships and its protective impact on the public's health from hazardous substances.
What is ATSDR?: A community discovers its drinking water is contaminated with a toxic substance that came from the local landfill... An Indian tribe is concerned about mercury present in fish and wild game... A child is found to be suffering from high levels of lead... Basements in a neighborhood have annoying fumes that smell like gas or oil... How does this affect health? What health effects might have occurred, or will occur, as a result of these exposures? These are the types of environmental health issues the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) addresses every day.
ATSDR was created by the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA), more commonly known as the Superfund law. The Superfund program is charged with finding and cleaning up the most dangerous hazardous waste sites in the country. ATSDR supports this mission by providing and using the best science, taking responsive public health actions, and providing trusted health information to prevent harmful exposures and disease related to toxic substances.
Meeting the Goal to Mitigate the Risks of Human Health Effects at Toxic Waste Sites: Communities around the country benefit directly from ATSDR's assessment and interventions concerning potential exposures to hazardous substances and related risks of adverse health effects. Indeed, ATSDR has made significant strides in the past year at documenting the effectiveness of agency recommendations and interventions to reduce community members' risk of adverse health effects. We, and our State partners, work on hundreds of Superfund sites each year to evaluate the health hazards at these sties. Many are found to pose a public health hazard - sites where children and other residents suffer from potentially harmful exposures.
Examples of Superfund sites where ATSDR's recommendations and interventions have helped people include the following:
ATSDR also proactively works with EPA and the States to provide a variety of technical support services including emergency response, publication of toxicological profiles, and referral to environmental health specialists. ATSDR assessments and interventions concerning potential exposures to hazardous substances serve as an important link between health and environmental agencies and stakeholders. For example:
ATSDR leverages resources and partnerships to maximize health impacts. ATSDR has an extensive state cooperative agreement program and research partnerships with organizations such as the American Chemistry Council to improve and facilitate capacity building in environmental health.
Terrorism: ATSDR has a significant role in planning for and responding to the threat of terrorist events. ATSDR is recognized as a major player in chemical terrorism preparedness and response. Our regional staff, located in EPA regional offices, work on a daily basis with EPA and regional staff and state partners for emergency preparedness serving to provide immediate access to local expertise in planning for and responding to chemical emergencies. In the past ATSDR has had a role in responding to public health emergencies of this nature, an example of which is the ricin incident at a South Carolina post office.
Strengthened Ties with EPA, and Documented Health Improvements Post-Remediation: Another measure of success that ATSDR has established is the percentage of ATSDR recommendations that EPA adopts. More than 70% of our recommendations for site action in 2003 already have been adopted by EPA, with 10% still pending decision. We also play a critical role in helping EPA and state site managers to better prioritize and identifying which sites pose the greatest threat to human health.
Further, in this past year we have been working with EPA to support their remediation actions by measuring the effectiveness of their clean-up in reducing adverse health effects. One of the best examples of that work is our joint work at the Doe Run Smelter, in Herculaneum, Missouri. Blood-lead levels for children in the town are decreasing following EPA's remediation of lead sources and ATSDR-sponsored health education and intervention activities. In 2001, 28% of 118 young children (aged 6 to 72 months) tested showed BLLs at or above 10 µg/dL. Of the 67 young children living within one-half mile of the smelter, 30 (45%) had elevated BLLs. Results were evident by the following year. By 2002, just 14% of the children tested had elevated BLLs. Similarly, of the young children living within one-half mile of the site, only 17% had an elevated BLL. Another very strong example of this is a recent ATSDR study which demonstrated that efforts by EPA and other agencies to remove lead-contaminated soil from residential yards in Idaho's Silver Valley were the most effective in reducing blood lead levels in children.
Other examples of sites where strong partnerships have led to positive results include:
Ensure that Neighborhoods Surrounding Superfund Sites Become Healthy Places: All of the work we do is geared toward meeting the overarching goal of insuring that the sites where we work become healthy places to live, work and play.
A number of new or persisting categories of sites will be a challenge for us in the coming year including the emerging issue of chemicals migrating through soil and groundwater and then entering homes and workplaces in the form of vapor. For instance, in the Village of Endicott, New York, residents are concerned about chemical vapor intrusions in homes, and especially about what link these vapors may have with cancer incidence in the community. The vapors emanate from groundwater contaminated with volatile organic compounds largely associated with the local IBM plant. Adding to this concern is a New York State Department of Health finding of elevated levels of childhood leukemia in several nearby areas. Residents are also concerned about possible elevated cancer incidence among former IBM workers. While the state and IBM have initiated actions to remediate and/or ventilate affected buildings and homes, an important challenge at this and similar sites will be to determine what exposure levels are safe and document the effectiveness of clean-up measures in protecting health.
Identifying tremolite asbestos exposures and determining related human health effects is another ongoing and future challenge. The asbestos exposures that took place in Libby, Montana, have become well known. In Libby, ATSDR studies and screening defined the extent of the health problem. We are continuing to provide medical screening for exposed individuals, and have established a registry to track their ongoing health status. But the contamination was not limited to Libby; the vermiculite was shipped for processing to over 200 plants around the country. ATSDR is now studying the 28 sites that received nearly 80 percent of the Libby vermiculite mined from 1964 through 1980. ATSDR is working to determine whether past (or current) exposures took place at or near these sites - paying particular attention to former workers and their families. We will then work with community residents and our state partners to mitigate any existing or potential health effects.
We look forward to working on these - and additional challenges -- in the future. We thank you for the opportunity to provide you with written testimony and we look forward to responding to any questions you may have.
Back to top
ATSDR Home |
Search |
Index |
Glossary |
Contact Us
About
ATSDR | News Archive |
ToxFAQs | Public Health Assessments
Privacy Policy |
External Links Disclaimer |
Accessibility
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services