ATSDR - Dover Air Force Base in Delaware

Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry

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ATSDR MEDIA ANNOUNCEMENT

ATSDR Releases Public Health Assessment for Review and
Public Comment on Dover Air Force Base in Delaware

Finding is No Apparent Health Hazard

For Immediate Release: Oct. 16, 2003

ATLANTA - The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today released a public health assessment that evaluates public health issues associated with environmental contaminants from the Dover Air Force Base (DAFB) site in Kent County near Dover, Del.

ATSDR finds that people residing on or near DAFB have not been, and are not currently being, exposed to site-related contaminants at levels that could result in adverse health effects.

After evaluating available environmental information, ATSDR has drawn the following conclusions:

Exposures to contaminants from drinking groundwater on- and off-base pose no past or current public health hazard.
Exposures to lead-based paint in certain housing units at DAFB pose no past or current public health hazard.
Exposures to air contaminants related to volatile organic compounds that may have traveled from the groundwater, through the soil, and into overlying buildings pose no past or current public health hazard.
Exposures to contaminants from using ball fields located above a former landfill do not pose a public health hazard.

The public health assessment may be reviewed at the following repository:

Dover Public Library
45 South State St.
Dover, Del. 19901
302-736-7077

Comments on the public health assessment must be made in writing. Mail comments to

Chief, Program Evaluation, Records and Information Services Branch
ATSDR
1600 Clifton Road, NE (MS E-60)
Atlanta, GA 30333

Comments received during the public comment period will be logged in to ATSDR's administrative record for this health assessment.

Comments received, without the names of individuals who submitted them, and ATSDR's responses to the comments will appear in an appendix to the final public health assessment. Names of those who submit comments, however, will be subject to release for requests made under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.

Community members seeking information on the procedures or the content of the public health consultation may contact Environmental Scientist Aimee Treffiletti or Community Involvement Specialist Debra Joseph, toll free, at 1-888-422-8737. Regional Representative Tom Stukas also may be contacted at 215-814-3142. Callers should refer to the Dover Air Force Base site.

ATSDR, a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, evaluates the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances. Established by Congress in 1980 under the Superfund law, ATSDR conducts public health assessments at each of the sites on the EPA National Priorities List, as well as other sites when petitioned. Headquartered in Atlanta, ATSDR is staffed by more than 400 health professionals including epidemiologists, physicians, toxicologists, engineers and public health educators.

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Members of the news media may request an interview with ATSDR staff by calling Elaine McEachern or Jennifer Sarginson in the ATSDR Office of Policy and External Affairs at 770-488-0700.

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Updated by R. Searfoss October 17, 2003
For more information, contact ATSDR at:
770-488-0700 or e-mail (news media)