PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT
TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE
PANAMA CITY, BAY COUNTY, FLORIDA
EPA FACILITY ID: FL157002124
July 24, 2000
Prepared By:
Federal Facilities Assessment Branch
Division of Health Assessment and Consultation
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS, AND GLOSSARY
II. EVALUATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL CONTAMINATION, EXPOSURE PATHWAYS, AND THE PUBLIC HEALTH IMPLICATIONS
III. COMMUNITY HEALTH CONCERNS
IV. ATSDR CHILD HEALTH INITIATIVE
LIST OF TABLES
1. Summary of ATSDR's Public Health Conclusions for Tyndall Air Force Base
3. Description of Sampling and Summary of Results at Wherry Landfill
LIST OF FIGURES
1. Site Map of Tyndall Air Force Base
3. Bay View Housing (Formerly known as Wherry II Housing) Before Removal of 25 Homes
LIST OF APPENDICES
| APPENDIX A | LIST OF INSTALLATION RESTORATION PROGRAM SITES AND SOLID WASTE MANAGEMENT UNITS |
| APPENDIX B | PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT CONCLUSION CATEGORIES |
| APPENDIX C | FRED BAYOU-DDT, DDD, DDE AND WATER AND SEDIMENT SAMPLING DATA SUMMARY |
| APPENDIX D | SUMMARY OF FISH ANALYSIS |
| APPENDIX E | DESCRIPTION OF CHEMICALS FOUND IN FISH AND SEDIMENTS |
| APPENDIX F | ATSDR COMMENTS ON HUMAN HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT FOR FRED BAYOU |
| APPENDIX G | SUMMARY OF ASSUMPTIONS USED IN THE HUMAN HEALTH RISK ASSESSMENT |
| APPENDIX H | ATSDR COMMENTS ON WHERRY LANDFILL SAMPLING |
ACRONYMS, ABBREVIATIONS, AND GLOSSARY
| AFB | Air Force Base |
| AFBCA | Air Force Base Conversion Agency |
| AAFES | Army Airforce Exchange Service; a military service providing merchandise and services to active duty military |
| AOC | Area of Concern. A natural or man-made area or unit that may contain hazardous chemicals or waste. |
| ATSDR | Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry |
| adverse health effects | Negative or unwanted effects on the health of an individual; for example, effects may include a specific illness or a general decrease in the overall health of a person. |
| aerobic | Occurring in the presence of oxygen. |
| anaerobic | Occurring in the absence of oxygen. |
| aquifer | A geologic (rock) formation through which groundwater moves and that is capable of producing water in sufficient quantities for a well. |
| AVGAS | Aviation fuel |
| BHC | Benzene hexachloride or hexachlorocyclohexane. An insecticide that has been used on fruit, vegetable, and forest crops. |
| BPW | Base production well |
| BRA | Baseline risk assessment; an analysis of the potential adverse health effects (current or future) caused by hazardous substance releases. |
| biodegradation | Decomposition of a substance through the action of microorganisms or other natural environmental factors. |
| blank sample | A sample collected and analyzed to determine the level of contamination introduced into the environmental samples from the sampling technique and analysis. |
| CDC | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention |
| CERCLA | Comprehensive Environmental Response Compensation and Liability Act also known as Superfund |
| CREG | Cancer risk evaluation guide is a concentration in air, soil, or water at which a person's risk of cancer after exposure for 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and for 70 years is 1 in 1,000,000. Exposure assumptions for adults are used, since the majority of a person's exposure occurs as an adult. |
| CSF | Cancer slope factor. The CSF is the slope of the oral dose-response curve for cancer. This value is derived by EPA and maintained on its IRIS database and used to estimate the risk from carcinogens. |
| Comparison Values or CVs | A concentration of a given contaminant in soil, water, or air below which no adverse human health effects are expected to occur. Comparison values are used by ATSDR health assessors to select environmental contaminants for further evaluation and can be based on either carcinogenic effects or noncarcinogenic effects. |
| conduit | A natural or artificial channel through which materials such as fluids are transported; for example, a water well |
| Detection limit or method detection limit | A minimum concentration of chemical that is detectable at a known confidence limit. |
| DDD | 1,1-dichloro-2,2- bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane; a chemical contaminant and degradation product of DDT. |
| DDE | 1,1-dichloro-2,2- bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethylene; a chemical contaminant and degradation product in DDT. |
| DDT | 1,1,1-trichloro-2,2-bis(p-chlorophenyl)ethane; a chemical introduced in the United States and widely used to control insects on agricultural crops and insects that carry diseases like malaria and typhus. |
| DOD | United States Department of Defense |
| EMEG | Environmental media evaluation guide; a concentration in air, soil, or water below which no adverse noncancer health effects are expected to occur. EMEGs are derived from ATSDR's minimum risk levels (MRLs), and are expressed for acute, intermediate, and chronic exposures. They are used in selecting environmental contaminants for further evaluation. |
| EOD | Explosive ordnance disposal |
| EPA | United States Environmental Protection Agency |
| EBS | Environmental Baseline Survey is a report documenting the bases environmental status. |
| Feasibility study | A study conducted to determine the best alternative for remediating environmental contamination based on a number of factors including health risk and costs. |
| gpm | Gallons per minute |
| groundwater | Water beneath the earth's surface |
| HQ/HI hazard quotient/hazard index |
Hazard quotient (HQ); a comparison of the daily human
exposure to a substance to the minimum risk level (MRL). The
HQ is used as an assessment of noncancer associated toxic
effects of chemicals, e.g., kidney or liver dysfunction. It is
independent of a cancer risk, which is calculated only for those
chemicals identified as carcinogens. A hazard index or quotient
of one or less is generally considered safe. A ratio greater than
one suggests further evaluation.
Hazard index (HI); a summation of the HQ for all chemicals being evaluated. A hazard index value of one or less means that no adverse human health effects (noncancer) are expected to occur. A ratio greater than one suggests further evaluation. |
| HUD | Housing and Urban Development |
| HVAC | Heating, ventilating, and air conditioning system |
| ingestion | Eating and drinking |
| IRP | Installation Restoration Program; a program of the Department of Defense to clean up environmental contamination. |
| isomers | Any of two or more substances that are composed of the same elements in the same proportions, but differ in properties because of differences in the arrangement of atoms (Houghton Mifflin 1996). The prefix of 2,4' for an isomer represents the positions of atoms on a molecule. |
| L | Liter |
| LRA | Local redevelopment authority; a group formed by the affected community and recognized by the Department of Defense. The LRA is the single entity responsible for base reuse planning activities at the local level. |
| MCL | Maximum contaminant level; a concentration of a chemical that cannot be legally exceeded in a public drinking water supply system. The MCL is devised and enforced by U.S. EPA. States may also enforce the MCL and they may develop more stringent values. |
| medical monitoring | A set of medical tests and physical exams specifically designed to evaluate whether an individual is being exposed to a particular chemical at concentrations that could negatively affect that person's health. |
| migration | Moving from one location to another |
| mg/kg | Milligram per kilogram |
| mg/cm2 | Milligram per square centimeter |
| mg/m3 | Milligrams per cubic meter; a measure of the concentration of a chemical in a known amount (a cubic meter) of air. |
| MOGAS | Automobile gasoline |
| MRL | Minimum risk level; an ATSDR estimate of the daily human exposure to a substance below which no adverse noncancer health effects are expected to occur. MRLs are available for acute, intermediate, and chronic exposures. |
| munitions | Explosive devices; for example, grenades and bombs. |
| ND | Not detected; used to indicate that a substance was not detected at the analytical limits of the equipment and procedures. |
| NPL | National Priorities List for Uncontrolled Hazardous Waste Sites. This is the list of EPA's most hazardous waste sites in the United States. |
| NOAEL | No observed adverse effect level; the dose of chemical at which there were no statistically or biologically significant increases in frequency or severity of adverse effects seen between the exposed population and its appropriate control. Effects may be produced at this dose, but they are not considered to be adverse. |
| ng/m3 | Nanograms per cubic meter |
| ordnance | Military materiel, such as weapons, ammunition, explosives, combat vehicles, and equipment. |
| PAHs | Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons; a group of chemicals that are formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil, gas, wood, garbage, or other organic substances, such as tobacco and charbroiled meat. There are more than 100 different PAHs. |
| Pb | Lead |
| PbB | Lead in blood |
| PCBs | Polychlorinated biphenyls; a group of synthetic organic chemicals that contain 209 individual but similar compounds (known as congeners). |
| PCE | Perchloroethene, also known as tetrachloroethene |
| PHA | Public health assessment |
| POL | Petroleum, oils, and lubricates |
| ppb | Parts per billion |
| ppm | Parts per million |
| RCRA | Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (1976, 1984); an act that regulates management and disposal of hazardous wastes currently generated, treated, stored, disposed of, or distributed. |
| RFA | RCRA facility assessment; an assessment required by RCRA to identify potential and actual releases of hazardous chemicals. |
| RfD or Reference Dose | An estimate of the daily exposure to the people that is likely to have no measurable risk of harmful health effects during a lifetime exposure or exposure during a limited time interval. |
| RI/FS | Remedial investigation/feasibility study; the CERCLA process of determining the type and extent of hazardous material contamination at a site and the options for cleanup. |
| Restoration Advisory Board (RAB) | A committee of public and private citizens formed to serve as a focal point for information exchange between military bases, private citizens, and other public agencies. |
| Risk | A qualitative and quantitative expression of the probability of
potential cancerous adverse health effects occurring at specific
levels of exposure to chemical or physical hazards. Adverse
health effects can be the result of noncancer and cancer. Risk
from cancer adverse health effects are expressed as a probability
such as 1 in 1,000,000 (also expressed 1 × 10-6 or 1E-6). This
means that there is a probability of 1 in 1,000,000 that an excess
cancer will occur in the population over a lifetime. Other risk
values considered are 1 in 10,000 and 1 in 100,000.
A noncancer health risk is expressed as a hazard quotient. |
| SWMU | Solid waste management unit. A term RCRA uses in RFAs to describe areas or man-made units that contain or handle waste materials. |
| solvent | A liquid capable of dissolving or dispersing another substance; for example, acetone or mineral spirits. |
| TCE | Trichloroethene |
| TDS | Total dissolved solids |
| treatment technique | A specific treatment method required by EPA to be used to control the level of a contaminant in drinking water. In specific cases where EPA has determined it is not technically or economically feasible to establish an MCL, EPA can instead specify a treatment technique. |
| gL | Micrograms per liter |
| gdL | Micrograms per deciliter; a measure of the concentration of a chemical in a known amount (deciliter) of liquid; for example, the concentration of lead in a blood sample |
| g/m3 | Microgram per cubic meter. |
| VOC | Volatile organic compound |
