ATSDR Launches Community Web Site on Marietta Air Investigation as Health Activities Continue

Tuesday, February 26, 2008

For Immediate Release: February 26, 2008

ATLANTA - As their year-long Marietta Air Investigation in the Mid-Ohio Valley enters its final phase, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has launched a Web site for area residents to view updated site information, including air sampling results. The Web site address is http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/sites/washington_marietta/index.html.

Once the investigation concludes in March, ATSDR will prepare a health consultation to provide an interpretation of the air sampling and weather data results. ATSDR expects to complete the health consultation by mid-2008. Residents will be able to download this and all previously released Health Consultations from the Web site.

The health consultation will also present the results of a "fingerprinting analysis" of samples from the four air monitoring stations ATSDR placed in Ohio and West Virginia. This analysis was conducted to determine whether metals in ambient air at all locations are being emitted from the same source or from different sources.

Based on previous air sampling in the area, ATSDR has targeted manganese for possible further evaluation. It is uncertain whether chronic manganese inhalation at the concentrations measured in this investigation might cause subtle neurological effects. The health consultation will help ATSDR determine whether to recommend a health study.

Additionally, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) has proposed funding a pilot study of children's exposures to manganese inhalation and health outcomes in the Mid-Ohio Valley. Findings from the pilot study could warrant a larger and more thorough study by ATSDR. ATSDR, the U.S. EPA, and researchers from several academic institutions have worked in close collaboration to design proposals for both of these proposed studies.

For information about ATSDR's air monitoring efforts and the forthcoming health consultation, contact Michelle Colledge at 312-886-1462 or mna9@cdc.gov. For more information about the potential ATSDR health study, contact Stephanie Davis at 770-488-3676 or sgd8@cdc.gov. ATSDR and CDC maintain a general toll-free number (1-800-CDC-INFO); callers to this number should reference the Marietta Air Emissions 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.