Funding Lost for Health Study

[Marylia Kelley <marylia@igc.org>]

Hi. This story about funding problems for the public health assessment at
Livermore Lab reflects what is going on not only here in California but
also at other sites in the DOE nuclear weapons complex. Moreover, this has
potential future implications for every Superfund site in the country.

State Agency Loses Funding for Livermore Lab Public Health Study

by Stephanie Ericson
from Tri-Valley CAREs' September 1997 newsletter, Citizen's Watch

A California state health research team will end its scientific
participation on October 1 in an investigation of LLNL health effects on
the community unless last-minute funding is committed from its partner
federal health agency.

"The California Department of Health Services (CDHS) has established an
on-going relationship with the community," said Pat Sutton, health
researcher and member of a community advisory board, or "site team" for the
investigation. "And over the years it has also developed a technical
understanding of the Livermore Lab, that by its nature cannot be duplicated
by a federal agency 3000 miles away."

CDHS began the public health assessment of LLNL last fall with the Agency
for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the federal agency
mandated by Congress to conduct public health assessments (PHAs) at
Superfund sites. It was the first state-federal public health partnership
at a DOE site. But DOE has not yet acted on a request from ATSDR for FY
1998 funds to continue the work.

"Without any guarantees of funding, I cannot commit staff time to
continuing our scientific research on the public health assessment," said
Marilyn Underwood, lead researcher in the CDHS team. Less than $10,000 a
month would keep CDHS involved until DOE-Oakland decided how much it will
allocate to the PHA.

ATSDR plans to continue the work from its Atlanta headquarters,
anticipating DOE will eventually come through with enough money for their
staff. The budget bottleneck has occurred because DOE, which funds ATSDR's
health research at DOE sites, transferred fiscal responsibility for the
project from its Washington, DC headquarters to the Oakland Operations
regional office without providing the necessary funds. Other DOE sites
around the country, such as Hanford, Washington, are similarly affected.

However, difficulty in obtaining timely and adequate funds from DOE is
nothing new to ATSDR. Over the last three years DOE headquarters has cut
public health funding by sixty percent nationwide, said ATSDR official Joe
Hughart, undermining the agency's ability to meet public health goals set
by Congress in 1989. "We're past muscle and we're into bone," Hughart said
of the DOE cuts. "We'll be amputating limbs next."

Nevertheless, ATSDR lead researcher on the project Brenda Edmonds said
ATSDR is committed to continuing the PHA and is optimistic about its
progress. She noted that a major hurdle in acquiring voluminous data from
the laboratory was recently resolved, allowing the technical aspects of the
project to "flow more smoothly."

Underwood said that if CDHS were able to continue its work with ATSDR, "we
would be able to complement Edmonds' work in Atlanta by doing things that
she wouldn't be able to do from there." As an example, she explained that
at another site, CDHS assisted ATSDR by verifying whether drinking wells
were still in use. Her agency also has greater familiarity with local and
state information resources.

"The residents of Livermore have waited long enough for answers about the
effects of the Laboratory's activities on their environment," said
Livermore city council candidate Michael Ferrucci, another site team
member. "We should urge our Mayor to lobby for the continued involvement of
the CDHS in this very important public health assessment."

He and other site team community representatives intend to urge ATSDR and
DOE to make a commitment to keep CDHS on the project as well.

At the last public meeting of the site team, last July, public interest in
the health assessment drew a standing room only crowd in the medium-sized
meeting room.

"If the appropriate agencies were aware of the high level of community
interest in the assessment, they might reconsider cutting out CDHS
involvement," Ferrucci said.

Send ATSDR and DOE a message - public health matters.

To register your concern, write to the following people. Ask them to
make a commitment NOW to fund continued California Department
of Health Services participation.

David Satcher, M.D.
Director, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Administrator, Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry
Atlanta, GA 30333

Dr. Tara O'Toole
Assistant Secretary of Energy -
Environment Safety and Health
Department of Energy
1000 Independence Ave., SW
Washington, DC 20585

Marylia Kelley
Tri-Valley CAREs * 5720 East Ave. #116 * Livermore, CA 94550
Ph: (510) 443-7148 * Fx: (510) 443-0177