[CPEO-BIF] TCE and Health

["lsiegel@cpeo.org" <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

(Please excuse the duplicate posting. Also, please note that, despite the
initial focus on Kelly Air Force Base, this article has national scope. -
LS)


Cancer Stalks a 'Toxic Triangle'
Scientists disagree about the risks of TCE. But residents near a former air
base are dead certain.

By Ralph Vartabedian
Los Angeles Times 
March 30, 2006

SAN ANTONIO - On nearly every block surrounding the former Kelly Air Force
Base, small purple crosses sprout from front lawns, marking the homes where
cancer has struck.

The residents call their neighborhood the "toxic triangle," alleging that
the Air Force poisoned it with an industrial solvent, trichloroethylene, or
TCE. It was casually dumped at the base for decades and spread for miles
through a shallow aquifer under 22,000 nearby houses.

Texas health authorities have found elevated rates of liver cancer among
residents, as well as higher-than-normal rates of birth defects. Though
state health officials say it is impossible to prove that TCE causes the
sickness here, this blue-collar community has little doubt about the
connection.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-toxic30mar30,1,3966931.
story?coll=la-headlines-nation


See also

San Gabriel Valley a Hotbed of TCE Contamination
Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties are the most tainted from the toxic
industrial solvent.

By Ralph Vartabedian
Los Angeles Times 
March 30, 2006

Trichloroethylene contamination has hit almost every state, but none more
widely than California. TCE has contaminated water supplies, indoor air
near cleanup projects and the air in cities all around the state.

The Environmental Protection Agency has 67 Superfund sites in California
with TCE contamination, and state agencies have dozens more, stretching
from the shores of the Pacific Ocean to the scrub of the Mojave Desert.

Almost every major military base has a Superfund site with TCE
contamination, including Camp Pendleton and Edwards Air Force Base. The
Superfund program involves some of the most contaminated sites, usually at
dumps, former military bases or closed industrial facilities. TCE was used
by the military to degrease metal.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-toxic30sidemar30,1,6108
74.story?coll=la-headlines-nation


-- 
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org



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