[CPEO-MEF] HEALTH: Brush Wellman beryllium, Elmore, Ohio

[Lenny Siegel <lennysiegel@gmail.com>]

Did CDC Cave To Pressure Over Toxic Dust?

Armen Keteyian
CBS News
April 10, 2008

ELMORE, Ohio, April 10, 2008(CBS) CBS News reported in January that the 
Centers for Disease Control, the nation's top public health agency, 
under pressure from FEMA, suppressed a study citing the long-term health 
risks of living in travel trailers. Now Chief Investigative 
Correspondent Armen Keteyian has found the CDC may again be putting 
politics ahead of public health. Previously undisclosed documents 
obtained exclusively by CBS News raise new questions as to whether 
high-ranking CDC officials caved to political and corporate pressure - 
and shut down a major public health study putting the residents of a 
small Ohio town at risk.


"It's worrisome; it's very worrisome."

Bernadette Eriksen lives in Elmore, Ohio, where the material engineering 
company Brush Wellman operates the world's largest manufacturing plant 
for beryllium, a metal used to make parts found in nuclear weapons, golf 
clubs and computer chips.

During manufacturing it produces a toxic dust. Exposure can cause an 
incurable, often-fatal lung disease and possibly cancer, Keteyian reports.

In 2001, in response to community concerns, the CDC began looking at 
whether beryllium dust from the plant was a health hazard. By 2005, CDC 
scientists pledged a thorough investigation - with blood tests for up to 
200 residents and household dust readings.


...

For the entire story, see
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2008/04/10/cbsnews_investigates/main4007926.shtml

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org


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