[CPEO-MEF] HEALTH: ATSDR in Vieques (PR) and beyond

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Reversal Haunts Federal Health Agency

By MIREYA NAVARRO
New York Times
November 30, 2009

Earlier this month, a federal health agency backed away from its earlier 
findings that decades of explosive detonations by the Navy on the Puerto 
Rican island of Vieques posed no health hazards to residents.

It was the second time this year that the agency, the Agency for Toxic 
Substances and Disease Registry, changed its mind in a highly publicized 
case. Last April the agency, charged with analyzing public health risks 
from environmental contamination, rescinded its conclusion that 
contaminated drinking water at Camp Lejeune, N.C., posed no increased 
risk of cancer to adults.

Now the agency, part of the Health and Human Services Department, is 
facing tough scrutiny from Congress and the threat of reform 
legislation, with some lawmakers accusing it of cursory evaluations that 
often get the science wrong and ignore independent studies and community 
complaints.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/science/earth/30agency.html?_r=1

--


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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