[CPEO-MEF] HEALTH, MUNITIONS: ATSDR Releases Vieques (PR) health study

[Lenny Siegel <LSiegel@cpeo.org>]

U.S. Finds No Link Between Vieques Bombings and Health Risks

By MIREYA NAVARRO
New York Times
December 8, 2011

A federal agency announced Thursday that it had found no evidence  
that decades of live fire and bombing exercises by the Navy on the  
Puerto Rican island of Vieques had caused health problems documented  
among its residents.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, part of the  
Department of Health and Human Services, released the results of a  
review that confirmed a conclusion reached by the agency in 2003 that  
heavy metals and explosive compounds in the island’s soil,  
groundwater, air and fish posed no health hazards.

Citing "gaps in environmental data," the agency had agreed in 2009 to  
review the earlier finding after that report drew fierce criticism  
from Puerto Rican government officials and some members of Congress.

Agency officials said they had reviewed environmental, biological and  
health data from Vieques in their inquiry, including some new  
studies. Still, they conceded that "limitations" in the information  
made it hard to interpret research that has found a higher incidence  
of chronic diseases like high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer in  
the island's population by comparison with the rest of Puerto Rico.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/09/science/earth/us-says-navy-bombings- 
on-vieques-pr-posed-no-health-risks.html?scp=1&sq=Navarro&st=cse

--

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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