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DOH soft on LaFarge in its Phase 1 report

Nov 30, 2010 10:03 am
The Daily Mail and Register-Star are running a comprehensive story by Hilary Hawke this morning on a newly released Health Consultation that starts to evaluate the impact of the Lafarge Cement plant emissions on community health in its home town of Ravena, as well as communities surrounding and across the river from its lower Albany County location..

Sparked by concerns expressed by Community Advocates for Safe Emissions, the DOH, in conjunction with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is conducting a Public Health Assessment on communities potentially impacted by the plant to evaluate whether the chemicals released are harmful.

The newly released document, known as a Phase 1 Health Consultation, summarizes “all available environmental data and information about the cement plant over its 48 years of operation and completion of an exposure evaluation.”

According to the HC, “exposures to cement plant-related contaminants in other environmental media (public drinking water, groundwater, soil, on-site cement kiln dust, surface water, sediment or fish) are not expected.”

"Although cement kiln dust exists on the Lafarge property, the HC states people in the community are unlikely to contact it," Hawke writes. "The report also states that neither the Coeymans Creek nor fish in nearby waterways contain cement plant-related contaminants."

Phase two, the actual Public Health Assessment, will include evaluation of possible exposures to chemicals from the cement plant through the pathways identified in the HC.

If the PHA indicates “some areas around the plant may have air contaminant levels above health comparison values” the DOH could evaluate health outcome data on a smaller geographic scale.

The DOH gathered HOD including respiratory and cardiovascular disease hospitalizations, perinatal health outcomes and elevated blood lead levels in children.

CASE has reported that there were several community residents suffering from the rare cancer Ewings sarcoma.

But the HC states, “We have been unable to verify these cases and have asked CASE for more information.”

It also found “the number of cases of childhood cancer is small.”

The public comment period on the report, which seems designed to spur a split in the already divided greater community, continues until February 15, 2011.

Stay tuned as this one unwraps...

For full story, click HERE.



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