WGXC-90.7 FM

Lafarge review gets Harvard health study next

Dec 31, 2010 7:24 am
Next up in the Lafarge cement plant expansion review process unfolding in the southern Albany County community of Ravena, but drawing in increasing numbers of concerned citizens and environmental watchdogs from Columbia and Greene counties, is a January 6 report on a Harvard School of Public Health study of the effects of heavy metals pollution on persons living within a ten mile radius of a plant such as Ravena's. Dr. Michael Bank, principal investigator for the Harvard School of Public Health will report on group results on blood and hair tests of 185 volunteer individuals tested May 15 and 16, 2010 at Pieter B. Coeymans Elementary School in Ravena. The study came about when several local residents in Ravena formed Community Advocates for Safe Emissions (CASE), who then approaches the noted school about a study to put better perspective on a state Department of Health look into the cement plant's history, in light of its current request before the state to expand and allegedly better clean up its activities. Lafarge was recently named one of the state's top air polluters. The Register Star has a story on the study and what's happening at Lafarge out today.