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Library: Letters: Monroe County Health Board | |||||||||||||||
March 3, 1998 Judge Kennard Foster RE: Cause No. IP 83-9-C-D/F Dear Judge Foster: As the group primarily charged with promoting the health of the public in our county, the Monroe County Health Board is concerned with recent proposals, the effects of which would be to leave polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) wastes in our area in landfills of dubious security. We understand that you are charged with pursuing in an expedited way the "aims of the consent decree" signed in the early 80's by Westinghouse Corporation (now CBS) and governmental regulatory and municipal authorities involved, The aims of that agreement were the destruction or removal of materials contaminated with PCBs incidental to their past industrial use by Westinghouse. This seems to us the only reasonable course of action given the known persistence of PCBs in the environment and their toxicity (1). This requirement for destruction or removal of PCBs in the interests of human health extends to the dioxins and dibenzofurans derived from PCBs by low temperature incineration. Some of these are more powerful carcinogens than the PCBs themselves (2). The Board opposes PCB removal or destruction actions that leave substantial amounts of contaminated materials on site or in existing, local landfills. Our opposition is based on the poor local terrain for landfill siting and the potential that bears for inevitable leakage. Release of PCBs to groundwater will have unpredictable but highly probable adverse health effects in the long term. We urge removal of contaminated material to a commercial out-of-state landfill. We applaud your charge to speed the PCB removal or destruction process in Monroe County and your evident energy in pursuing that goal. At the same time we are concerned that haste will impel decisions that threaten the public health in the long term. Since decisions made in the near future will have far reaching effects we urge caution, patience and attention to the interests of the health of the present and the future population of our County and its natural resources. 1. Nicholson and Landrigan "Human Health Effects of Polychlorinated Biphenyls" In: Schecter, A., ed., (1994) Dioxins and Health, Plenum Press Inc., New York. 2. Schecter, A. and Olson, J. R. (1997) Cancer Risk Assessment Using Blood Dioxin Levels and Daily Dietary TEQ Intake in General Populations in Industrial and Nonindustrial Countries. Chemosphere 34:1569-1577. For the Board, I am Yours truly,
George Hegeman, Chair cc: Monroe County Commissioners |
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The Coaltion Opposed to PCB
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