Funding for a federal study of how PCBs have affected Anniston residents moved closer to reality Thursday with action by the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee.
"I believe that it is imperative to conduct a comprehensive health study for residents of Anniston," said U.S. Sen. Richard C. Shelby, R-Tuscaloosa, a committee member. "Without this information, without the best science and information available, we will continue to make bad decisions and bad choices for the people of Anniston."
Senate sources estimate $3.4 million is designated for the study, within the $81 million approved for the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry as part of a larger budget bill. The registry complements the work of the Environmental Protection Agency by dealing with human exposure at the nation's worst toxic pollution sites. The $81 million for 2003 is up slightly from ATSDR's 2002 budget of $78.2 million. The agency budget now goes to the full Senate and then must be reconciled with the House version before going to President Bush.
Shelby noted that people living around the former Monsanto plant in western Anniston have some of the highest levels of polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, seen in residential areas. PCBs are a group of chemicals linked to cancer, neurodevelopmental deficits, and other health problems.
"Many residents believe that their town has an abnormally high rate of cancer, miscarriages and liver, heart and other ailments that they say can be traced to Monsanto's PCB production," Shelby said.
Pervasive PCB pollution in Anniston neighborhoods, waterways, landfills and ditches, has prompted multi-million dollar litigation and state and federal cleanup agreements with Solutia, Inc., Monsanto's spinoff company.
Activists and plaintiffs in the PCB litigation want a health clinic for western Anniston, a survey of diseases in the community, and a long-term health study. None has been conducted previously.
"I think this is a failure of the system," Shelby said. "I cannot believe that we would continue to work towards a cleanup, monitor groundwater, surface water and soil composition and never once ask how all of this is affecting the health of the citizens that live there."
The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has proposed for Anniston a prospective cohort study, in which scientists could identify, evaluate and track the health of a defined group of PCB-exposed residents for a number of years, and then compare the health outcomes to a non-PCB exposed group.
