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| March 11, 2009 Contacts: Dr. Cruz María Nazario (787)675-1486 Dr. Jorge L. Colón (787)402-2015 Echoes of Vieques bombing present in Congressional hearing about the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) SAN JUAN – Former members of the Health and Environment Commission of the Technical and Professional Support Group for the Sustainable Development of Vieques sent a letter today to the House of Representative’s Committee on Science and Technology, Subcommittee on Investigation & Oversight, critizicing the biased and unscientific nature of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry’s (ATSDR) Public Health Assessments about the U.S. Navy bombing in Vieques, Puerto Rico and its health effects on the residents of Vieques. The Subcommittee on Investigation & Oversight will hold the hearing “ATSDR: Problems in the Past, Potential for the Future?” tomorrow Thursday March 12, 2009. In 2001 ATSDR published Public Health Assessments about the groundwater and drinking water contamination exposure pathway and about the soil contamination exposure pathway in Vieques. ATSDR conducted its assessments since in 1999 a Vieques resident asked the agency to find out if the U.S. Navy’s training exercises on the island of Vieques might have been exposing the residents to unhealthy levels of contaminants as part of the Navy bombing exercises at the Live Impact Area (LIA) at the east end of Vieques. In 2001 scientists in the areas of public health, chemistry, ecology, epidemiology, among others, which were members of the Health and Environment Commission of the Technical and Professional Support Group for the Sustainable Development of Vieques, evaluated drafts of the water and soil documents and sent critical analyses with extensive comments to the ATSDR where they concluded that the agency made biased and unscientific based assessments of the actual contamination in Vieques and the exposure pathways to the residents of Vieques. In addition, the critical analyses concluded that the ATSDR had no scientific justification for reaching its conclusion that the groundwater, drinking water, and soil in Vieques were not dangerous for the health of the residents of Vieques. The scientists alerted the Vieques residents that the ATSDR was not fulfilling its mission of preventing harm to human health from exposure to hazardous substances present in the environment. The scientists alerted the ATSDR that the agency’s assessments of groundwater and drinking water and soil were incorrect by design and that the agency failed to provide scientific evidence supporting its conclusions that there is no danger to the residents of Vieques from these exposure pathways. The ATSDR based its assessments almost entirely on data provided by the U.S. Navy, without making any attempt at an independent study and assessment. The ATSDR selected for review only those documents supporting the position that the U.S. Navy held that their bombing exercises caused no harm to the Vieques residents, and even those documents were not properly analyzed by the agency. The errors in the ATSDR Public Health Assessments in Vieques were so gross that the scientists and community leaders concluded that these errors can only be explained by a lack of professional expertise or by a deliberate intention of concealing evidence, the second possibility being more plausible. In their letter to the Congressional Subcommittee, the scientists expressed their concerns about the effects on the health of the residents of Vieques from the current manner in which the U.S. Navy is removing bombs on the ground in Vieques (by open detonation) and the Navy’s plan of conducting extensive burning of the vegetation to recover bombs. The residents of Vieques have a cancer incidence rate 15% higher, and a statistically significant excess risk of 26% of dying from cancer, when compared to the people living in the main island of Puerto Rico. Copies of the letter to the Congressional Subcommittee, and the comments sent to the ATSDR, are included. For further information, please contact: Dr. Cruz María Nazario (787) 671-6230 Dr. Jorge L. Colón (787) 402-2015 |
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