T.E.A.C.H.

Public Health Assessment Report on Reich Farm, Dover Township Municipal Landfill and Silverton Private Well Contamination Investigation has been released.
September 1999

Public Comment Release.

Reich Farm and Dover Township Municipal Landfill
Public Health Assessments

Gray Area=United Water Toms River Service Area
Blue=Water
Yellow=Land
Blue Dots=United Water Toms River Points of Entry

The New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) and the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) have completed the Public Comment Draft of Reich Farm, Dover Township Landfill Health Assessment and Silverton Private Well Contamination Investigation.

The following are the conclusions and recommmedations of the report;

Reich Farm Public Health Assessment

After assessing the weight of evidence, the NJDHSS and the ATSDR conclude that the Reich Farm site was a public health hazard because of past exposures for the following reasons:
- 1) a potentially large number of people were exposed to contaminants in their drinking water;
- 2) epidemiologic studies in other communities suggest that exposure to trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene may increase the risk of certain childhood cancers and adverse neurological effects; and,
- 3) there is an excess of childhood cancer in this community.

Dover Township Landfill Health Assessment and Silverton Private Well Contamination Investigation

After assessing the weight of evidence, the NJDHSS and the ATSDR conclude that the DTML (Dover Township Municipal Landfill) represented a public health hazard because of past exposures to ground water contaminants. There is evidence that the DTML site contaminated nearby private wells on Silverton Road with volatile organic compounds and lead. The DTML is considered to represent no apparent public health hazard at present, because there are no known current exposures to contaminated ground water. Ground water investigations currently being conducted by Dover Township will help determine the nature and extent of site-related contamination.

The Silverton area private well contamination is also considered to have represented a public health hazard because of past exposures. Many of the wells sampled contained more than one volatile organic compound at levels well above health comparison levels. Since these wells are no longer in use, the area poses no public health hazard at the present time.

This Public Health Assessment supports the need to consider the potential for exposures discussed in this document in the on-going epidemiologic study of childhood cancer in this community.

For a full copy of the report, please contact:

NJDHSS Toms River Field Office (732-505-4188)

NJDHSS Consummer and Environmental Heath Services
(609-633-2043)

Single copy available for view at the
Ocean County Library, Toms River Branch

Copies can be viewed on the web site at

www.state.nj.us/health

TEACH is asking the public to please read these reports and make any comments. Written comments must be postmarked by October 1, 1999 and send them to :
New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services,
Consumer and Environmental Health Services,
ATSDR Project, P.O. Box 360, Trenton, NJ 08625-0360.

A Toms River coalition group is being formed on the clean-up of the Ciba Geigy Superfund Site.
The members of the coalition group being formed are:
T.E.A.C.H. (Toxic Environment Affects Children's Health)
O.C.C.C.W. (Ocean County Citizens for Clean Water)
Pine Lake Park Association, Manchester, NJ.

Any other group(s) concerned with the clean-up of the Ciba Geigy Superfund Site are welcome to join this coalition.

Are we sure of the number of drums buried at the Ciba Geigy Site ?

EPA's own documents (Record of Decision) in 1989 said that,

"A 5.2-acre Drum Disposal Area (containing approximately 100,000 Drums); A 3.9-acre Lime Sludge Disposal Area (used for disposal of inorganic wastes); A 12-acre Filtercake Disposal Area (which received sludge from the wastewater treatment); Five Backfilled Lagoons comprising 8.5 acres; and a Calcium Sulfate disposal Area. The Drum Disposal Area and Lime Sludge Disposal area were closed and capped in 1978. About this time, the Filtercake Disposal Area was also closed and covered with soil. Groundwater contamination is migrating from these inactive disposal sites easterly towards the Toms River.

In 1979, "A State geologist calculated that the company had buried on-site 120,000 drums of chemical wastes since it began operating in 1952."

Why, you may wonder, is this important to us? First, we want to try to ensure that all the toxic drums are removed. Second, the EPA's presentation material from the public meeting states approximately 35,000 drums are buried on the Ciba Site. This estimate, if incorrect, could affect the clean-up method chosen and the length of the clean-up. The topic of thermal desorption/incineration has received the most talk and presentations. If you double or triple the amount of buried drums, and incineration/thermal desorption is the method chosen, then the amount of dioxin escaping into the air and into this community could increase as well. This may affect the way the clean-up should go.

This is why it is very important for the public to get involved, otherwise you may have a toxic incinerator in your back yards.

Ciba Geigy is due to release the Feasability Study on the clean-up of the Ciba Geigy Superfund Site.

Yes, Ciba Geigy has done its own Feasbility Study on the clean-up of its own site. On August 31, 1999 Ciba will release to the public and the EPA its Feasbility Study. This study will outline what options Ciba has determined to be the best way to clean up the site. The document is approximately 300 pages and will be available at the Ocean County Library ( 2 Copies ), Ocean County Planning Office ( 2 Copies ) and on the Internet from the EPA site.
( http://www.epa.gov/region02/superfnd/site_sum/0200078c.htm )

Who is looking out for the interest of the public?

The number of drums buried is underestimated by EPA's own documents. Wouldn't it be better to error on the side of safety in accounting for the number of drums buried on the Ciba site?
The term "Thermal Desorption" is used instead of incineration so the public may not be aware an incinerator may be coming to town. To "burn" means to "expose to the action of fire", in this case are they not burning the chemicals in a thermal desorption unit?
Some of the information presented at the EPA public meetings are mis-leading. Please read an article by a member of A.I.R. (Arrest the Incinerator Remediation) from Lock Haven, Pennsylvania titled,
"Superfund: A Citizens Report on Toms River, NJ"
The EPA has stated they want to work with citizens and citizens groups, so why has the EPA refused to provide electronic copies of Ciba's handouts to this web site?
Is the site going to be cleaned up when this process is over? In Lock Haven, PA where citizens fought incineration, the clean-up was "complete" when only 12.5 feet of soil was processed even though the level of contamination was down 35 feet.
The effects of dioxin had been downplayed in the community. The EPA's draft report on dioxin was published in 1994 and the final report was due out in 1996, to inform and protect the public from this exposure. Why are the citizens in Toms River told it is acceptable to be exposed to elevated dioxins levels, before the EPA has completed the final release on the health affects of dioxins?

For more information on dioxins visit these web sites:
EPA Tightens Standards for Air Emissions from Hazardous Waste Combustors
http://www.enviroweb.org/issues/dioxin/index.html
http://www.epa.gov/nceawww1/dioxin.htm
http://www.enviroweb.org/pubs/rachel/rehw463.htm
http://www.enviroweb.org/pubs/rachel/rhwn353.htm
http://www.senate.gov/~reed/releases/990126a.htm
http://www.niehs.nih.gov/oc/factsheets/dioxin.htm

The "Tooth Fairy Project"
The Baby Teeth Study

Alec Baldwin
on behalf of

RADIATION AND PUBLIC HEALTH PROJECT (RPHP)
STANDING FOR TRUTH ABOUT RADIATION (STAR)
TOXIC ENVIRONMENTS EFFECT CHILDRENS HEALTH (TEACH)

Cordially invites you fo attend

A discussion of the baby teeth study and cancer rates in Toms River, New Jersey

RADIATION AND HEALTH SEMINAR
7 P.M. Tuesday September 2l,1999
Fine Arts Building
Ocean County College
Toms River, New Jersey

Actor Alec Baldwin sent a letter to 15,000 families in New York and New Jersey, asking them to donate their children's teeth to the "Tooth Fairy Project, "'a national, scientific study of Americans' exposure to radioactivity. Today, we are inviting you to bring your children's teeth when you attend a Radiation and Health Seminar, for a public discussion of the baby teeth study and cancer rates on Long island.

Why Study Baby Teeth?

The chemical structure of radioactive strontium (called Sr·90) is similar to calcium, and, when ingested by pregnant women, some of it is transferred to the bones of the fetus. Interestingly this material can be measured in the deciduous teeth that children lose between the ages of 5 and 11, Once in the body, Sr·90 continually irradiates cells in the bone and blood-forming element for many years where it can induce bone cancer or leukemia. Babies who ingest breast milk and children who drink cows milk and formula based milk may also ingest Sr·90, which settles in their bones.

The Federal Government no longer measures Sr·90 uptake in the body. As a result, the Radiation and Public Health Project (RPHP) has launched its own national study of the levels of Sr·90 in baby teeth. This Study will measure the Sr·90 levels in teeth. If they are elevated, we will then need to determine whether nuclear power reactors and research reactors at federal laboratories (such as Brookhaven) are affecting our public health and contributing to America's cancer epidemic.

Study History

Sr-90 is a known carcinogen that did not exist in nature prior to 1945, the dawn of the nuclear age. From 1954 to 1963, during atmospheric nuclear testing, the amount of Sr·90 from fallout rose alarmingly in human bone when tested in adult cadavers in N.Y.C, according to official U.S, Department of Energy (DOE) data. Baby teeth were also examined by Dr. Barry Commoner and Dr. Ernest Sternglass, and the Sr·90 levels were high. As a result, in 1963 President Kennedy terminated all above ground testing of nuclear weapons.

To speed ratification of the Partial Test Ban in 1963, the White House asked Dr. Ernest Sternglass, now emeritus professor of radiological physics at the University of Pittsburgh Medical School, to testify before a congressional committee on the effect of low level radiation in inducing childhood cancer. After the termination of above ground nuclear bomb tests, the amount of Sr-90 found in both adults and children's baby teeth declined rapidly. However, 1970 was the last year in which baby teeth were officially tested and the DOE stopped publishing adult Sr-90 levels in 1982. Thus, it is fitting that Dr. Sternglass is now co-directing a second independent study of baby teeth. Currently, the RPHP Baby Teeth Study is focusing on Long Island and the greater New York/New Jeraey metropolitan area to see if Sr-90 levels are once again elevated in baby teeth.

The STAR Foundation is therefore supporting the effects of the non-profit Radiation and Pubic Health Project (PO Box 60, Unionville NY 10988) to collect otherwise discarded baby teeth, identified by name, phone, address and date and place of birth. We can analyze varying levels of strontium-90 in baby teeth associated with all large-scale reactor releases anywhere in the United States.

Any questions please e-mail this web site and we will try to provide you with the information.

The next CAC (Citizens Action Committee on the Childhood Cancer Cluster) Meeting will be on September 20, 1999 at 7:00pm. Meeting dates and location can be found under "How to Help".

The next EPA Meeting will be in November. When the date becomes available we will post it here.

The previous cover page can be found under "RESOURCES", Previous Month's Cover Pages.