Re: ATSDR Great Lakes Reporting Environmental Exposures

[Guest guest]

It is demeaning and insulting to the American people " We the People " -

to pay for a study and have comments on how " We the People " would not

know how to interpret it.

This is the " diety-complex " that our government has. THEY know best.

Well, they don't know best. There are enough astute, learned or

self-taught people who have been harmed by poison and could not read a

taxpayer paid for report.

Motivated people can learn anything. Who did they do the report for?

Themselves? or " We the People? "

Science has not change. It is the interpretation of the data. The

damage control of outside " influencers. "

Tim , MD, said on Good Morning America, this morning, that they

were looking at " pet shampoo " and autism! And not the poison mercury

in the serum.

I thought I was hearing things. I wasn't as he said it twice. Pet

shampoo!

Thanks for sharing those reports, Sharon.

>

> As posted on the Occ-Med Chatboard.

> Sharon

>

>

> " With current technologies and health/environmental data systems we

should

> be able to produce a

> surveillance system that accurately assesses ongoing human health

effects of

> environmental exposures. "

>

> " Shortly before its release this past year, new leadership at ATSDR

> conducted an additional review specifically concerned that the

public might draw

> erroneous conclusions about the relationships between some of the

health data and

> the continuing environmental pollution. This led to a report recently

> released as the 2008 draft that has removed substantial portions of

the health

> data. "

>

>

> Dear Friends:

>

> Please share this email with anyone or groups interested in the

> environmental health situation of communities in the Great Lakes area.

> I am travelling and my list above is woefully inadequate.

>

> As you may recall in 2001 the International Joint Commission

> requested a report from the US Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease

> Registry (ATSDR) that assessed the remediation efforts and continuing

> pollution challenges in the IJC Areas of Concern on the US side of

> the Great Lakes. It specifically asked for a correlation between the

> existing health and environmental data collected by local, state, and

> federal governments in these areas. After several years the Agency

> produced a report that presented these data in statistical and GIS

> modes which were easily understandable to the general public. The

> report identified those areas that progress had been made and those

> still needing work.

>

> Due to the nature of the data no cause and effect relationships could

> be established between the environmental and health statistics. The

> report emphasized that its use was purely for the purposes of

> stimulating more specific and accurate research and highlighting the

> lack of accurate cause and effect data.

>

> The report then underwent several years of internal and external

> review that sharpened its presentation. Shortly before its release

> this past year, new leadership at ATSDR conducted an additional

> review specifically concerned that the public might draw erroneous

> conclusions about the relationships between some of the health data

> and the continuing environmental pollution. This led to a report

> recently released as the 2008 draft that has removed substantial

> portions of the health data.

>

> Fortunately the Agency has posted on its web site both the 2007 draft

> containing all the data and the rewritten 2008 draft without some of

> these data. The web site is

> http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/grtlakes/. Both drafts may be downloaded by

> clicking on 2007 or 2008 on the left side of the page. I urge all

> interested individuals and groups to utilize both reports to

> understand the situation in their area. These reports will, I hope,

> raise questions as to the possible causative relationships between

> current environmental exposures and disease. These questions deserve

> to be answered but the expense of accurate research will only be

> borne by government if communities demand attention to this

research agenda.

>

> Finally, I want to emphasize the recommendation of both drafts that

> the current collection of environmental health data in the US is

> inadequate and must be improved. With current technologies and

> health/environmental data systems we should be able to produce a

> surveillance system that accurately assesses ongoing human health

> effects of environmental exposures.

>

> All the best,

>

>

> Orris, MD, MPH

> Professor and Chief of Service

> Occupational and Environmental Medicine (MC684)

> University of Illinois at Chicago Medical Center

> Great Lakes Centers For Environmental and Occupational Health and

Safety

> 835 S. Wolcott Street

> Chicago, IL 60612

> Office: 312-996-5804

> Direct: 312-413-0105

> Fx 312-413-8485

>

>

>

>

>

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>