ATSDR Great Lakes Reporting Environmental Exposures

[Guest guest]

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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