The University of Kansas Medical Center (KUMC) has received $650,000 from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to study possible health effects of four commercial hazardous waste burners operating in and around the southeast Kansas communities of Chanute, Coffeyville, Fredonia, and Independence.
The two and one-half year study is a collaborative effort among researchers from KUMC's Center for Environmental and Occupational Health and Department of Preventive Medicine, and the University of Kansas (KU) Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Under the leadership of Dr. H. William Barkman, the study's principal investigator and director of the Center for Environmental and Occupational Health, investigators will conduct ambient air sampling in the study communities, evaluate the respiratory health of community residents, and investigate cancer incidence and mortality rates in the study communities and counties. These activities also will be carried out in a town--located upwind from the study area--that will serve as the study's control community.
The study, which started September 1, responds to health concerns expressed by community residents during hazardous waste permitting activities the EPA conducted in 1995 and 1996. With four commercial hazardous waste combustors, three cement kilns and an incinerator located within a 25-mile radius, the area has the highest concentration of commercial hazardous waste burners in the country, according to EPA reports. The hazardous waste burners in the area are operated by Ash Grove Cement Company at Chanute, Aptus/Laidlaw at Coffeyville, Lafarge Corporation at Fredonia, and Heartland Cement Company at Independence.
During the study's first year, researchers will concentrate on performing preliminary reviews of existing environmental and health data, and holding public information meetings to encourage community participation in the study's final design. Community involvement will be essential to the study's success.
Drs. Dennis Lane and Glen Marotz of KU's Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering will lead the study's environmental sampling and analysis team. Their first task will be to review existing air sampling data and identify the locations, number, and types of air samples to be collected and analyzed during the study's second year.
Barkman will direct the study's respiratory health component. During the first year of the study, a review of existing hospital data on emergency room visits for acute respiratory illness will be conducted and a preliminary respiratory health survey of randomly selected residents in the study and control communities will be carried out. This preliminary survey will be used to help select a sample group of approximately 50 volunteers from each study community and the control community to participate in a respiratory health evaluation that will include a brief physical, medical history, and pulmonary function testing. The volunteers will undergo the respiratory health evaluation once at the end of the study's first year and again at the end of the second year.
Dr. John Neuberger of the Department of Preventive Medicine will lead the cancer study, which builds upon an earlier epidemiological study of pediatric cancers in the area performed by Dr. Stephen Pickard of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The cancer incidence and mortality rates of the study and control counties will be examined in relation to environmental data on residents' exposure to toxic agents.
For more information, contact Mary G. Walker at Tel: (913) 588-7188, Toll-Free: (877) 511-2167, Fax: (913) 588-7160, e-mail: mwalker3@kumc.edu.
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The University of Kansas Medical Center