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PRESS
RELEASES
For more information, contact September 9, 1997 The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded $400,000 the the University of Kansas Medical Center to study possible health implications of four commercial hazardous waste burners operating in southeast Kansas. The study will be conducted by the university's Center for Environmental and Occupational Health. EPA
Region 7 Administrator Dennis Grams said the study responds to concerns
raised during Region 7 public participation activities.
Grams, in Kansas City, Kansas, said many southeast Kansas
residents were concerned about health problems related to hazardous
waste burners in their communities. “Researchers
will be performing preliminary investigations and holding a series of
public meetings in southeast Kansas during the next 12 months to
encourage communities to participate in the design of the study,”
Grams said. He
said the communities involved in the projected 2-1/2-year study are
Chanute, Coffeyville, Fredonia and Independence. “Participation
by citizens in the community, local physicians
and health officials will be essential to
the success of this study,” Grams said. The
hazardous waste burners in the southeast Kansas area are operated by Ash
Grove Cement Company at Chanute, Aptus/Laidlaw at Coffeyville, Lafarge
Corporation at Fredonia and
Heartland Cement Company at Independence. Grams
said the study would evaluate the health implications of existing
environmental data and identify environmental data gaps that need to be
addressed. Ambient air samples will be collected in and around the study
communities and a control community for one year during the study. RESPIRATORY
HEALTH Grams
said a draft protocol -- which can change during public and peer review --
calls for randomly chosen volunteers from the study and control
communities to complete health questionnaires for the respiratory part of
the study. The survey size will be decided during stakeholder and
community meetings in the first year of the study. The
questionnaires will be used to help select a sample group of about 50
people from each study and control community.
Complete medical histories will be taken from each of the
volunteers, including brief physical examinations and pulmonary function
testing, at the end of the study's first year and again at the end of the
second year. Data
on emergency room visits for acute respiratory illness will be collected
from hospitals in the study and control communities and reviewed monthly
during the second year of the study.
In the final phase of the study -- year 3 -- medical data and
environmental data will be examined for cause-and-effect relationships. CANCER
CONCERNS The
draft protocol calls for the cancer part of the study to build upon a
preliminary epidemiological study of pediatric cancers in the area
performed by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment (KDHE). The
follow-on study will evaluate cancer incidence and mortality rates in the
study and control areas. Data
for this portion of the study will be abstracted from the vital records
section of KDHE's Kansas Cancer Registry and the National Cancer
Institute's Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Result program. 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. Investigators also will review literature on these toxic agents to identify their levels of risk for causing cancer in humans. #####
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