EPA's Responsibilities to Inform

[Fred Stoss <fstoss@acsu.buffalo.edu>]

Mark Bohne states, "How true your [Dan Dozier] statement is, 'If you lived near a Superfund site, public information, in my opinion, is more [than] just publically available information from an EPA database. I think the Agency has a responsibility to notifiy people directly, through mailings or radio and tv spots or newspaper ads (or a combination of all of the above) about the site and -- and this is where the spectrum of levels of involvement come in -- of other avenues of involvement, if people are interested.'"

In Rochester, NY there is one of those things called a cancer cluster. It happens to be in somewhat close proximity to what the EPA's Toxic Release Inventory data tells us is one of the country's largest emmiter of cancer-causing chemicals. The EPA, ATSDR (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry), and state agencies have not been able to make a "statistically significant" case for cause (emissions of toxic chemicals) and effect (rare brain cancers). What is the EPA's responsibility to the residents of the neighborhood(s) adjacent to this source of cancer-causing chemicals?

The EPA can provide tremdous amounts of data and information about the causes, but can the EPA answer the one basic question that the residents of that neighborhood ask, "Is it safe for my family to live here?" There are several answers: yes (and life goes on), no (and decisions can be made), and well, maybe (which is an answer completely unacceptable to the residents of the neighborhood).

March in several special interest groups who will cite scientific studies indicating the cancer cluster is a "statistical anomalie" and there is no apparent problem. March in several public interest groups who will cite scientific studies indicating the residents are in dire straights and they should be evacuated from their homes. 

Where does the EPA and its information and expertise come into play? How does the EPA facilitate a consensus? Is a consensus adequate to answer that one simple question, "Is it safe?"

Fred Stoss