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Federal Agency Plans More Study of Nitro Dioxin Levels

Posted on: Thursday, 11 August 2005, 00:00 CDT

Federal health officials say dioxin levels found in Nitro's public schools need more study.

Officials from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Register also said they plan a more detailed review of levels of the toxic chemical found in Nitro homes and yards.

"We are going to continue to be involved," said Lora Werner, regional representative in Philadelphia for the agency.

Werner and a scientist with the agency, Steve Dearwent, spoke with local reporters after a meeting Thursday with Kanawha County schools officials about dioxin levels in Nitro Elementary and Nitro High and the local community center.

School officials concluded there was no immediate health threat to students.

"They didn't see that there was any substantial health threat from exposure at those levels," said Jim Withrow, the school board's lawyer. "It was good news as far as I'm concerned."

Dearwent said the dioxin concentrations found in dust inside the schools were "not alarmingly high."

"It does not present an immediate or imminent threat to students or employees there," he said. "They don't merit a real drastic response of keeping kids out of school or some big remediation."

But Dearwent said the numbers fall within the agency's official "evaluation levels" - between 50 parts per million and 1,000 parts per million - meaning that the agency believes a more detailed study is necessary.

For more than 20 years, the former Monsanto Co. chemical plant produced an herbicide that was contaminated with dioxin.

In a lawsuit filed in December, Charleston lawyers Stuart Calwell and Jim Humphreys allege that dioxin pollution from the plant had contaminated the town.

Last year, contractors hired by Calwell's law firm tested more than a dozen homes. They found levels of dioxin that ranged from 16 parts per trillion to 1,210 parts per trillion.

Later, they tested about two-dozen more homes. They found even higher levels of dioxin.

At Calwell's suggestion, the school board had dust inside its buildings tested. Dioxin concentrations ranged from 108 parts per trillion in one test at the high school to 865 parts per trillion at the community center. Tests found 173 parts per trillion in dust at the elementary school.

Source: Charleston Daily Mail

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