Officials Warn of New Orleans Health Risks
Posted on: Thursday, 29 September 2005, 18:00 CDT
By H. JOSEF HEBERT
WASHINGTON - Federal officials acknowledged great uncertainties remain about the health risks from contamination left by Hurricane Katrina but said Thursday the decision on whether people should return to New Orleans is a local one.
As water is drained from the city, among the new worries cited at a congressional hearing are exposure to contaminated sediments and widespread mold in water-logged homes as well as people breathing unhealthy air that includes fine, contaminated dust.
"This a very complex environmental situation -- sediment, mold, debris removal," Dr. Henry Falk, director for environmental health and injury prevention at the Centers for Disease Control, told a House hearing on Katrina's environmental impacts.
While 80 percent of the drinking water systems in the region affected by Katrina were again operating, water systems that once served 2.3 million people, many in New Orleans, remain shut down, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Samples of floodwater and sediment in New Orleans have shown high levels of bacteria, fecal contamination as well as arsenic and lead and the EPA acknowledges those samples are "snapshots" that do not give a total picture and may miss contamination hotspots.
Falk and Deputy EPA Administrator Marcus Peacock told the House hearing that environmental conditions vary in different parts of the city and decisions to allow people back should be made on a neighborhood basis.
Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif., wondered why the EPA should not make the decision on whether it's safe for people to return to New Orleans.
"The EPA ... will not lift the evacuation order and tell people it's safe to go back," replied Peacock, adding that is the responsibility of local officials.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is pushing aggressively to reopen the city and have people return.
Visiting the stricken Gulf region on Thursday, EPA Administrator Stephen L. Johnson declined to take a position on Nagin's approach, but noted the city's bacteria-laden floodwaters, lack of drinking water and sewage system as areas of continued concern.
Falk, testifying before the House Energy and Commerce environment subcommittee, said there could be long-term chronic health problems for some people as a result of returning to New Orleans.
"The potential for any long lasting effects depends on the degree of exposure. ... How long people are exposed" to contaminated sediments, bacteria-laden floodwater or other health hazards, said Falk.
As floodwater recede, there is growing concern about contaminated dust getting into the air from dried sediment, or mold-contaminated structures, environmentalists said.
Peacock said that EPA's ground-based air monitoring is only beginning, although an extensive sampling program is planned "to assess potential inhalation risks from particulates."
Environmentalists and citizen advocates said the EPA is understating the health risks in New Orleans and that federal and local officials are not providing people with information they need to decide whether to return.
Erik Olson, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, said the EPA monitors showed unhealthy levels of benzene and other toxic chemicals in the air in some areas of the city.
"Returning citizens and many responders do not understand the risks," Olson told the subcommittee.
"If you read the (EPA) web site (showing sampling results) you practically have to have a degree in chemistry to understand it," he said, adding that most people seeking to return to New Orleans don't have computers to even get that information.
Peacock said the EPA and Coast Guard responded to more than 400 reported oil or chemical spills, including five major spills in the New Orleans area, releasing more than 8 million gallons. Environmentalists contend those numbers understate the situation and do not include oil that has leaked from some 350,000 motor vehicles and toxic chemicals from industrial sources.
In a bit of good news, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported Thursday that tests on fish caught in the Gulf of Mexico two weeks after Hurricane Katrina showed no increases in contamination by oil.
Additional tests for exposure to bacteria, pesticides and other toxic chemicals have not been completed. Testing of shrimp samples from Mississippi Sound also are still underway.
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On the Net:
EPA: http://www.epa.gov
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
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