Review of the US Navy's Human Health Risk Assessment of the Naval Air Facility at Atsugi, Japan
INTRODUCTION
This report was prepared by the Subcommittee on the Atsugi Incinerator, a subcommittee of the National Research Council's Committee on Toxicology, in response to a request from the US Navy for an independent review of the Navy Environmental Health Center (NEHC) report NAF Atsugi, Japan Human Health Risk Assessment Summary of Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations, Draft Final, January 2000 (NEHC 2000). In reviewing the NEHC draft summary report, the subcommittee also studied a number of supporting documents, including a risk-assessment draft report prepared by Pioneer Technologies Corporation (Pioneer 2000); sampling plans, sampling results, and summaries prepared by Radian International (Radian 1998a,b,c,d, 1999a,b,c,d, 2000a,b,c,d); statistical analyses prepared by Research Triangle Institute (RTI 1999); and quality-assurance reports (IT 1999; UAI 1999). A brief summary of the subcommittee's review of the risk assessment is provided below and is followed by a detailed evaluation of the planning of the risk assessment, data analyses, interpretation of the results of the risk assessment, data gaps, some suggestions for improving the NEHC draft summary report itself, and the responses of NEHC to comments from previous National Research Council committees. Specific examples of some of the problems associated with the NEHC draft summary report and other issues are presented in appendixes.
SUMMARY
The Enviro-Tech incinerator facility, formerly called the Shinkampo or Jinkanpo incinerator complex, is adjacent to the US Naval Air Facility (NAF) at Atsugi, Japan, southwest of Tokyo. Enviro-Tech is a privately owned waste-combustion facility that consists of three incinerators, a waste-staging area, and an ash-holding area. Concerns have been raised by the residents of NAF Atsugi—US Navy personnel and their families—regarding the health effects of exposure to emissions from the incinerators and to chemicals resulting from the storage, handling, and disposal of waste material at the facility.
At the Navy's request, the National Research Council's Committee on Toxicology (COT) previously reviewed preliminary health risk assessments of NAF Atsugi that had been conducted by Navy Environmental Health Center (NEHC 1995, 1998). COT concurred with NEHC's overall recommendation that a comprehensive health risk assessment of NAF Atsugi be conducted (NRC 1995, 1998). NEHC conducted a comprehensive health risk assessment of NAF Atsugi and issued a draft summary report in 2000, NAF
