Environmental Epidemiology, Volume 1 Public Health and Hazardous Wastes (1991) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
8. General Conclusions
8. General Conclusions
Pages 256-270
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 256... ...
Whether Superfund and other hazardous-waste programs actually protect human health is a critical question for environmental epidemiology, at least with respect to federal and state efforts to clean up hazardous-waste sites. To answer it would require information on the scope of potential and actual human exposures to hazardous wastes and about the health effects that could be associated with these exposures.
|
From page 257... ...
A limited number of epidemiologic studies indicate that increased rates of birth defects, spontaneous abortion, neurologic impairment, and cancer have occurred in some residential populations exposed to hazardous wastes. We are concerned that other populations at risk might not have been adequately identified.
|
From page 258... ...
Because public health concerns have been given only minor importance, many potential Superfund sites have never been considered for inclusion on the NPL or have been dropped from the list, even though their public health impacts have not been studied adequately. At NPL sites where potentially critical exposures are detected, there is no regular application of an adequate system of early assessment of the health risks involved or of the need for interim action to protect the health of exposed populations.
|
From page 259... ...
Moreover, in all of the sites where there was known contamination of groundwater, more than 10,000 persons were potentially exposed. PROBLEMS OF EXPOSURE ASSESSMENT Exposure assessment provides critical information about potential human contact with relevant materials.
|
From page 260... ...
Information about these materials generally reflects the data requirements of environmental engineering and site remediation, rather than public health considerations. Accordingly, whether these materials pose a risk to public health cannot readily be determined in the absence of more detailed information about potential human exposures.
|
From page 261... ...
For the purposes of epidemiologic study, better characterizations of exposure are required than those usually available from engineering and hydrogeologic models and other estimates. Such models based on cursory local data often have been overemphasized while actual measurements or estimates of human exposure have gone undone.
|
From page 262... ...
AIR POLLUTION FROM HAZARDOUS WASTES Although few studies directly assess airborne exposures to hazardous wastes, the committee finds persuasive evidence that health effects can occur from such exposures. Review of the relevant animal literature on compounds known to occur at hazardous-waste sites, along with those few epidemiologic studies of airborne exposures from sites, shows that a wide range of effects may occur, and they include serious diseases, such as cancer, neurobehavioral complaints, and constellations of self-reported symptoms.
|
From page 263... ...
The fact that disparate populations in different countries experience similar symptoms indicates that a common set of exposures may be involved. Our belief that a constellation of symptoms may be associated with airborne exposures to emissions from hazardous-waste sites relies on a number of recent studies on the sick building syndrome and other studies of neurologic symptoms in solvent-exposed workers, which have found similar effects in exposed persons in different countries.
|
From page 264... ...
The role of exposures from hazardous-waste sites in the development of respiratory symptoms cannot be readily evaluated. DOMESTIC WATER CONTAMINATED WITH HAZARDOUS WASTES As Chapter 5 makes clear, exposure from domestic water is not limited to ingestion, but includes airborne exposures from materials that can outgas during showering, bathing, or cooking, or can be absorbed through the skin.
|
From page 265... ...
In a study in North Carolina strong evidence was found that increased cancer mortality rates were associated with exposure over a period of two decades to what was estimated to be a broad range of industrial by-products and hazardous substances in domestic water supplies. In a rural area, significant clusters of cancer developed about twenty years after residents had begun drinking raw, untreated river water contaminated by hazardous wastes.
|
From page 266... ...
A limited number of reports in the peer-reviewed scientific literature have linked spontaneous abortion, low birth weight, and birth defects to the consumption of contaminated domestic water supplies. Studies in Santa Clara County, California, have been inconclusive as to the cause of a cluster of birth defects observed there.
|
From page 267... ...
One area that should not be neglected entails estimating exposures from consumption of fish that bioconcentrate lipophilic materials from sediment and water. Site assessments should use more realistic exposure measures, including direct studies of contaminants at the tap for domestic water supplies and estimates of consumption of contaminated foods and fish.
|
From page 268... ...
Surveys of the similar constellations of subjective symptoms reported by persons exposed in different countries to hazardous wastes indicate that such symptoms collectively can represent sentinel health events associated with such exposures. The further development and application of this approach to environmental surveillance holds particular promise for the epidemiologic investigation of populations exposed to hazardous wastes.
|
From page 269... ...
Evaluate compliance with public health recommendations for the protection of exposed populations and site remediation. · Improve and expand research to fill data gaps in environmental epidemiology to illuminate the distribution and severity of exposures, risks, and health effects associated with hazardous-waste sites.
|
From page 270... ...
Until better evidence is developed, prudent public policy demands that a margin of safety be provided regarding potential health risks from exposures to hazardous-waste sites. We do no less in designing bridges and buildings.
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.