A comment on local cancer rates and the environment

The Times News has a story in today's paper titled "Rare blood disease hits home" about one man's experience with polycythemia vera and the public meeting slated for July 9 in Tamaqua about the plans for more research on the local cluster of that disease. I shared a comment at the paper's website that I also wanted to share with Hometown Hazards readers. Here it is in full.



Thanks to Mr. Wertman for having the courage to talk publicly about his illness, to Donnie Serfass for his reporting, and to the Times-News for publishing this story, which helps give a human face to a serious problem affecting the anthracite coal region.

I'd like to share my thoughts about one particular point, to wit: "Some believe the problem is based on industrial pollution, past or present. At the very least, environmental factors are considered a suspect."

That's true. But it's important to keep in mind who that "some" includes, because it's not only those of us who've lived in the area with open eyes and basic common sense who believe environmental pollution is a likely factor behind the unusual cancer patterns. The independent and government scientists who studied the local incidence of the disease also reached that conclusion.

"The close proximity of this cluster to known areas of hazardous material exposure raises concern that such environmental factors might play a role in the origin of polycythemia vera," the researchers said in their published study.

And that was not an easy thing for them to say. As study author Dr. Ronald Hoffman of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine revealed in his sworn testimony earlier this year during a U.S. House subcommittee hearing, ATSDR's management first tried to discourage that research and then tried to prevent the publishing of findings suggesting an environmental connection.

"My sense is that if the agency was left to itself, it would have preferred to ignore the problem," he said.

Hoffman also told Congress that ATSDR misrepresented the study's findings at the October 2007 community meeting in Hazleton (a meeting that lead ATSDR researcher Dr. Seaman missed because his bosses had dispatched him to Africa not long before), demanded that Hoffman not exhibit the maps showing a geographic relationship between PV cases and pollution sources at a national hematology meeting and -- when he refused -- pestered him with repeated phone calls demanding that he either withdraw the abstract of his research, tell the conference that the agency disagreed with him, or present an abridged version of the data.

He called it an "obvious attempt at intimidation."

Also keep in mind that polycythemia vera is not the only cancer that occurs in the tri-county area at an unusually high rate: The Pa. Department of Health Study of cancer rates from 1996 to 2002 also found statistically significantly elevated rates of other cancers:

* In Schuylkill County, buccal cavity and pharynx cancer for males and overall; colon and rectum for males, females and overall; liver cancer overall; pancreatic cancer for females and overall; bronchus and lung cancer for females; cervix and uterine cancer; prostate cancer; and Hodgkin's lymphoma overall.

* In Luzerne County, stomach cancer for males, females and overall; colon and rectum cancer for males and overall; larynx cancer for males and overall; bronchus and lung cancer for females and overall; uterine cancer; thyroid cancer for females and overall; and leukemias for males, females and overall.

* In Carbon County, melanoma of the skin overall.

Some of those cancers could probably be blamed on unhealthy lifestyle choices, sure -- but not all of them. The fact is, too many people in this area are suffering from serious diseases because of the unhealthy choices of polluters and the government.

Federal officials to hold Tamaqua public meeting July 9 about polycythemia vera research plans

The U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the troubled Centers for Disease Control and Prevention subdivision that's investigating a Hometown-area cluster of the rare blood cancer polycythemia vera, will hold a public meeting this Thursday, July 9 to discuss how it plans to spend the $5.5 million Congress allocated for the official study into the problem, which researchers believe is environmental in origin.



The meeting will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Tamaqua Area High School auditorium. The ATSDR's press release about the event, posted below in full, says it will provide "an overview of the PV research and other activities that will be funded by a special appropriation. In addition, the principal investigators of three already-identified projects will be on hand for more detailed discussions of their work. The projects include: the Drexel epidemiological study, the McAdoo Superfund Site Water Outflow Study, and the ATSDR JAK2 screening project."

Please note that while the headline says the test indicating whether a person has the JAK2 genetic mutation associated with polycythemia vera is "to be available for area residents," blood draws will in fact be done in August and not at this week's meeting.

* * *

ATSDR Slates July 9 Public Meeting on Polycythemia Vera Issues - JAK2 Testing to Be Available for Area Residents

Carbon, Luzerne, Schuylkill County County, Tamaqua, Pennsylvania

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

ATLANTA - The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) will hold a public meeting in the Tamaqua High School auditorium, 500 Penn St, Tamaqua, PA., on Thursday, July 9, 2009 from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. to inform area residents of recent efforts regarding polycythemia vera (PV).

At the meeting ATSDR officials will present an overview of the PV research and other activities that will be funded by a special appropriation. In addition, the principal investigators of three already-identified projects will be on hand for more detailed discussions of their work. The projects include: the Drexel epidemiological study, the McAdoo Superfund Site Water Outflow Study, and the ATSDR JAK2 screening project.

The JAK2 genetic marker was discovered in 2004 and found to occur in more than 95% of PV patients. Many experts believe people with PV and related blood disorders may test positive for the JAK2 marker for a number of years before ever exhibiting symptoms of PV. It is not known at this time if the JAK2 marker always leads to PV or another blood disease.

Since the rates of PV are higher in this area of Pennsylvania than other parts of the state, ATSDR will offer free blood tests to the community for the purpose of screening for the JAK2 gene marker. By volunteering for this testing, residents can learn if they carry this marker, even though they are currently without symptoms of PV. Early diagnosis and treatment of PV can prevent or delay complications.

Individuals aged 40 or older are deemed most likely to test positive for the JAK2 marker; however, anyone living in Carbon, Luzerne or Schuylkill County is eligible for the screening. Blood draw clinics will be set up in Hazelton, Tamaqua and Pottsville from August 3-6 and August 10-13, 2009. Individuals are encouraged to make an appointment ahead of time by signing up at the public meeting or by calling 1-877-525-4860.

MEDIA NOTICE: A media availability session with the presenters and ATSDR officials will be held on site prior to the start of the public session from 6:00 to 6:45 p.m.

ATSDR, a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, evaluates the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances.

Goodbye to Cancer Valley: In remembrance of John Soley

After a long struggle with cancer, my friend Mr. John Soley died at his home in Carbon County, Pa. on Saturday, June 20. He was only 62, which is too young to die of natural causes. But then, neither John nor I believe he got sick from natural causes. We believe he and many of his neighbors were poisoned by pollution, and that the perpetrators should be held to account.



Outspoken in the local grassroots struggle against environmental injustice, Mr. Soley was a resident of Quakake Road north of Hometown, the rural Appalachian village where I grew up and where my mom still lives. Located where Carbon, Schuylkill and Luzerne counties converge in Pennsylvania's anthracite coal mining region, Quakake Road is a continuation of Ben Titus Road, where residents have reported an unusual number of cases of the rare blood malignancy polycythemia vera as well as other cancers and chronic illnesses. Last year, researchers with the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry confirmed a cluster of polycythemia vera in that area and believe it is caused by something in the environment.

Indeed, the valley where Mr. Soley lived lies below what may be the most toxic mountaintop in America. Broad Mountain is home to McAdoo Associates, a former Reading Co. coal mine that in the 1970s became an illegal chemical waste incinerator and dump used by some of the most prominent corporations in America, including BASF, Johnson & Johnson and a company that today is part of petroleum giant BP. The property is now a Superfund toxic waste site that was once considered one of the country's most dangerous. The first federal investigators on the scene reported finding massive sheets of cancer-causing benzene on the property and dead animals and birds scattered around chemical drums. The smell from the place was so sickening that we used to roll up the car windows and hold our breath when driving past.

Today that Superfund site sits next to the heavily polluting Northeastern Power cogeneration facility, one of seven such power plants in the tri-county area that burn waste coal and waste fuel. Adjacent to the cogeneration plant is what's known as the Big Gorilla -- an old strip mine that since 1997 has served as a dump for the toxic combustion waste created at the power plant. In the photo at left, the cogeneration facility can be seen through the gates of the Superfund site.

To give you a sense of how close Mr. Soley lived to this toxic mess, see the Google Earth image below, where his property is marked with the square in the upper right. The large water body in the center is the Still Creek Reservoir, which provides drinking water for Hometown and the nearby borough of Tamaqua; the black area in the upper left is the old mine site; the lighter-colored area to its right is the Big Gorilla; the white triangle between the black ash pit and the road is the Superfund site; and the industrial facility on the lower edge of the ash pit is the cogeneration plant. The road running along the left edge of the image is Pa. Route 309. The highway roughly follows the Little Schuylkill, the Schuylkill River's northernmost headwaters, which originate on the mountaintop:

The community also lies a a couple of miles northeast -- that is, downwind -- of the Air Products plant, a manufacturer of electronics specialty gases and one of the few domestic producers of toxic fluorine gases. According to the Environmental Protection Agency's Toxics Release Inventory, the facility reported emitting to the air in 2007 alone more than 3,400 pounds of toxic hydrogen fluoride as well as more than 2,300 pounds of dichloromethane or methylene chloride.

Methylene chloride is a solvent known to cause cancer in humans, and it has a characteristically sweet odor. Coincidentally, during my last visit with Mr. Soley at his home this past October, he noted a weird smell coming from Air Products that he likened to bubble gum.

Welcome to Cancer Valley

I first met John Soley several years ago at a borough council meeting we attended in Tamaqua. It turned out that he knew my father, Dan Sturgis, as they worked together at the former Atlas Powder Co., where Mr. Soley was an electrician. My dad, a draftsman by training and an explosives expert, was first diagnosed with kidney cancer in the mid-1980s and died from it in 1998. The experience of helping care for him in his final months and seeing how many of our neighbors were also sick inspired me to undertake a research project that eventually led me to start this blog.

When I visited him last fall, Mr. Soley had been on kidney dialysis after years of suffering from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the blood plasma cells that are formed in bone marrow and that play an important role in immunity. He wanted to walk with me along the Still Creek Reservoir to show me the areas along the shore where the vegetation was dead. Those areas reportedly coincide with springs coming off the mountain, one of several pieces of evidence that suggest the toxic chemicals dumped into the mine on the top of the hill are seeping into the wider ecosystem. But he was too sick to go walking on that day, so instead we sat at his kitchen table and talked.

"We need our story to be told," he said. "Welcome to Cancer Valley."

Mr. Soley told me harrowing stories about his own long battle with cancer as well as the health problems of others in his community. One of his neighbors was diagnosed with a rare form of liver cancer at age of 18. In another nearby home, two people were both suffering from brain tumors. Another neighbor had stomach cancer. And Mr. Soley knew of at least one child in the area who had leukemia, and whose uncle lived nearby and died of leukemia as a teenager.

Mr. Soley first moved to Quakake Road in 1978 from Tamaqua's Dutch Hill neighborhood. An outdoorsman and hunter with a deep love for Brittany spaniels, he got a good deal on the land, where he soon opened a kennel. It was only a few years after Mr. Soley moved in that his young neighbor was diagnosed with the rare liver tumor. About a year after that, Mr. Soley's own health problems began.

Suffering from chronic fatigue that began soon after the move, Mr. Soley was being treated by his doctor for Epstein-Barr syndrome but wasn't getting any better.

He eventually saw an Epstein-Barr specialist who did additional testing and discovered problems with his T cells, key parts of the immune system. The tests also turned up serious problems with Mr. Soley's blood cells, which he described as looking like "tapeworms ... all stuck together."

It was in 1997 that Mr. Soley was diagnosed with multiple myeloma.

After his diagnosis, he went through a four-month round of chemotherapy and later received a bone marrow transplant from his sister, Joan Yacobenas of Hometown. He was in the hospital at Johns Hopkins in Baltimore for a couple of months and then lived for a few more months in nearby lodgings for cancer patients so he could be close to his doctors.

Three days after he finally got home, he started bleeding from his bladder -- a reaction from one of his cancer drugs. This required operations to clear up blood clots.

When Mr. Soley returned home from that ordeal, he found he couldn't eat and started losing weight, dropping from 205 pounds to 145.

"I got so skinny when I looked in the mirror I cringed," he recalled. "I wanted to cry. I could only manage to eat one cookie a day."

As if that weren't awful enough, he then started bleeding from his rectum and had to be flown from the Lehigh Valley Medical Center to Johns Hopkins, where doctors diagnosed him with an infected bowel. They wanted to cut out a section but were afraid the operation would kill him. With no other options, they treated him with antibiotics but were not particularly hopeful about his chances.

He recalled how one morning three doctors came into his room and announced -- incredulously -- that somehow his bowel infection had cleared up.

"They told me I must have had a lot of people praying for me," Mr. Soley said. "They called it divine intervention."

After that ordeal, Mr. Soley was able to eat again, and his health gradually improved. But then in June of 1998, tests revealed there was still cancer in his body. He underwent an experimental therapy at Johns Hopkins that involved taking lymphocyte cells from his sister's body and infusing them into his own intravenously. When that treatment ended in January 1999, he finally felt good again for the first time in a long time.

"I was a completely different person," he said. "I felt 150 percent."

His relatively good health lasted until October 2006, when he woke up one morning with a strange feeling in his chest. A neighbor drove him to the hospital in Hazleton, where they found blockages necessitating heart surgery.

While Mr. Soley was undergoing rehab for the surgery, blood tests showed he had abnormally high creatine levels, indicating his kidneys were shutting down. In May 2007, he went on dialysis.

'This isn't normal'

When he first got sick, Mr. Soley told me, he figured it was just bad luck on his part. It was only later that he started noticing the patterns, with many neighbors all around him also sick -- with cancers of the liver, brain, prostate and blood, as well as thyroid disorders and other chronic illnesses. He lived not far from Betty and Lester Kester, a husband and wife who both died of polycythemia vera within the past two years.

"I said to myself, 'What in the hell is going on?' This isn't normal."

He soon began noticing strange things in the environment. The reddish-brown dust from the power plant that gathered on people's cars overnight. The strange chemical odors on the wind. The smell of sulfuric acid emanating from the hill leading up to the Superfund site. The thick white slime that coated the pump on his drinking water well.

A couple of years earlier, on the hillside close to his house, Mr. Soley also discovered what looked like spider webs of some sort of oily substance oozing out of the earth. He called his neighbor and friend, Ricky Johnson, who took photographs. They had a sample of the stuff analyzed at Wilkes University and found they were indeed petroleum products of some sort. The Pa. Department of Environmental Protection eventually sent out someone to take a look at the situation, but the person didn't even bring digging tools. Mr. Soley provided him with a spade to take samples, which according to DEP showed nothing unusual.

During our conversation, Mr. Soley expressed some bitterness toward local elected officials, who he felt failed to take adequate action to help area residents deal with the various environmental threats they're facing. For example, there's never been thorough independent testing of the water and sediment in the Still Creek Reservoir despite the obvious toxic threats. Nor has there been any widespread testing of people living along the reservoir for chemical exposures.

"It's been a joke," he said of official efforts to address the problems. "A farce."

Since Mr. Soley and I met, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) announced that he secured a $5.5 million federal grant to explore the cause of high rate of polycythemia vera in the area. But like me, Mr. Soley was already growing uneasy about officials' focus on polycythemia vera to the exclusion of all the other health problems suffered by local residents.

What about the people with multiple myeloma? Leukemia? Brain cancer? Prostate cancer? Thyroid disease? Would they be forgotten?

I know I won't forget my friend and what he went through. Perhaps the best way to honor yet another life lost too soon after great suffering would be to keep a question in mind as we continue our work seeking environmental truth and justice for the people of the Hometown area: What difference would our actions have made to John Soley?

(To read Mr. Soley's online obituary with details about his viewing and funeral, please click here.)

Polycythemia vera reported in vet exposed to war-zone burn pits

Private contractors working for the U.S. military in Iraq and Afghanistan were confronted with mounds of trash they needed to dispose of, but they lacked the proper incinerators to burn it in a relatively safe manner.

So they came up with a simple solution to their problem: They simply burned the trash -- which included batteries, plastics, motor oil, pesticide containers and medical waste -- in big, open-air pits.

Now some of the veterans and others who were exposed to the toxic smoke are complaining of serious health problems. They're also suing the companies behind the toxic burn pits -- Houston-based KBR and former parent company Halliburton -- for their actions, as I reported this week for Facing South.

Among the health problems being reported in association with the burn pits are respiratory disorders, chronic infections and cancers including polycythemia vera. A cluster of the relatively rare blood malignancy has been confirmed in the Hometown area, which also has the nation's heaviest concentration of power plants that burn waste coal and other waste fuels.

As TheHill.com reports:

Anthony Roles, an Air Force veteran, was stationed in Balad from November 2003 through March 2004. There, he says, he experienced the burn pits on a daily basis, living less than a mile from them. In April of 2004, after serving his tour, he was diagnosed with essential thrombocythemia, a disease that causes the body to overproduce platelets. He was later diagnosed with polycythemia vera, a very rare, incurable cancer that affects 1 in 100,000 people. This condition requires him to take a chemo pill daily and to undergo bloodletting once to twice a month. Roles also had a heart attack at the age of 30 due to complications from the medication.

Roles' personal story is posted at the Burn Pits Action Center website, which was created by the office of U.S. Rep. Tim Bishop (D-N.Y.), Kerry Baker from Disabled American Veterans and Kelly Kennedy from Army Times as a central information clearinghouse on the pits. This week, Bishop introduced the Military Personnel War Zone Toxic Exposure Prevention Act (H.R.2419) requiring an investigation into the effects of burn pits and prohibiting their continued use.

I've reported on the link between polycythemia vera and exposure to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, particularly the PAH benzo(a)pyrene. PAHs are formed during the incomplete burning of coal, oil and garbage. They're also a pollutant of concern with the fluidized bed combustion systems used in waste-coal-burning power plants.

(Photo of smoke from a burn pit from Burn Pits Action Center)

Feds' attempt to kill polycythemia vera investigation shows need for change

The following op-ed ran in the print edition of the Lehighton (Pa.) Times News on Saturday, March 28. It's based on a longer article that originally appeared at Facing South.

By SUE STURGIS Special to The TIMES NEWS

U.S. Rep. Brad Miller (D-N.C.), chaired a hearing earlier this month on failures of the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a branch of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to protect public health from environmental contaminants.

The hearing revealed numerous problems at ATSDR including the fact that it tried to bury research on the polycythemia vera epidemic in the anthracite coal region.

Problems at ATSDR first came to the attention of Miller's Science and Technology Investigations and Oversight subcommittee after the agency's badly flawed health assessment for formaldehyde exposure in Hurricane Katrina and Rita victims living in FEMA trailers. Through a series of hearings, Congress learned that ATSDR had honored a request from FEMA which was facing litigation over the trailers' formaldehyde levels to calculate the risk posed by formaldehyde by assuming storm victims were exposed for less than two weeks, even though many had already been living in the units for more than a year.

"Government at all levels failed the victims of Katrina and Rita in many ways, but ATSDR's failure was perhaps the most unforgivable," Miller said in his opening statement. "ATSDR's health assessment certainly failed any test of scientific rigor, but ATSDR's failure was worse than just jackleg science. ATSDR's failure was a failure not just of the head but of the heart."

In the wake of its investigation into formaldehyde in FEMA trailers, the subcommittee heard about other problems with ATSDR's work. It also heard about what Miller referred to in his opening statement as the agency's "keenness to please industries and government agencies that prefer to minimize public health consequences of environmental exposures."

The hearing featured testimony from a number of sources who pointed to serious failings by the ATSDR that are putting people's health in danger. They included Dr. Ronald Hoffman, a blood cancer expert and professor at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York (pictured in photo above, a still from the hearing webcast). He was part of the team of researchers who discovered a statistically significant cluster of polycythemia vera, a relatively rare blood cancer, in Schuylkill County and the fact that it might be related to the area's extensive environmental contamination.

Under oath, Hoffman told the Congressional subcommittee how ATSDR's management first tried to discourage his research and then to prevent the publishing of findings that suggested an environmental connection.

"My sense is that if the agency was left to itself, it would have preferred to ignore the problem," he said.

'An obvious attempt at intimidation'

Concerns about polycythemia vera first came to widespread public attention in 2006. That year, the Pennsylvania Department of Health released a public health assessment in Schuylkill, Luzerne and Carbon counties that found Schuylkill and Luzerne counties had unusually elevated rates of polycythemia vera, a relatively rare malignancy marked by the overproduction of red blood cells.

The specific genetic mutation involved in polycythemia vera has been linked to polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons chemicals released during the burning of fossil fuels. The area in question has the nation's highest concentration of waste-coal-burning power plants, a significant source of PAHs. It is also home to numerous toxic waste sites, abandoned mines, coal ash dumps, and polluting industries that are also sources of health-damaging chemicals.

ATSDR got involved in the investigation at the state health department's request. Dr. Vince Seaman, an ATSDR epidemiologist and toxicologist, contacted Dr. Ronald Hoffman, who agreed to evaluate blood samples from subjects thought to have the disease using a new molecular test.

But to Hoffman's surprise, ATSDR's management was not only unwilling to provide funds for the tests but was resistant to having them done at all. He proceeded with funding from a private foundation.

Through his own research, Hoffman confirmed that there seemed to be an unusually high rate of polycythemia vera in the study area including an unusual number of cases along Rush Township's Ben Titus Road, which runs near a site that's home to an abandoned mine, an old toxic waste dumping and incineration site, a waste-coal-burning power plant, and a massive dump for waste-coal ash.

The two doctors wrote an abstract about their findings for a 2007 meeting of the American Society of Hematology. Despite the fact that the abstract had been reviewed by numerous ATSDR staff, the agency objected to its submission because it had not gone through a formal clearance process. Then amidst the controversy, ATSDR sent Seaman on a months-long assignment to Mozambique a move that angered study participants and that Hoffman thought "showed poor judgment."

Even more surprisingly, at an October 2007 community meeting in Hazleton to discuss the preliminary findings, an ATSDR spokesperson presented conclusions that in Hoffman's words "seemed at odds with the results summarized in our abstract." For example, the ATSDR claimed polycythemia vera cases were scattered throughout the study area in no predictable pattern, and it downplayed the extraordinarily high rate of the disease.

"As I drove back to New York that evening with my scientific colleague Dr. Mingjiang Xu we talked about the experiences of the day," Hoffman said in his written testimony. "We commented how we felt that the ATSDR had misinterpreted and prematurely drawn conclusions about the data that we had participated in generating. ... Also we questioned if there was some outside constituency who ATSDR was responding to that made them act like they just wanted this whole matter to go away."

Soon after, Hoffman learned that the abstract of his research paper with Dr. Seaman had been accepted for a presentation at the hematology meeting which led to more problems with ATSDR management. Agency officials made repeated requests that he not exhibit his maps suggesting a geographic relationship between the polycythemia vera cases and pollution sources. When he refused, the agency issued a press release disavowing the findings.

When Hoffman showed up at the meeting, he got repeated cell phone calls from ATSDR officials asking him to either withdraw the abstract, make a statement before his presentation that the agency disagreed with its conclusions, or present an abridged version of the data.

"I was intimidated by these frequent calls by government officials which created a great degree of stress and anxiety for me," Hoffman said. "I was also outraged at this obvious attempt at intimidation."

'Scientific nihilism'

However, Hoffman was not intimidated enough by ATSDR's pressure to change course. His presentation was well received at the hematology meeting and his fellow scientists accepted the possibility that environmental contamination was a likely factor behind the unusual rate of polycythemia vera in the study area.

Hoffman and Seaman continued to refine their research. As part of that effort, ATSDR biostatisticians performed a sophisticated analysis that confirmed a statistically significant cluster of polycythemia vera in the study area. It includes Ben Titus Road, where multiple cases of the cancer were identified, as well as the borough of Tamaqua.

Hoffman's manuscript describing the cluster findings was eventually accepted by a peer-reviewed journal titled Cancer, Epidemiology, Biomarkers and Prevention and published last month.

But even then pressure to scuttle the reported findings continued. PADOH's chief epidemiologist, Dr. Stephen Ostroff who came to the agency from the CDC while Hoffman's study was underway was angry that the manuscript had been altered without his approval during the peer-review process.

Hoffman reports that Ostroff made "numerous calls" to top ATSDR officials to try to get them to discredit the manuscript. So far ATSDR has not done that.

"The scientific nihilism and lack of respect for the integrity of scientific investigation initially displayed by members of the agency surely compromises the stated mission of this agency," Hoffman said in his written testimony. "Their unwillingness to look objectively at the compelling data generated by our investigations is puzzling and disturbing to me."

This month, U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced that the Senate has approved an appropriations bill with $5 million for further study of the polycythemia vera cluster. But President Obama has yet to name a permanent head of the CDC to oversee ATSDR. After former CDC Director Julie Gerberding stepped down after the election, Obama appointed as a temporary replacement Richard Besser, a CDC insider and bioterrorism expert.

No word yet on when a final appointment will be made or what it might mean for the integrity of ATSDR's future scientific research. But as Hoffman's testimony made clear, changes are needed at the agency if it's to live up to its mission of safeguarding communities.

"We hope the new Obama administration will take a hard look at ATSDR," Miller said at last week's hearing. "The American people deserve better, and so do the many scientists at ATSDR who have dedicated their lives to protecting the public's health."

"100 Ways to Save the World"

The first book I worked on is out!

Titled "100 Ways to Save the World," it was authored by Johan Tell for a British audience, and I did the American adaptation. The foreword is by the great environmental writer and activist Bill McKibben.

I know I'm not the most objective source, but it really is a fun and lovely little book! Check for it at your local bookstore or order online.

Deadline nears for comments on Pa. fly ash regulation

Environmental advocates are urging Pennsylvania citizens to weigh in on the need for enforceable regulations of coal combustion waste disposal at mine sites. According to the Sierra Club:

The major point to be made is that ENFORCEABLE REGULATIONS are essential for the placement of Coal Combustion Wastes at mine sites, NOT technical guidance

These ENFORCEABLE REGULATIONS should include:

* Characterization of all CCW.
* Isolation of ash from all water sources.
* Long-term, comprehensive monitoring of all ash sites.
* Clear standards for corrective actions written into all permits.
* Bonds for monitoring and clean up.
* True public involvement in all CCW permitting decisions.

Citizens are asked to submit brief comments by the close of the business day on Wednesday, Nov. 19. Comments should be sent to Keith Brady (kbrady at state dot pa dot us) as well as Acting DEP Secretary John Hanger (jhanger at state dot pa dot us).

For more information, contact Lisa Graves Marcucci (lisagmarcucci at gmail dot com).