Reps. John Dingell and Bart Stupak sent a letter to CDC Director Dr. Julie Louise Gerberding yesterday, questioning a report on pollution in the Great Lakes suppressed by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) . The Center for Public Integrity published "Great Lakes Danger Zones" detailing how the CDC blocked publication of a study for seven months because it contained "alarming information."
The 400 page report, "Public Health Implications of Hazardous Substances in the Twenty-Six U.S. Great Lakes Areas of Concern", documented elevated rates for cancer mortality, infant mortality, low birth weight, and premature births, concurrent with hazardous waste such as dioxins, polychorinated biphenyls (PCBS), pesticides, lead and mercury (no cause and effect research yet). Nine million people living in "problem areas" around the Great Lakes are potentially affected, including the metropolitan areas around Chicago, Cleveland, Detroit, and Milwaukee.
The International Joint Commission, an independent bilateral organization that advises the U.S. and Canadian governments on the use and quality of the Great Lakes and other "boundary waters" commissioned the report. Dr. Peter Orris, a professor at the University of Illinois School of Public Health participated, and urged the ATSDR not to suppress the report. He talked to the Center for Public Integrity about the rigor of the findings:
"This report, which has taken years in production, was subjected to independent expert review by the IJC's Health Professionals Task Force and other boards, over 20 EPA scientists, state agency scientists from New York and Minnesota, three academics (including myself), and multiple reviews within ATSDR. As such, this is perhaps the most extensively critiqued report, internally and externally, that I have heard of."
Christopher De Rosa, also involved in the production of the report, had headed ATSDR for 15 years as the director of the agency's division of toxicology and environmental medicine. He had a strong international reputation, including commendations from officials at the IJC, specifically for his work on that study. De Rosa had also pressed agency heads to release of the study, and said that delaying the study had the "the appearance of censorship of science and distribution of factual information regarding the health status of vulnerable communities." Senior agency officials first criticized De Rosa on the study, then demoted him -- apparently for his temerity.
The congressmen wrote in their letter "The validity of the findings of this [ADSTR] report deserves a fair and open debate within the scientific community. That cannot occur if this report is withheld from publication; accordingly, the report should be released." The letter asks for specific documents and records relevant to the investigation, provides a definition for "records", and necessarily warns against the destruction of evidence . The full letter is here. A previous member of the IJC had an opinion about why the report was suppressed. The "whole problem with all this kind of work is wrapped up in that word 'injury'", he said governments are aligned with chemical companies and don't want evidence of injury because "If you have injury, that implies liability".
