U.S. Rep. Paul Tonko (D-Amsterdam) is calling on the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to reassess the dangers associated with years of pollution at the NL Industries site in Colonie, following today's hearing by the Subcommittee of Investigations and Oversight of the House Science and Technology Committee.
The subcommittee heard testimony on several cases involving the ATSDR, which is charged with protecting citizens who live near toxic pollution sites. A House report found that the agency commonly failed in its mission, often underestimating and downplaying the health risks of the toxic sites it evaluated. One of the cases cited in the report is the former NL Industries plant in Colonie, which contaminated the surrounding community with depleted uranium in nearly 30-years of manufacturing military munitions. The federal government completed its cleanup of the site in 2006.
According to the House report, the ATSDR concluded in 2004 that because manufacturing had ceased at NL Industries, there was no apparent public health hazard from inhaling depleted uranium dust, and denied a request for a health survey of the area because it would not answer the community's questions about whether the plant had impacted their health. However, a study completed 2007 by Randall Parrish, head of the British Geologic Survey's Natural Environment Research Council's Isotope Geoscience Laboratories in England, found that 100-percent of the workers and 20-percent of the residents he tested were positive for depleted uranium exposure. Dr. Parrish recommends that the ATSDR revisit the area.
During today's hearing, Rep. Tonko questioned Dr. Parrish about his findings. "It's clear after hearing from Dr. Parrish that the ATSDR failed the people of Colonie and Albany who live near the site. The ATSDR needs to take another look at the health impacts of the contamination at the NL site and the surrounding area, to assess what can be done about the continued exposure to depleted uranium."
