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Cancer Risk From Industrial Chemical Rises, Study Finds

Trichloroethylene, or TCE, is widely found in drinking water.

California has some of the nation's worst contamination.

By Ralph Vartabedian, Times Staff Writer

July 27, 2006

 

 

After a detailed study of the most widespread industrial contaminant in

U.S. drinking water, the National Research Council will report today

that evidence is growing stronger that the chemical causes cancer and

other human health problems.

 

The 379-page report clears a path for federal regulators to formally

raise the risk assessment of trichloroethylene, known as TCE, a step

that has been tied up by infighting between scientists at the

Environmental Protection Agency and the Defense Department.

 

California has some of the nation's worst TCE

contamination, including vast tracts of groundwater in the San Gabriel

and San Fernando valleys that are a drinking source for more than 1

million Southern Californians. The state's 67 Superfund sites with TCE

contamination are clustered in Los Angeles and Santa Clara counties.

 

If the risk posed by TCE is significantly higher than previously

thought, it could prompt lower limits for TCE in water, as well as

stricter cleanups of hundreds of military bases and other polluted

facilities. The contamination occurred because TCE, a chemical solvent,

was widely dumped into the ground.

 

Already, some EPA offices are forcing tougher cleanups based on

evidence that the chemical poses a greater-than-expected cancer risk.

 

The EPA attempted to issue a risk assessment in 2001 that found TCE to

be two to 40 times more carcinogenic than previously thought, but that

action was opposed by the Defense Department, the Energy Department and

NASA. The Pentagon has 1,400 properties contaminated with TCE.

 

The Bush administration sent the matter to the National Research

Council for study, based on military assertions that the EPA had

overblown the risks. But the new report does not support that

criticism.

 

" The committee found that the evidence on carcinogenic risk and other

health hazards from exposure to trichloroethylene has strengthened

since 2001, " the report said.

 

The report urged federal agencies to complete their assessment of TCE

risks as soon as possible " with currently available data, " meaning they

should not wait for additional basic research, as suggested by the

Defense Department.

 

The report is to be formally released today by the National Research

Council. An early copy was provided to The Times by the Natural

Resources News Service, a Washington, D.C., nonprofit that investigates

environmental issues. The authors of the study also briefed members of

Congress on Wednesday.

 

" It is the strongest report on TCE that we have had, " said Rep. Maurice

D. Hinchey (D-N.Y.), whose district includes hundreds of homes that

have air filtration systems to eliminate TCE vapors from the ground.

" The fact that we have this TCE-laden drinking water used by millions

of people is abominable. "

 

Hinchey and others in Congress are demanding stronger cleanup standards

and lower limits for the chemical in drinking water. Currently, the EPA

allows 5 parts per billion; that could be lowered to as little as 1

part per billion for drinking water if the risk assessment sidetracked

in 2001 is adopted, according to an analysis by the Air Force.

 

It would drive up cleanup costs by billions of dollars but potentially

save thousands of lives, scientists say. The report's authors told

Congress on Wednesday that they did not think the EPA should throw out

its 2001 draft risk assessment and start over. Instead, they hope the

TCE analysis can be completed within six months to a year.

 

Dr. Gina Solomon, an environmental health expert who served on a

scientific advisory board that reviewed the original assessment, said

the new report could have a profound effect on the issue.

 

" That is a very strong statement, a ringing endorsement of the EPA's

2001 draft risk assessment, " said Solomon, an associate clinical

professor of medicine at UC San Francisco and a staff scientist at the

Natural Resources Defense Council.

 

Solomon said the report also rejected a key position of the chemical

industry and Pentagon environmental experts that TCE was not dangerous

at low levels of exposure.

 

Federal regulators should stick with the current scientific model that

the cancer risk posed by TCE is proportional to the level of exposure,

the National Research Council said.

 

In its report, the council found the evidence of TCE risk was greatest

for kidney cancer, but not as high for liver cancer. It did not study

other diseases that could be connected, including leukemia.

 

The report found merit in the Pentagon's criticism of EPA methodology

on epidemiology, which is the study of how disease is distributed in

the population. It called for a new survey of prior research.

 

The report from the National Research Council has been awaited by

communities exposed to TCE across the country.

 

" We can't afford any more delays, " said Jerry Ensminger, a former

Marine drill sergeant who served at Camp Lejuene, where drinking water

supplies were tainted. His daughter died at age 9 in 1976 from

leukemia, which Ensminger blamed on TCE exposure.

 

Ensminger said he was heartened by the report's conclusions, but

remained concerned about whether the government would move quickly to

deal with the chemical contamination.

 

" I want to know why the Bush administration does not err on the side of

life when it comes to the environment, " he said.

 

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