Star Staff Writer
The first phase of a landmark PCBs health study in the Anniston area was unveiled Thursday, with the leaders of the $3.2 million project urging residents to volunteer to participate.
The project, funded by the federal government, involves a coalition of experts from around the country, and will take place over the next three years.
It will include a group of health studies, still to be mapped out, that will draw subjects from a registry of local volunteers.
“This is the only way we can identify what happened to us, as well as maybe find some type of treatments,” said David Baker, executive director of Community Against Pollution, whose testimony in the U.S. Senate helped get the funding for the study.
About 200 residents filled seats and bleachers at Carver Community Center to participate in the first public meeting on the study.
Some residents expressed skepticism, and said the work is too little, too late.
But others hope the study, the first of its kind here, will offer scientific proof of what they have believed for years: That PCBs have caused rampant illness in some of the population.
Researchers hope that it will contribute to the body of knowledge about PCBs.
“Anniston has some of the highest PCB contamination of any place in the country, and possibly any place in the world,” said Dr. Howard Frumkin, chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at Emory University, and one of the study’s leaders. “The legacy that this town can leave is a better understanding of what PCBs do to your health.”
The coalition is asking for community input on everything from the name of the project — currently the Anniston PCB Health Study — to the diseases it will cover.
In the next few weeks, the group hopes to open office space in western Anniston, to serve as a contact point for the study and a source of health information for the public.
“We want to help you improve the overall quality of your health,” said Christy Shelton, project manager.
The studies could look at problems including cardiovascular, nervous system, immune system, reproductive or hormonal disorders, or cancer.
“Our pledge is that we’ll do the best we can, we’ll do it in a manner that’s ethical, and we’ll do it in a way that’s accountable to you.” Frumkin said.
Participation is totally voluntary, and all personal information will be closely guarded, he said.
The consortium is hoping thousands of residents sign up for the registry, which will include only basic information such as name, address, phone number and age.
Not everyone will be asked to be in a study, Frumkin said.
“The bigger the population we have to choose from, the more it reflects the population of Anniston,” he said.
Some at the meeting said they were eager to participate.
“We’re going to sign up,” said Linda White, 51, who has lived in the area 17 years and has suffered from kidney failure. “I feel that it will finally give us some hold on what’s going on.”
Annie Holiday, 72, sitting next to her in the second row, said she would also volunteer.
Resident complaints included limiting the study to Anniston when PCB contamination extends to a wider area, and not providing enough information.
One resident complained that work had been done for years with no results.
This study, organizers pointed out, is brand new.
Small federal studies have looked at whether people might have been exposed to PCBs here, but none have looked at what health effects PCBs might have caused.
Researchers expect to use some of the earlier work, as well as blood data from PCBs lawsuits, in the project.
Rep. Barbara Boyd (D-Calhoun) said it is important that the community sees benefits from the study, such as health services, but that mainly it is a gift to future generations.
The Jacksonville State University College of Nursing and Health Sciences is heading up the coalition, which also includes University of Alabama at Birmingham, Emory University, Tuskegee University, Meharry Medical College, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, SUNY Albany, SUNY Buffalo, SUNY Syracuse, University of South Carolina, University of Alabama, University of Pennsylvania and University of Utah.
The project is funded by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.
For decades, Monsanto made polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, at its plant in western Anniston. Though Congress banned PCBs in the late 1970s, the chemicals don’t break down easily in the environment. They have accumulated in some residents’ bodies, and contaminate local waterways and residences.
The plant is now owned by a spinoff company, Solutia, which is doing a cleanup overseen by the Environmental Protection Agency.