Anniston Star
October 3, 2003

JSU to lead PCB health-effects study

By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
10-03-2003

Jacksonville State University will lead the groups conducting a $3.2 million study of the PCB-related health effects in Anniston.

The JSU-led coalition will include the University of Alabama at Birmingham and Emory University, and organizers hope data collection will begin in spring.

The long-awaited money comes from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a federal environmental health agency. It has also awarded a related $150,000, two-year grant to the West Anniston Foundation, to study access to health services in western Anniston.

The studies are a response to years of community concern about polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs.

For decades, the chemicals were made at the former Monsanto plant in western Anniston. PCBs, which are suspected carcinogens, contaminate local residences and waterways and have been found in some residents’ blood.

“This study is important to the Anniston community and I believe this is a crucial step toward the continued revitalization of Calhoun County,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., who has held Senate hearings on Anniston’s PCB pollution, and pushed for the study money.

The goals of the project are to collect information on local exposure to PCBs, study the relationship between the chemicals and a health disorder such as cancer, and educate the community about PCBs.

“We hope that with that joint effort, we’re going to have the best possible outcome not only for research but for community knowledge,” said Martha Lavender, dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at JSU and one of the principal investigators.

The grant will be $1.5 million for the first year, said Elaine McEachern, spokeswoman for ATSDR. McEachern would not disclose what other coalition had bid to conduct the study.

The first several months of the three-year study are geared toward planning exactly what the research is going to look at, Lavender said.

“We are only limited by what is truly feasible and what can have the best impact,” Lavender said. “No-one … wants to do things that will not lead to an advancement of knowledge about how PCBs impact health.”

They hope to begin collecting data in the spring.

“We want to see something positive come out of this,” Lavender said. “Something positive for the people of the community.”

There are several other partners in the study, including the State University of New York and Community Against Pollution.

“I see them as having a tremendously important role in educating the community” and keeping the coalition investigators informed about community needs, Lavender said.

The smaller grant awarded to the West Anniston Foundation is to assess health care services in western Anniston and come up with a plan in increase access.

“We’ll look at whether people use it, or can use it,” said Charity Bentley-Richey, executive director of the West Anniston Foundation, which was created in 2001 with funds from a PCB lawsuit. Among the issues the foundation will look at are transportation and whether providers are making themselves available to the community.
By Sara Clemence
Star Staff Writer
10-03-2003

The Environmental Protection Agency has received more than 100 nominations for the community group that will advise on the widespread PCBs cleanup here.

The names are from the Anniston, Oxford, Choccolocco Creek, and Lake Logan Martin areas, with the largest contingent from western Anniston, EPA officials said at a community meeting Thursday.

“The community put the momentum behind us,” said Stephanie Brown, community involvement coordinator for the agency, noting that the EPA had not even requested suggestions yet.

The EPA is overseeing the PCBs cleanup by Solutia.

More than 100 residents, including community activists, elected officials and business representatives, attended Thursday’s meeting.

EPA officials explained the process of choosing the community group, or CAG, which will be involved in decision-making for the cleanup.

For decades, polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, were produced at the former Monsanto plant in western Anniston. The chemicals, now banned because of health concerns, contaminate local waterways, properties, and people. Solutia now owns the plant.

The CAG could become a source of tension and turf battles, judging from some of the questions and statements made at the meeting.

During the question and answer session, some residents proclaimed their interest in being part of the CAG; others wanted membership to be limited to certain groups.

Still others reiterated concerns that have circulated in the community for years, about health clinics, compensation and issues such as groundwater contamination and the chemical weapons incinerator.

Several local community groups, including Community Against Pollution (CAP) and Southern Christian Leadership Conference, have made CAG nominations, Brown said.

There are several ways to go about assembling a CAG, Brown said. But the agency believes the best thing to do here is choose a core group from the nominations – people whose names come up again and again – and designate them as a steering committee, to decide the membership of the final group.

“The CAG must be community-driven,” Brown said. “You want somebody on the CAG that is going to express your needs, desires and concerns when it comes to the cleanup.”

The selection process needs to be fair and open, and the group must balance out the different interests in the community, she said.

“Give us the money,” one audience member called out during the EPA presentation, apparently reference to the lawsuits recently settled for millions of dollars.

Other residents expressed frustration at the selection process.

“As far as I’m concerned, there’s only one group to represent me, and that’s CAP,” said Curtis Ray. “Meetings are fine, but what about the victims?”

Wanda Champion asked why, since people have been advised not to grow food in PCB-contaminated yards, nobody was distributing free, fresh fruits and vegetables.

State Representative Barbara Boyd (D-Anniston) rose to emphasize that a health clinic should be the first priority, and to let the EPA know that she had asked several times that McDaniel Avenue be tested.

“I’ve made that request over and over,” Boyd said. “I’m making that request again publicly, so that my constituents know I’m doing my job.”

“I’m very concerned about the younger generation,” said one man, who lives in Oxford. “If we could get that straightened out, I’d be all right.”

At the end of the meeting, the several remaining attendees unofficially voted to approve the plan to form the CAG.

The EPA is still taking nominations for the group. The office can be reached at 256-236-2599.

The EPA also plans to have quarterly update meetings. The next meetings will take place on Oct. 27 at the Anniston City Meeting Center and on Oct. 28 in at C.E. Hanna Elementary School in Hobson City.