EPA report missed a lot

The EPA has released its draft Human Health Risk Assessment (HHRA) for public comment.

How did the EPA’s Human Health Risk Assessment not take the below statistics into account when assessing the risk Northport residents are in.

34% of the Northport community is suffering from one of the health issues listed.

Statistically 0.006% of Americans are diagnosed with ulcerative colitis or Crohn’s. disease. Six percent (6%) of Northport residents have been diagnosed with either colitis or Crohn’s.

Statistically 0.003% of Americans are diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis. Four percent (4%) of Northport residents have been diagnosed with MS.

Statistically 0.5% of Americans will be diagnosed with cancer. Twenty percent (20%) of Northport residents have been diagnosed with cancer.

The EPA will never succeed in reducing the risk from our exposure to Teck’s heavy metal toxins because the benchmarks they are using are incorrect. Study after study conducted in our area, spanning decades, by the EPA, Ecology, the ATSDR, and the DOH have all concluded that our chronic exposure to the elevated levels of the heavy metal toxins of concern would, “more then likely” not put our health at risk.

The statistics above, discovered from a 2011 community health survey, prove that not only are these agencies not reducing our risk, they are increasing it by assuring us that we are not in danger.

Jamie Paparich

Northport, Wash.