Industry Response to CNN’s “Toxic Town”
June 3, 2010
On June 2nd CNN aired a segment entitled “Toxic Town” in which they focused on the Mossville Community and alleged environmental and health impacts. I was interviewed on behalf of the Lake Area Industry Alliance and a portion of my interview with CNN was included in the segment. We are empathetic to those in the community who are experiencing health issues in their lives. At the same time we find in necessary to share facts that CNN chose not to include in the one-hour segment.
The CNN story seemed to center on four issues: water quality, ambient air quality, cancer and dioxin exposure. CNN was provided with government reports that outlined the results of extensive studies performed by different federal and state agencies for each of the issues. Following are excerpts from these reports:
Water Quality: Repeated sampling of drinking water from the Mossville water system by the system operator and the Department of Health and Hospitals report that there is no industrial contamination in the drinking water. They report that the water issues are due to the design of the system.
Air Quality: A 36 month study was overseen by the EPA and LDEQ using five monitoring sites, one of which was located in the Mossville Community. Of the 80,000 samples that were collected and analyzed only two exceeded the standard. All data points were below levels of health concern as established by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), including the two data points that exceeded the standard.
Cancer: Using data from the Louisiana State Tumor Registry, the Louisiana Department of Health and Hospitals reports that “there is no clear pattern indicting that Calcasieu Parish has any consistently higher rate for most cancers. The exceptions are Melanoma of the skin in whites and Cancer of the Lung for Women. DHH also reports that “Dioxins are possibly linked to some cancers but cannot yet be applied to Calcasieu”.
Dioxin Exposure: In 2003 the EPA performed a twelve month study of Dioxin levels in the ambient air utilizing five monitoring sites, one of which was located in the Mossville Community. The agency reported that the “Dioxin levels were only slightly higher than the national background level”.
The ATSDR performed a major study of Serum Dioxin Levels in residents of Calcasieu Parish. In their report of October 2005, they reported that…
- No levels were found that linked to any potential health effects.
- Levels were the same for people who live in Calcasieu Parish (an industrialized community) and people who lived in Lafayette Parish (a community with no industry).
- Levels were the same for people from across Calcasieu Parish who lived various distances from industry.
- Dioxin levels increased with age for people living in Calcasieu Parish and Lafayette Parish.
The twenty-three member companies of the Lake Area Industry Alliance understand that they operate in the community with the permission of residents of the community, parish and state. Each company strives to operate their respective facilities in a safe and environmentally responsible manner using the latest advances in technology. The 6,000+ people that operate maintain and mange the facilities are well trained and go to work each day with the goal of doing their jobs in the safest and most environmentally responsible manner possible. They are members of the local community; they are neighbors, friends and relatives of others in this community. Each of them are working on and off the job to do their part to make Southwest Louisiana a good place to live and raise families.
Following are links to the various reports that are referenced in this letter:
- Health Consultation, Follow-up Exposure Investigation, Calcasieu Parish (a/k/a Mossville) Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish, Louisiana EPA Facility ID: LA002368173.
- Additional information is also available on the Lake Area Industry Alliance web site at www.laia.com
Larry DeRoussel on behalf of the Lake Area Industry Alliance.
