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Barry L. Johnson, PhD
Assistant Administrator
George Buynoski
Acting Director, Division of Health Education
[Hazardous Substances & Public Health Homepage]
ATSDR Home Page
Welcome to Atlanta and the Second International Congress on Hazardous Waste: Impact on Human
and Ecological Health.
We at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease
Registry (ATSDR) look forward to the opportunity to meet our colleagues
in various disciplines and to share knowledge about the ecological and health
effects of hazardous waste. Sharing what we have learned through research
will take us many steps closer to understanding harmful exposures and finding
ways to prevent them.
As you know, the impact of hazardous waste is truly international. Globally, soil, water, and air are polluted with hazardous waste, and as a consequence, the health of many people, as well as that of other species, is endangered. Furthermore, we are in danger of losing whole ecosystems and the great diversity of species in some parts of the world because of environmental degradation.
At the original congress in 1993,
representatives of many nations discussed the problems of hazardous waste:
producing and managing it, shipping and storing it, and disposing of it. The
impact of hazardous waste was reflected in the need to develop emergency measures,
right-to-know laws, and international agreements that emerged from important
meetings such as the UN
Conference on Environment and Development.
This congress represents a commitment on the part of ATSDR and its cosponsors to advance the science and understanding of hazardous waste and to continue our efforts to improve public health practices and ecology. Since 1993, new findings have contributed to our understanding of the problem's magnitude:
Although epidemiologic findings are still unfolding, when sites are evaluated in aggregate, proximity to hazardous waste sites seems to be associated with a small to moderate increased risk of some kinds of birth defects and, less well documented, some specific cancers. These kinds of studies need replication and, in particular, better exposure data.
Health investigations of communities around some individual hazardous waste sites have found increases in the risk of birth defects, neurotoxic disorders, dermatitis, leukemia, cardiovascular abnormalities, respiratory dysfunction, and immune disorders. As with all ecologic epidemiology findings, better exposure data are needed.
Site remediation doesn't necessarily resolve all public health concerns. An increasing body of evidence indicates that past exposures to hazardous substances can cause latent adverse health effects. These findings highlight the need for continuing surveillance of exposed populations.
Serious gaps still exist in scientific knowledge about the toxicity, bioavailability, exposure, and human health effects of individual hazardous substances and mixtures of these substances released from sites and during emergency events, and that's why this second congress is necessary. We are here to fill in some of those gaps.
The central theme of this congress is preventing the adverse impact of hazardous waste on human health and ecology. Once we know the consequences of hazardous substances use, then we can explore what preventive measures must be taken. If such difficult problems are to be overcome, it will be through the efforts of the concerned, competent, and caring people we will be hearing from over the next four days. We welcome you to our city.
Barry L. Johnson, PhD, Assistant
Surgeon General,
Assistant Administrator, Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
Mercury and PCBs From LCP Site
Contaminate Waterways: Residents Warned Not To Eat Fish
One of the South's most hazardous
waste sites, Linden Chemicals and Plastics (LCP), lies just west of the small
town of Brunswick, Georgia, a US Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA)
official declared after finding high levels of mercury,
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), and lead in soil and water.
"This is certainly one of the worst sites we have here in the Southeast, in terms of mercury and PCB contamination," said Paul Peronard, an EPA on-site coordinator. Ranking the site a 9.5 on a pollution scale of 1 to 10, he added: "I've never seen anything this bad."
Thousands of pounds of mercury and PCBs from the LCP site have contaminated the tidal marshlands around the 550-acre site. Other contaminants of concern are lead, barium, volatile organic compounds (VOCs), and polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). Because the marshes drain into the Turtle River and Purvis Creek, health officials have warned the area's 3,259 residents not to consume fish or shellfish caught there.
The site has been the location of several industrial operations since 1919, when Atlantic Refining Company (now ARCO) operated an oil refinery there. Waste from the refinery was treated, stored, and disposed from 1920 to 1937. From 1937 to 1950, the Georgia Power Company bought parts of the site and operated an oil-fired power plant.
In 1941, Dixie Paints and Varnish Co. operated a paint manufacturing facility on part of the site. In 1955, Allied Chemical, a division of Hanlin Group Inc., purchased the site except for 2.9 acres of the Georgia Power property and manufactured chlorine, sodium hydroxide, and muriatic acid until 1979. The Hanlin Group, through its wholly owned subsidiary, LCP Chemicals- Georgia Inc., purchased the site and maintained operations until 1994.
Officials have found mercury concentrations as high as 12,500 parts per million (ppm) and PCBs as high as 3,600 ppm in drainage canals. Pockets of pure elemental mercury have also been found on the site. The EPA's recommended maximum safe level for mercury is 2 ppm; at 20 ppm, mercury is highly toxic, and long-term exposure can cause adverse health effects to the brain, kidneys, and developing fetuses. The maximum safe level for PCBs is .0005 ppm; at 25 ppm, PCBs are considered unsafe for human contact. Studies suggest that PCBs are carcinogens that cause acne-like rashes and may cause liver cancer and reproductive health effects. EPA officials fear that more than 17,000 pounds of PCBs and 200,000 pounds of mercury may have seeped into marshes and other areas around the site. It is estimated that the containment costs of the site will be between $20 and $50 million during the first 2 years of cleanup.
EPA and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry are working with state officials and local physicians to identify public health problems that may be associated with the LCP site contamination.
National Exposure Registry: TCE
Data Now Available on CD-ROM
Researchers, health professionals, and information specialists now have easy access to information about persons with documented exposure to trichloroethylene (TCE) and its possible health effects. This information is now available on CD-ROM from the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) at no cost while supplies last.
The National Exposure Registry: Trichloroethylene (TCE) Baseline Data, developed by ATSDR, is a ready-to-use SAS file on a user-friendly CD-ROM. It contains information from a long-term exposure registry of 4,154 persons exposed to TCE and other chemicals through contaminated private drinking water wells in three states: Illinois, Indiana, and Michigan. Information about demographics and health, mortality, and type and length of occupational and environmental exposures is included. This is the first CD-ROM to be released in the National Exposure Registry Series. The TCE Subregistry is one of three developed by ATSDR as part of the National Exposure Registry; dioxin and benzene subregistry data will be available at a later date.
TCE, a man-made chemical, is mainly used as a solvent to remove grease from metal parts and is often used as a chemical building block to make other chemicals. Animal studies have shown that ingesting or breathing TCE can produce nervous system changes; liver and kidney damage; effects on the blood; tumors of the liver, kidney, lung, and male sex organs; and, possibly, leukemia.
Eligible participants in the TCE Subregistry must have used the water for more than 30 days at an address where the water supply from private wells was contaminated with TCE. The participation rate for those identified as eligible exceeded 98% at each site. The data collected for each member of the registry include environmental TCE levels, demographic information, smoking and occupational history, and self-reported responses to 25 general health questions. For eligible people who were deceased, death certificates were obtained and pertinent information was abstracted.
The registry's purpose is to aid in assessing the long-term health consequences of low-level, long-term exposure to environmental contaminants. One of ATSDR's goals is to establish a database that will furnish the information needed to generate appropriate and valid hypotheses for future activities, such as epidemiologic studies. When supplemented with additional data, the combined file can then be used to carry out hypothesis-testing epidemiologic investigations. The files for each chemical-specific subregistry are established when baseline data are collected, and are updated and maintained by ATSDR on an ongoing basis annually the first year and biennially thereafter. The TCE CD-ROM contains only baseline data; the data for the first followup will be released in the summer of 1995.
The National Exposure Registry was created in response to a mandate in the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act (CERCLA) of 1980 that ATSDR create a registry of persons exposed to hazardous substances. This mandate was reiterated in the Superfund Amendments and Reauthorization Act (SARA) of 1986.
The CD-ROM includes access software the Statistical Export and Tabulation System (SETS). The datafile is on one disc. Hardware requirements include an IBM-compatible microcomputer (286/386/486) with 640K of memory, MS-DOS 3.1 version or higher, 3.5 MB of free space on hard drive, Microsoft CD-ROM Extensions version 2.0 or higher, and a fully installed CD-ROM reader.
To order the CD-ROM, or for more information about the National Exposure Registry, contact JeAnne Burg, PhD, ATSDR, 1600 Clifton Road, NE, Mailstop E31, Atlanta, Georgia 30333; telephone (404) 639-6202; fax (404) 639-6219.
ATSDR Uses Multisite Analysis
To Evaluate Health Effects in Small Communities
Many National Priorities List (NPL) sites are small areas where perhaps a neighborhood or a single residential street is affected by environmental hazards. Determining whether the incidence of disease is higher than normal at these sites is hard or sometimes impossible because the number of people affected is too small to detect statistically important differences. One solution multisite analysis is to combine study results from a number of sites with similar exposures to provide a large enough sample size.
Including more sites in a study also adds diversity to the age, sex, race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, education level, and other characteristics of the population, and greater diversity means more valid results.
The multisite analysis approach is described in the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry's May 1992 report to Congress, "The Feasibility and Value of Performing Multisite Epidemiologic Studies for Superfund Sites."
Because identical data collection techniques were used at various sites, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) has combined the results of multiple studies with similar exposures (e.g., volatile organic compounds, lead, and cadmium) into a single database for multisite analysis.
Analysis of this database will enable ATSDR to evaluate possible adverse health effects for people residing near hazardous waste sites and will greatly improve the agency's knowledge concerning the possible health effects of exposure to hazardous substances.
Multisite analysis has the potential to:
Warning! Foul Territory Keep Out! is the message the Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) sent to hunters who have been using an area in Woodbury County to hunt ducks and deer. The area is now considered a public health threat.
Before hunting season opened on October 1, 1994, the IDPH was faced with having to inform hunters not to hunt on the 98.7-acre hazardous waste site, which is contaminated with arsenic, barium, beryllium, cadmium, lead, manganese, nickel, vanadium, and hydrogen sulfide.
The Mid-America Tanning Co., an abandoned leather tanning facility, operated between 1969 and 1989. Between 1976 and 1984, state officials found a number of problems with the plant's wastewater treatment operations. Before the plant closed in 1989, two employees working in a manhole on the site died from hydrogen sulfide poisoning. The site is located about 7 miles south of Sioux City and 4 miles southwest of Sergeant Bluff in the Port Neal Industrial District, which is only 1.5 miles northeast of the Missouri River.
"Our mission was to educate trespassers, especially hunters, that people or animals entering this site are in danger of being exposed to toxic substances when they touch, breathe, or swallow dirt and water in this area," said Debbie Patterson, community health consultant, IDPH. "They need to be aware of the adverse health effects associated with exposure to metals in the groundwater, such as diseases of the stomach, intestines, liver, and kidneys. Long-term exposure to arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, and lead may cause cancer, and infants, children, the elderly, and pregnant women are more at risk to these substances. Air tests also show that hydrogen sulfide, a hazardous, flammable gas that can cause loss of consciousness and death if breathed at high levels, is present in enclosed areas on the site."
During a site visit, the IDPH found No Trespassing signs posted, but no hazardous chemicals signs were present. It was also evident that trespassers had entered the property. The site has many physical hazards, including unfenced lagoons, underground buildings, manholes, electrical wires, and standing water in lagoons and basins. Exposure to contaminants, as well as injuries, can result from falls in or around the lagoons, polishing basins, or other physical structures.
"We developed a user-friendly brochure that could easily fit into a hunter's shirt pocket, warning of the potential health hazards associated with the site," said Ms. Patterson. "We worked with local hunting organizations (e.g., Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, Woodbury County Conservation Board) and provided them with information to print in their professional newsletters. The warning brochures were provided to the local health department and the courthouse where hunting licenses are purchased. We also provided information to instructors of local hunting and safety courses, which all youth must attend before receiving a first-time hunting license, and to training facilities for hunting dogs."
In 1989, the Mid-America Tanning
site was put on the National Priorities List (NPL) for Superfund hazardous waste sites US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
after a field investigation team discovered that soil and groundwater samples
contained many hazardous substances that could be harmful to people. A site
qualifies for the NPL list when EPA determines that there is a release of
a hazardous substance that may harm people, animals, or the environment. In
addition, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry and the
IDPH determined that this site is a public health threat.
Efforts to warn people to stay off this hazardous waste site will continue. Fencing in the area is being considered.
Wondering What You Missed in
Past Issues?
The Hazardous Substances & Public Health index
is available by calling Teresa Ramsey at (404) 639-6206;
fax (404) 639-6208; Internet TAR1@cdc.gov
ATSDR Studies Ways To Prevent
Chronic Stress in Communities Near Hazardous Waste Sites
Map: Population Within One
Mile of an NPL Site
Some people in communities near hazardous waste sites are uncertain about their health, and this uncertainty may lead to chronic stress, according to a growing body of research. Based on this finding by other researchers, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) is now studying ways to help communities affected by hazardous waste sites prevent chronic stress that can affect their mental and physical health.
ATSDR will also be hosting the "Expert Panel Workshop on the Effects on Psychological Health of Hazardous Waste Sites," September 12-13, 1995, in Atlanta.
According to research by Andrew Baum, PhD, at the University of Pittsburgh, residence near a chronic technological disaster, such as a leaking landfill, can lead to chronic stress. Not all of the long-term health effects of chronic stress are clear, but research has shown that residents living near hazardous waste sites, whether or not they are directly exposed to hazardous substances, can still be affected emotionally or socially, said Pam Tucker, MD, an ATSDR clinical psychiatrist.
"Perception is reality if communities believe they are exposed, they will react as if they have been," Dr. Tucker said.
The number of people potentially affected by hazardous waste sites is large. ATSDR has completed an analysis of populations living around 93% of the current 1,296 National Priorities List (NPL) sites. The agency's data, which are based on 1990 census information, indicate that about 11 million people reside within 1 mile of NPL site borders and their health is potentially affected by exposure to hazardous substances at the sites.
Research shows that stress, in addition to affecting mental health, can be a contributing factor in increased blood pressure, a risk factor for heart attack, and can cause changes in the amount and balance of important chemicals in the brain. Stress is also believed to be a contributing factor in the onset of some diseases, and can increase the severity of preexisting illnesses, possibly by lowering immune system responses.
"Communities have asked us to address the issue of worry, and ATSDR's proposed project is aimed at developing public health intervention strategies building on what is currently known," Maureen Lichtveld, MD, ATSDR's chief medical officer for public health practice, told the agency's Board of Scientific Counselors (BSC) in October 1994. The board recommended that ATSDR incorporate strategies for addressing this problem into its existing programs.
ATSDR's purpose for the psychological effects project is to examine what is known about the psychological effects of possible exposures to hazardous waste so that strategies can be developed for mitigating any potential impacts of these stresses on affected individuals or communities.
ATSDR is now studying ways to integrate what is known about the psychological and social effects of hazardous waste sites into its activities, Dr. Tucker said. ATSDR staff are currently evaluating successful public health interventions that are modeled after those of community rebuilding following natural disasters. These models are helpful because of the similarities in the stress response to natural and chronic technological threats or disasters.
Public health strategies to prevent the damaging effects of chronic stress are important because people may become physically or psychologically ill under those conditions, Dr. Tucker said. Psychological research shows that levels of depression, anxiety disorders, and post-traumatic stress disorder may increase in affected communities. Post-traumatic stress disorder was first described in World War I combat soldiers and is a result of intense and overwhelming stress. This disorder is characterized by recurrent and intrusive thoughts, a constant reliving of the stressful event.
"All of these effects, physical and psychological, are costly in human and in economic terms," Dr. Tucker said. "For example, the National Institute of Mental Health estimates that the cost of depression in the United States for 1989 was $27 billion." It is not known how much of this figure represents the cost in communities around NPL sites; however, much is known about the suffering of the person with depression or anxiety and the strains these illnesses place on the families of those affected, she added.
"The agency now also faces the challenge of responding to worried communities affected by hazardous waste about possible psychological effects related to their situation," Dr. Lichtveld told the board.
"There is a danger in attributing physical symptoms to psychological causes," Dr. Tucker added. "You have to look at individual patients and rule out an organic problem first."
Some psychological illnesses have physical causes associated with exposure to hazardous substances. Some organochlorine compounds found in pesticides can cause depression, and exposure to mercury can cause neurologic disturbances, which may manifest as psychological symptoms, Dr. Tucker said.
Once physical causes for an illness have been ruled out, tests for measuring stress, depression, and anxiety are available. The Impact of Events Scale and the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Scale are two tests that can be used to determine if a person is experiencing adverse psychological effects.
But the most important role ATSDR can take is to intervene with community coping mechanisms before physical and psychological symptoms develop because of stress, Dr. Tucker said. The agency does not consider the psychological effects project a research project; rather, its efforts will focus on prevention of negative psychological effects associated with hazardous waste sites.
Last September, Dr. Tucker met with federal environmental and mental health professionals in Atlanta to discuss the psychological effects project. They recommended that ATSDR reach affected individuals by treating the whole community with crisis counseling. This approach includes identifying strengths of the community and using them to heal and resolve problems.
"Psychological health is just as important as physical health, and it should be an important part of public health practice," Dr. Tucker said.
For a copy of the psychological effects project literature source list or workshop registration information, contact Dr. Pam Tucker at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, 1600 Clifton Rd., Mailstop E28, Atlanta, Georgia 30333; telephone (404) 639-0566; Internet pgt0@cdc.gov.
NIEHS Clearinghouse on Environmental
Health Effects
ENVIRO-HEALTH is a National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences
(NIEHS)
Clearinghouse that functions as an easily accessible, free source of information
on environmental health effects. As public interest in environmental health
has grown, so has the challenge of getting current, reliable information.
The purpose of ENVIRO-HEALTH is to help you get answers to your questions
about environmental health and related issues.
ENVIRO-HEALTH is targeted to concerned citizens, environmental justice groups, grassroots environmental organizations, educators, students, and environmental writers. The clearinghouse can provide information on an assortment of environmental topics including the following:
An educational packet containing a series of environmental health articles is also available for schools and students.
An ENVIRO-HEALTH technical information specialist will handle your inquiries in one or more of the following ways:
Mail NIEHS publications to you.
Environmentally related human disease results from three interactive elements: (1) environmental exposures, (2) individual susceptibility, and (3) time. This means that your environment is related to your current and future status of health.
The mission of the NIEHS is to reduce the burden of human illness and dysfunction from environmental exposures by understanding each of the three interactive elements and how they interrelate. NIEHS achieves its mission through multidisciplinary biomedical research programs, prevention and intervention efforts, and communication strategies that encompass training, education technology transfer, and community outreach. NIEHS is a world center for toxicologic and environmental health science research.
The NIEHS ENVIRO-HEALTH clearinghouse receives calls on weekdays from 9 AM to 8 PM, Eastern Time. The toll-free telephone number is (800) 643-4794. You may inquire by fax or mail at ENVIRO-HEALTH Clearinghouse, 100 Capitola Drive, Suite 108, Durham, North Carolina 27713; fax (919) 361-9408.
**11/17/00 Update: The ENVIRO-HEALTH clearinghouse number is no longer correct. Please contact the NIEHS Office of Communications and Public Liaison at (919) 541-3345.
EPA Announces Superfund Administrative
Reforms
Proposed administrative reforms
to the Superfund law are designed to continue the US
Environmental Protection Agency's
efforts to make the clean-up program faster, fairer, and more efficient.
Superfund administrative reforms are designed to improve the pace, cost, and fairness of the clean-up program while expanding the involvement of states, tribes, and local communities. The reforms are intended to strengthen and improve the Superfund program. EPA will also be testing, through pilot projects, some of the ideas raised by a coalition of supporters during last year's legislative debate.
"The administrative reforms will go a long way toward our goal of a faster, fairer, more efficient Superfund," said EPA Administrator Carol M. Browner. They encourage economic development, particularly in urban areas, and greater community involvement, among other things. Legislative action by Congress, however, is still required if we are to fully reform the program on behalf of the 1 in 4 Americans who live near a hazardous waste site. We will continue to work with Congress to achieve those reforms."
The six areas of reform focus on enforcement, economic redevelopment, community involvement and outreach, environmental justice, consistent program implementation, and state empowerment.
To improve enforcement, EPA will enhance potentially responsible party (PRP) searches, foster expedited settlements, and pilot an allocation process at several Superfund National Priorities List (NPL) sites. The current Superfund law extends liability to both past and prospective owners of contaminated sites. As a result, the market value of older industrial sites, or brownfields," has declined. To address the effects of declining property values in inner-city industrial areas, EPA has announced its Brownfields Action Agenda, which commits funding for 50 pilot projects. Under this initiative, EPA will work with stakeholders to address liability barriers and encourage economic redevelopment of three industrial facilities. In addition, EPA regional offices in partnership with the states have determined that about 25,000 potential hazardous waste sites do not require federal involvement and will be removed from the Superfund inventory. To promote state and tribal empowerment, EPA will provide block funding to conduct or assist Superfund response actions.
The Superfund administrative reforms build upon and continue the Administrative Improvements Initiatives launched by Administrator Browner in 1993. Under the Administrative Improvements, EPA increased enforcement fairness and reduced transaction costs, improved clean-up effectiveness and consistency, expanded community involvement, and enhanced state involvement in the Superfund program.
To receive more information about the Superfund Administrative Reforms, contact the Superfund hotline at (800) 424-9346 or (703) 412-9810.
EPA's Report on Role of Wastewater
Management Office Now Available
Now available from the US
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
is the Office of Wastewater Management PRIMER. This recently released report
outlines the role of EPA's Wastewater Management Office in the control of
wastewater and water pollution throughout the United States.
The PRIMER features information about the following activities:
Health Studies Available to the
Public
Environmental health scientists
at the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR)
conduct health studies at various Superfund sites nationwide to evaluate the health effects
of hazardous substances on exposed populations. The following health studies
are available to the public through the National Technical Information Service (NTIS):
To order these health studies and others prepared by ATSDR, contact NTIS, Sills Building, 5285 Port Royal Road, Springfield, Virginia 22151; telephone (703) 487-4650; fax (703) 321-8547. For more information on health studies activities, contact Sharon Campolucci, deputy director, Division of Health Studies, ATSDR, 1600 Clifton Road, NE, Mailstop E31, Atlanta, Georgia 30333; telephone (404) 639-6200.
Harvard School of Public Health
Offers Continuing Education in Occupational and Environmental Health and Radiation
Protection
The Harvard School of Public Health is offering the following training opportunities in occupational and environmental health and radiation protection.
Atmospheric Science and Radioactivity Releases, June 26-28, 1995. This course provides detailed instruction on projecting doses to the public from accidental and routine releases of radioactivity into the atmosphere. Topics include fundamentals of atmospheric transport and dispersion modeling (applicable to any pollutant release including those from conventional power plants), special dispersion conditions, meteorology programs at nuclear power plants, review of transport and dispersion models, EPA protective action guides, and an introduction to dose projection computer programs. Cost: $695.
Exposure Assessment for Bioaerosols in Indoor Environments, July 19- 21, 1995. This course explores practical approaches for exposure assessments of bioaerosols in industrial and nonindustrial indoor environments. Exposure assessment is increasingly important in investigating building-related complaints, monitoring industrial settings, and conducting epidemiologic research on the health effects of indoor pollution. Participants will learn how to design and perform a proper exposure assessment study. Cost: TBA.
For more information about these and other available courses, contact Harvard School of Public Health, Office of Continuing Education, 677 Huntington Ave., LL-23, Dept. B, Boston, Massachusetts 02115-6023; telephone (617) 432-1171; fax (617) 432-1969; Internet contedu@sph.harvard.edu.
University of California, San
Francisco, Announces Continuing Medical Education Program in Occupational
and Environmental Medicine
The Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, is offering continuing medical education credits in occupational and environmental medicine at the Occupational and Environmental Medicine Session V, October 23-27, 1995, in San Francisco, California. The program will include the following topics:
Hospital Safety.
For more information, contact the Postgraduate Programs, Department of Medicine, 1383 Ninth Avenue, PO Box 0656, University of California, San Francisco, California 94143-0656; telephone (415) 476-5208.
University of Minnesota Offers
Hazardous Materials Training
The Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety Program at the University of Minnesota is offering the following hazardous materials training courses.
Emergency Response: Operations and Technician Level, July 10-14, 1995. This course is designed for workers and supervisors who may be required to respond to a leak, spill, or accident involving hazardous materials in facilities that use hazardous materials. The emergency response and spills training meets OSHA 1910.120 requirements. Attendees participate in moderately strenuous, hands-on field exercises involving wearing respiratorsand personal protective clothing. Students may register for the 24- or 40-hour option depending on their training needs. Cost: $575 for the 24- hour option; $975 for the 40-hour option.
Emergency Response Refresher Course, July 13, 1995. This course is for people who have attended operations or technician- level training and are in need of the annual OSHA refresher training required for personnel engaged in materials emergency response operations. Cost: $190.
For more information about these and other available courses, contact the Midwest Center for Occupational Health and Safety Program in Continuing Education, University of Minnesota, 640 Jackson Street, St. Paul, Minnesota 55101; telephone (612) 221-3992.
University of New England Holds
Low Literacy Communication Skills Seminar for Health Professionals
The University of New England in Biddeford, Maine, is offering the following training opportunity.
Low Literacy Communication Skills for Health Professionals, July 9- 12, 1995. This 4-day course will teach health professionals how to create written materials for low-level readers and culturally diverse populations so that health information will be easy to read and understand. The course is led by Jane Root, PhD, the co-author of Teaching Patients with Low Literacy Skills. Participants will learn how to create low-cost, easy-to- read, culturally appropriate materials; learn effective writing principles; practice graphic design essentials, and leave with a pamphlet ready to be typeset and field tested. Cost: $329. For more information, contact the University of New England, College of Professional and Continuing Studies, Hills Beach Road, Biddeford, Maine 04005; telephone (207) 283-0171, ext. 2440.
July 20-22, 1995: The National Association of County and City Health Officials Annual Conference - Joining Hands for Health Communities, Atlanta, Georgia. Contact: Cecilia Miranda, NACCHO, 440 1st Street, NW, Suite 500, Washington, DC 20001; telephone (202) 783-5550; fax (202) 783-1583.
July 30-August 2, 1995: The 100th Annual Convention and Scientific Assembly of the National Medical Association, Atlanta, Georgia. Contact: NMA, 1012 Tenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20001; telephone (202) 347-1895; fax (202) 842-3293.
August 2-5, 1995: The Association of Management 13th Annual International Conference Bridging the Global Gap Between Research and Practice Into the 21st Century, Vancouver, British Columbia. Contact: Jane Bryant, The Association of Management, 5309 Sidney Court, PO Box 64841, Virginia Beach, Virginia 23464; telephone (804) 479-5363; fax (804) 479-0656; Internet aomgt@infi.net.
August 31-September 2, 1995: American Academy of Pediatrics 1995 Pediatric Trends Conference, Seattle, Washington. Contact: AAP, 141 Northwest Point Boulevard, PO Box 927, Elk Grove Village, Illinois; telephone (708) 981-4321; fax (708) 228-5059.
September 18-22, 1995: MEDICHEM/MIT Congress, Cambridge, Massachusetts, at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. MEDICHEM is the scientific advisory committee to the International Commission on Occupational Health on matters relating to environmental and occupational health in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. Contact: Allison P. Cocuzzo, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Medical Department, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, 20B-238, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02139- 4307; telephone (617) 258-5652; fax (617) 253-4879.
In the article "More Diverse Sites Added to Superfund National Priorities List" (Hazardous Substances & Public Health, volume 5, number 1, page 10) the telephone number for the Superfund hotline was incorrect. The correct telephone number is (800) 424-9346.
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