PCB News

PCB report kicks off controversy
St. Lawrence Island study splits scientists, health officials

An unusual public dispute has broken out among scientists and health officials over an environmental group's study of cancer-causing PCBs in the blood of Yupik villagers on Alaska's St. Lawrence Island.

Last week the state Division of Public Health issued a bulletin rebutting the group's conclusion that low-level PCBs measured in residents of the Bering Sea island appeared to come from an abandoned military site. The state said the study was flawed and failed to prove that PCB pollution is any worse on St. Lawrence than in other coastal subsistence communities, where PCBs are picked up through the marine food chain.

"There are advocacy groups out there who are trying to move science into a political arena," said Larry Duffy, a biochemist and toxics expert at the University of Alaska Fairbanks who endorsed the state's bulletin. "Their analytical chemistry was perfectly fine, but if you look at their statistics about the source of the contaminants, that case is very weak." The state was joined by several Native health organizations in stressing that traditional subsistence foods are safe to eat.

"The known benefits of fish and marine mammal consumption far outweigh the controversial potential adverse health effects from contaminants found in those foods," the state said.

The state's missive drew a sharp rebuttal from the environmental group, Alaska Community Action on Toxics, and the national PCB expert who participated in the study.

"The state is trying to dismiss the problem. That to me is totally irresponsible," said ACAT spokeswoman Pamela Miller. "For them to say these PCB levels are normal is an outrage."

Dr. David Carpenter of the State University of New York's School of Public Health, who supervised the St. Lawrence study, said the state is underplaying the potential health risks.

"The government of Alaska, particularly the (Division of Public Health), has consistently taken the position that indigenous foods are good no matter what is in them," Carpenter wrote in a letter to state officials last month. "To ignore the problem of contaminants in traditional foods is in my judgment condescending, paternalistic and poor practice of public health."

The controversy, played out around Alaska in meetings and memos over the past few months, has left the St. Lawrence communities of Savoonga and Gambell worried and eager for further studies. But it has not curbed subsistence hunting and fishing, said Savoonga vice mayor Jesse Gologergen, who worked on the ACAT study.

Native health groups say that's a good thing.

"It is our strong feeling that traditional foods are very good for people," said Dr. Jim Berner, director of community health services for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, which signed on to the state's bulletin. "The omega-3 fatty acids, the iron, the high-quality protein, the anti-oxidants all have such a positive effect."

The environmental group agrees that no change in diet is warranted so far, though it suggests avoiding plants and fish from the contaminated Northeast Cape area.

"We never said they should stop eating traditional foods or breast-feeding. That wasn't even part of the discussion at all," said ACAT's Miller. "However, we believe people should have the evidence so they can make their own decisions. That's why we had the community participate in setting up the study."

Not every Native health group is backing the state's debunking effort. Norton Sound Health Corp., responsible for Native health care in the St. Lawrence region, participated in the original study and is staying neutral now.

"There's been some mixing of science and politics, probably on both sides," said Joe Cladouhos, head of the Nome-based group. "The missing piece is we don't know what it means to human health at those levels" of PCB contamination.

While the dispute has an unusually high profile, scientists say differences over how to interpret data are common, especially in the gray area of public health risks from low-level contamination. PCBs, polychlorinated biphenyls, are long-lasting industrial chemicals. They have been banned for most uses since 1977 but show up in the Arctic through global transmission in the atmosphere.

The controversy began last October when ACAT released its study concluding that average PCB levels measured in the blood of 60 St. Lawrence Islanders were significantly higher than levels typically found in people from the Lower 48. The highest readings came from older residents who had been exposed to a former White Alice radar base at Northeast Cape, either from working there or using the area for subsistence camps.

A cleanup of the base is under way by the Army Corps of Engineers. The Division of Public Health report called the cleanup an important priority.

The ACAT study received wide publicity and set off alarms in other coastal communities, said Dr. Tracey Lynn, an environmental specialist with the state public health office. The supposedly alarming PCB measurements were recognized as not far different from those found in a handful of other studies in Alaska, she said.

"People are able to do the math," Lynn said.

The state responded with a critical look and reached some different conclusions. Because PCBs decompose very slowly, older people tend to collect more in their systems. Sorting the St. Lawrence subjects by age, the state said PCB numbers turned out to be the same as other Alaska subsistence communities -- and less than other places in the Arctic. The state said the data did not necessarily indicate the White Alice site as a local source of pollution.

"It certainly is intriguing and warrants additional follow-ups," Lynn said.

The environmental group responded that it had called the study preliminary and said more work is planned. ACAT complained that state public health officials attended meetings around the state to enlist support for its rebuttal without inviting those who did the original study.

"It's an underhanded approach the state is taking on this," Miller said.

The two sides continue to dispute whether the PCBs measured in Alaska, whatever their source, are a health risk.

Carpenter said in his letter that PCB exposures of 6 to 9 parts per billion -- amounts found in St. Lawrence tests -- pose health hazards ranging from cancer to neurobehavioral effects to endocrine disruption and immune suppression.

Carpenter was traveling in Europe this week and could not be reached for further comment.

The state's Lynn called the science of health effects from low-level exposure "theoretical and highly controversial." She said the state weighed all published studies in deciding the present levels would have no adverse health effects.

"I think Dr. Carpenter is on shaky ground," said UAF's Duffy. "That's not to rule out that in the future some research might go ahead and support him."

Reporter Tom Kizzia can be reached at tkizzia@adn.com or in Homer at 907-235-4244.

Copyright 2003 Anchorage Daily News