Published: August 01, 2008 09:13 pm      

LOVE CANAL: Flaws in health study

Lois Gibbs and Stephen Lester call final study incomplete

Thirty years later and Lois Gibbs still doesn’t have the full scope of the toll her former neighborhood took on her former neighbors.

Gibbs was in town Friday to commemorate the 30th anniversary of Love Canal — specifically the day state Health Commissioner Robert Whalen ordered his declaration of emergency.

As usual, Gibbs came with a message: The state’s new attempt at a health study falls far short of what’s needed.

“The data is fine, it’s just incomplete,” she said. “It’s very limited and it still finds that children born between 1983 to 1986 from parents of Love Canal are three times as likely to have a birth defect.”

Both Gibbs and Stephen Lester, science director for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice science director and a state on-site science expert at Love Canal in the late 1970s, spoke and issued a detailed report Friday about the perceived problems with the study.

Among their notable concerns were that the Department of Health did not set up a registry for every resident who lived in the neighborhood at the time, did not conduct interviews with residents, only collected data from databases with numerous limitations and only includes a small number of former residents.

It does not include children with birth defects born before 1983 and the diseases and health conditions of residents while they were living in the neighborhood.

“It appears that the (DOH’s) efforts were intended, once again, to minimize the findings of adverse health outcomes in the residents of Love Canal,” the study summarizes. “Unfortunately, Love Canal families are no more informed by this study than they were in 1980.”

The study, which began in 1996 and a draft of which was released in October 2006, found increased rates of birth defects and higher than expected rates of kidney and bladder disease, according to the CHEJ report.

DOH officials responded Friday to the criticism of the study in a statement, saying it has not yet been finalized and they were proud of the work done on Love Canal.

“This work is undergoing an extensive peer review,” the statement said. “The studies are independently reviewed by scientists outside the health department with expertise in the field to make sure the study meets scientific standards and that any problems will be addressed ... We have included experts on the study’s advisory committee and community consultants who were who were former Love Canal residents. We have issued newsletters on our progress, met numerous times in open meetings and have to be straightforward and open.”

So what now?

Gibbs and Lester hope the state lets the former residents of Love Canal know the findings of the study so at least they can be informed.

“The responsible action for (DOH) is to alert former residents of the adverse health effects found, including increased rates of birth defects and higher than expected rates of kidney and bladder cancer,” the CHEJ report says. “Sadly, this final study fails to provide the victims of Love Canal with any new insight into the impact of exposure to chemicals from the toxic dump on their health today and for future generations.”