Times Beach

[Cdstelzer@aol.com]

WEAK IN MATH
BY C. D. STELZER
(first published in the Riverfront Times, July 12)
Relying on fallacious information leaked by the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA),  the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported on June 10 that all
dioxin levels in the blood of residents living near the Vertac dioxin
incinerator in Jacksonville, Ark. had decreased. 
 Wrong.
 Morris F. Cranmer Jr., the researcher responsible for the study,  now says
that levels of the most toxic form of dioxin actually increased among those
tested.  On May 2, Cranmer  told  the St. Louis County Dioxin Monitoring
Committee the opposite. Since the Post-Dispatch did not cover Cranmer's
presentation, the EPA eagerly provided a transcript of that meeting later to
the daily newspaper.
 "I'm sorry that we appear inconsistent, but I don't see it that way," said
Cranmer in a telephone interview last week. "I see it as trying to come up
with the best analysis of the data. It's painful, but that's the way it is." 
  Cranmer's  reversal is important because the blood testing at the Superfund
site in Arkansas is one of the few  attempts to measure inhalation exposure
on general populations residing within the vicinity of an incinerator.  Its
significance is further enhanced  by the imminent completion of the Times
Beach dioxin incinerator near Eureka, Mo., which may begin operating as soon
as early next year. The EPA,  Missouri Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
and Syntex Agribusiness Inc., the company liable for the $118 million-plus
cleanup, are proceeding with the terms of their 1990 consent decree, and
contend that the project will be safe (the RFT, April 26). Once completed the
incinerator is scheduled to begin burning 100,000 cubic yards of
 dioxin-contaminated soil from Times Beach and 26 other sites in Eastern
Missouri.  The project has moved forward despite the uncertain consequences
of incineration and in the wake of an EPA study released last year that
reaffirms the dangers that dioxin poses to human health (the RFT, May 19,
1994). Opposition by residents, elected officials and environmentalists has
so far  been unsuccessful in persuading the responsible parties to use any
alternative means of disposing of the toxin.
 The flip-flop on the Arkansas study is one of many controversies that have
cast doubt upon the EPA's plans for Times Beach. This  latest flap began
after the environmental group Greenpeace began analyzing the raw data on the
Vertac blood tests.  Up until that time, Cranmer, a consultant for the
Arkansas Department of Health (ADOH),  maintained that all dioxin levels had
decreased among people living near the Vertac incinerator.   Pat Costner, a
 Greenpeace chemist, says she submitted a state Freedom of Information Act
request on May 18 and received copies of the data soon thereafter. Sometime
between that date and the public release of the report in late June, Cranmer
changed the method of his analysis.  By using a more appropriate arithmetic
means rather than a geometric one, Cranmer says he found  the data showed
that TCDD --  the most toxic form of dioxin --  has increased,  not
decreased,  among those tested. The third and final round of blood tests at
Vertac will not be completed, because the EPA shut down the  incinerator late
last year,  after recurring safety problems and environmental opposition to
the project continued. The remaining waste at the site is being trucked to a
hazardous waste incinerator at Coffeyville, Kan.
 So the conclusions of the Arkansas study now have  more relevance to the
public policy decisions that will effect that residents who live near Times
Beach.  By  providing an inaccurate interpretation of his own  blood study
data prematurely to the St. Louis County Dioxin Monitoring Committee on May
2, Cranmer bent, if not broke, federal law.  Arkansas environmentalists and a
Little Rock reporter say they repeatedly attempted to gain the same
information and were told by state and federal health officials that it would
be illegal to release the data pending peer review.The subsequently altered
findings in Cranmer's report were not officially made public for almost two
months after he spoke in St. Louis.
  An official for the Missouri Department of Health (MDOH) says Cranmer
appeared here at the request of the Monitoring Committee, an ad hoc group of
 locally appointed citizens and elected officials who are charged with
overseeing the safety of the Times Beach incinerator. Cranmer's travel
expenses were paid for out of a grant he received from the federal Agency for
Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR).
 The ATSDR's generosity towards Cranmer has continued despite the fact that
the scientist is  a convicted federal felon.  In 1988, the U.S. District
Court for Eastern Arkansas found Cranmer guilty on two counts of providing
false information to a lender. The case involved bilking the Farmers Home
Administration out of nearly $10 million. The scientist secured a loan from
the federal agency ostensibly to build a laboratory. He instead used some of
the funds for other personal real estate ventures.  Judge Henry Wood
sentenced Cranmer to serve six months of community service at the ADOH under
former surgeon general Jocelyn Elder, who then headed the state agency. After
serving his sentence, Cranmer began  working as a private consultant for the
state, and in that capacity was given the contract to do the blood study at
the Vertac incinerator site.  Earlier in his career, Cranmer came under
federal investigation before leaving his job at the National Center for
Toxicological Research, a source in the U.S. Attorney's office in Little Rock
told the Riverfront Times last week.  Nevertheless, since his conviction on
the fraudulent loan charges, Cranmer has been paid more than $139,000 by the
ATSDR to conduct the Vertac dioxin exposure study,  according to a report in
the July 8 edition of  Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.
  In a telephone interview last week, Cranmer admitted making a mistake. "I
don't remember what I said to the St. Louis group,  but I 
certainly told them that the levels went down," he said. "That was not
correct. ...  "I'm not trying to make excuses, but when I gave the talk in
St. Louis, I was relying on summary information that had been provided me.  I
did the best to respond to questions of people, and, if I was in error, then
I was in error. The facts speak for themselves," said Cranmer. "
  Steve Taylor, an opponent of the incinerator and  the leader of the Times
Beach Action Group (TBAG), isn't accepting the apology, nor does he believe
Cranmer's explanation.  "Dr. Cranmer has been convicted of fraud and was
hired by corrupt agencies to perpetuate their lies and deception.
  "This recent episode is a continuation of over two decades of deception,
flawed science and political manipulation surrounding the dioxin
controversy," said Taylor. TBAG's rallying cry has long been uncover the
dioxin coverup, stop EPA lies. We demand real and effectual action by our
local elected officials, in particular (Gov.) Mel Carnahan, to protect
Missouri citizens from renegade agencies. If they do not, the citizens
themselves have the right and the responsibility to shut the project down."
 The response of locally elected officials has been more reserved.  "This
technology is untested, certainly it's untested on this scale," said County
Councilman Greg Quinn (R-7th Dist.). Quinn's district includes the Times
Beach site. "When we were considering a bill to implement standards for how
much dioxin could be emitted from the stack at the incinerator, the EPA
wasn't sure they could meet that. What concerned me about that was they had
been making some claims about what they could do all the way along, and, when
push came to shove,  they indicated to us that they weren't sure that they
could achieve what we had mandated (the RFT, Dec. 6, 1994 and Feb. 1). 
 The EPA and DNR referred all questions on Cranmer's study to the ATSDR or
MDOH. Spokespersons at those two agencies say that the slight changes in the
Vertac findings are insignificant. They contend that TCDD and a few other
related dioxins, which have also shown increases in the latest round of
tests,  are not as important as the average for all 16 dioxin-like substance
measured. That figure has still decreased, and is indicative of a national
trend, the officials say.  In addition,  rises in the TCDD levels of the
Mabelvale, Ark. control group suggest that there may be some reason for the
increase other than incineration emissions, health officials say. "If Cranmer
did something he wasn't supposed to have done that's too bad, and it's
wrong," said Gale Carlson of the MDOH. "(But) based on the information I have
right now, which is from the Arkansas Department of Health, the Missouri
Department of Health is not unhappy with the numbers."
 Costner of Greenpeace isn't so giddy. "They're either not looking rationally
at their study and their results or, as it seems apparent, they designed the
study to see no effects, and then they initially mathematically manipulated
the data in order to hide the effects," said Costner. "But, nonetheless,
despite this absolutely horrendous bias, ... there was clearly a substantial
increase in exposure to some of the dioxin."  
 TBAG is organizing a protest at the EPA's Times Beach site office on Lewis
Road for 1:00 p.m. July 27. For further information call 391-5715.
     Post script: 14 or 15 demonstrators were arrested.