- \ -VT Herald & Lantern 18 lulv '84 15

Cadmium Found in Watei — / r WF / e . nr

z (From Page 1) results of water samples tested last spring and summer by the county. Lamanna repeated that observation in an unreleased June 14 letter to "member of the concerned public.' He added. "We find the Cape May County environn^nt to be generally healthy. A brief review follows: | • "The few high lead levels found were certainly the result of deteriorating piping in the old, unused, test wells which were sampled, and constitute no cause for alarm. • "Elevated cadmium levels were found m some samples. While some of the higher • levels were also no doubt related to unused plumbing, other tests may reflect high, but normal, levels of this naturally occurring metal. Recent review shows that cadmium levels appear to be high throughout southern New Jersey. More study is planned here. • "THREE SAMPLES were confirmed to contain very small amounts of pesticide, possibly the result of {termite control activities. Observed levels were very low and are no cause for concern A fourth sample, a surface water site, contained a high level . of Malathion. no doubt the result of very V recent spraying activities in the area. ') Ongoing monitoring is proposed "In summary." Lamanna wrote, "preliminary testing has shown Cape May iCounty ground and surface waters to be (free of harmful levels of chemical and metal pollutants Fisher disagrees. "Despite all the selfcongratulatory pages and assurances that all is fine in picturesque Cape May County, the few facts' emerging do not confirm this.'' she wrote in a Thursday letter to the freeholders. "In fact." Fisher added, "interpretation of the facts is difficult because of so mucvh bungling about the (test result) figures to begin with and now. little or no help from - T any agency to determine the implications ) of the findings." J THE "BUNGLING* Fisher referred to J was July 2 revisions in the original sampling results, necessary because of "typographical errors" in an initial draft of the report, according to Sutton. "Although Mr. Lamanna s covering let V ter speaks of ongoing monitoring and more \jtpdy. nothing is yet planned for this sum1 mer and a brief meeting with Mr Lamanf na ( and Fisher ) led only to discussion of / how busy the < Health i Department is and how important other projects are?" Fisher wrote the freeholders. "You must authorize monies lor tests this summer." she told them "Twenty thousand dollars might do for a start (Cancel a few travel and expense accounts - 'and you'll have it.)." The freeholders' office received Fisher's letter by Monday but none of them had read it. Diane E. Rudolph, depu ty freeholders' clerk, confirmed. Sutton hadn't seen the letter, he sa^d Monday, declining comment on a sumrtipry of it and referring queries to Lamanna Who was not in the office then. Lamanna. Sutton added, would also address questions about when the study of last year's water quality samples would be officially released. According to the study. "67 samples sites were selected from. locations which were both suspected and not suspected of having poor groundwater or surface water quality, and locations having a high incidence of birth defects or miscarriages. "EIGHTEEN SAMPLES contained concentrations of cadmium at or above the permissible level put forth by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency iEPAi Five samples contained concentrations of lead at or above the permissible level. " the report noted. "One sample contained chromium at a concentration exceeding m the permissible level. "Pesticides were detected in four samples at a concentration on the order of nanograms per liter (parts per billion i." wrote the report authors. "In addition, three samples were suspected (not confirmed) of having trace levels of DDT. methoxychlor. lindane opdieldrin " All of the 1983 water samples were taken j from Mainland sites west of the Garden i State Parkway; no county reports were tested. sites were selected by county « planners. Health Department officials, i Stockton State College researchers and i <f "concerned individuals." \ I Goals of the report were seven fold, to i determine possible concentrations of ■! pollutants, investigate any link between I water contamination and birth defects, determine the direction on any pollutant in I local aquifers, relaie birth defect informa ' tion from other areas to toxic chemicals in t

water supplies, disseminate the study findings. incorporate the lessons learned from the study into environmental plans, and recommend any solutions necessary. "DATA PUT FORTH county Health Department has indicated-a high incidence of birth problems, both birth defects and miscarriages, in the lower por tion of Cape May County . . . during the final weeks of December. 1979. and early January 1980." the study authors explained. "This data encompassed five major areas of defects. These were (1) Down s Syndrome. ( 2 ) defects of any major organ system. (3) craniofacial defects (i.e.. spina bifida, hydrocephalus? anencephyaly), and (4) absences of any limb or por tion of a limf " added the authors. "The data did not .nclude minor birth defects (i.e.. webbing between fingers, extra toes or fingers) or miscarriages. "Environmental factors have been implicated as the etiology ( cause > of this problem for numerous reasons." they continued. "... nitrates, in excess ol normal concentrations, have been shown to exist in tpe countv." * THE HEAVY METALS, lead and cad mium. have caused birth defects in animals "To protect human health, the report authors noted. the£ EPA has established permitted«afe limits for lead and for cadmium Although, in his June 4 letter. Uynanna wrote that the study has shown the county's ground and surface waters "to be free of harmful levels of chemical and metal pollutants." the authors reported 18 cadmium, five lead, t'one chromium and Malathion samples that exceed the safe EPA limits. "There may be a positive association between high levels of cadmium in drink ing water and birth defects." they reported Many of the water sampling sites are recorded by codes orjly. But cadmium levels, exceeding EPA limits, were found at or near the following locations: south of^ Palermo: south of the Woodbine airport: Clermont; South Dennis: Tuckahoe; Magnolia Lake: 6qurt House, the' Wildwood Water Co. pumping station. Rio Grande; Cox Hall Creek and Rosewood Avenue monitoring wells' near Villas, in Cape May Beach; in Highland Beach; Dias Creek at the Delaware Bay: Smith's landfill near West Cape May; Mar-Tee landfill. Middle Township: Town Bank and Sunset Beach, both in Lower Township. Excessive lead levels were also recorded at the Cox Hall Creek and Rosewood Avenue monitoring wells, .at Cape May Beach and Highland Beach all near Villas — and at Higbee Beach, also in < Lower Township "IT IS EXTRAORDINARY that the cad mium levels were not researched at once, " Fisher complained in her letter to the freeholders. "Why must the public try to decipher what caused these excesses'* Just because it- is widespread, do we ignore it'.' Cadmium Excesses have been linked to birth defects and 28 percent of all samples taken show excess cadmium levels "High lead levels." she continued, citing comments in the report and an explanation of one testing method, "cannot be dismissed as just a result ol old plumbing when (water) tapis were left to run the methodology does not jive with Stale of New Jersey procedures here "The data in this survey, wrote its authors, "seems to initially disapprove any association between pesticides with the previous incidence of birth delects in Cape May County But it must be remembered that the first of these water samples was not analyzed until three ; years after the initial observation of birth defects." "We know little of the long term health effects of all pesticides but common sense directs > that we should beware of all poisons.'' Fisher countered, "most especially those that kill by mutating as many herbicides do. / "A recent (U.S.) House Subcommittee report indicates thatNat least 62 percent of pesticides now in use in this country have never been adequately tested to determine if they cause cancer in humans." she added. "Sixty to 70 percent haven t been tested for their potential to cause birth defects and 93 percent have never been tested to determine if they cause genetic mutations. The combined effects of several pesticides used at once on humans been almost totally ignored "THIS SURVEY specifically excluded the agricultural community, as this data provided to us by the Cape May County Extension Service." Fisher continued.

/ y quoting Lamanna s letter. "If so. where is it?" she asked "All that was provided was a list of com monly used poisons and then only after months of evasion." she maintained "Does the agricultural community really want its leader to keep hiding the amounts and typ>es of these poisons used in Cape May County? The first atlected the farmers. No one was ever hurt by knowledge." A It was the piesticide. Sevin. that was originally suspected by many as the cause of the 1980 birth defeids. Sevin had been sprayed during the summer ol 1979 in the Cold Spring-North Cape May area where several of the woman would have conceived or carried the children born with birth defects the following winter Seven birth defect cases were reported by May 1980. A private survey lound more than a dozen cases between late 19$) and mid-1980 The slate Health Department, which filed its report later that year, ol ficially. recorded three cases. THE SURVEYS, however, used dil ferent criteria The state only recorded major defects (spina bifida. Down's Syndrome. etc. » in live babies, not less-severe abnormalities (extra fingers, club feel etc.), or those found in babies' that dn-d Miscarriages were not figured into the tin dings, nor sterility. State health officials did not link the 1980 birth defects to environmental laetors like water pollution from chemicals or Iroin the pesticide Sevin. The cluster of birtl) defects was a statistical quirk, they con \ eluded, perhaps caused by a virus. "We never said it had anything, to! do with Sevin." a piesticide. or anything." recalled Robert Dooiey of Court House who helped conduct the private birth defect survey with his wife. Michelle, a childbirth counselor. "We just waited the people, whose job it was to find out. to get it done." When the state Health Department com pleted its study of local birth' defects without establishing a connection with Sevin spraying, the department seemed to just walk away from the problem, said Dooiey. "WE GOT SO DISGUSTED at the time all this happened, we just kind ol gave up. he added "The help we got on this was minimal

^ p and the hinderance we got was a lot." /aid Michelle Dooiey "It's just ^mazing that nobody wants to hear. iU?i about birth defects! * "The (state i study stuhk. to be honest with you. It didn't address the questions, she added "They are keeping a pretty close watch on it. Sutton said of state Health Depurj/-y men! figures on birth defects here, ihc county does not have any records on them. ' though, he said. \ Thomas Hagy. public informal ion Vol ficer for the state Health Department saul Monday that its ligures show an increases, in county birth defects of ail types mainly, \ because of better reporting " { \ Last year, he said. 14 4 cases ol county \ birth defects were recorded per I immi bu ths: the state average tor I9H3 was 17 i> pm 1.000. he added In 1982. 13 9 cases per l.uoo • were reported here, compared to the 12 2a pier l.ooo state average (See related story page 51 > "THAT FALI-S IN THE acceptable range. Hagy explained. noting thai upstate Warren County reported 18.9 cases of birth defects pier 1 .000 in 1^2 and Salem County 7.38 per 1.000 Figures lor 1981 and this year w ejfcc not >mmedialely available." he s& ] One of the coi^BHealth Depart menl s goals in the watflgpuality reprtrt was to relate birth defeXpformation Irom other areas. No statist® ftn birth detects are in ( eluded lit the rej®t. though "ijhink it's inapf water and the ma jority of it is deflp "in Lower Township, Michelle DooIeySbid of an unknown en vironmental cauiHor birth defects Medical pro' nmals privately agreed with her. she saJdbut her 1980 efforts to uncover the cai® of local birth detects met with chilly ^Ehostile respxinses Irom many friends, associates and officials. Because of thd® reactions and the jack of a continuing investigation to determine the reason for bAh defects. Dooiey said the thinks she's j^ome cynical about the issue. W* "We couldn't (Kiny more alter their lit tie study came^Mt and said there was nothing wrong. '^Be complained-relernng to the state HealtBDepartment 1980 report on birth defects.1*

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