State Begins Study of Field Lab’s Toxic Path

SIMI VALLEY —  State health investigators are starting a study to determine if any chemical and radioactive contamination from the Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory could have seeped into surrounding neighborhoods.

While the outcome of the so-called “exposure assessment” is far from certain, it could be an important first step toward a long-awaited community health survey.

An environmental health investigator with the California Department of Health Services announced late Wednesday that her department would examine possible “pathways of contamination” from the field lab near the border of Los Angeles and Ventura counties to homes a few miles away.

Finding such pathways--through air, soil or water--could possibly lead to a full-blown community health survey if strong evidence of off-site contamination is found, said Marilyn C. Underwood, a toxicologist with the Environmental Health Investigations Branch of the state health department.

“This is an exposure assessment,” Underwood said after the quarterly meeting of the Santa Susana Field Lab Workgroup. “It could lead to physician education, it could lead to a whole lot of things, one of which could be a [community] health study. But I wouldn’t put any bets on it.”

The 2,668-acre field lab outside Simi Valley was the site of nuclear research between the 1950s and 1980s and has long been used for rocket-engine research. For years, Rocketdyne critics have believed that chemicals and radiation from “the Hill” have caused illnesses, such as cancer, among field lab neighbors.

Rocketdyne officials, however, say the community is not at risk.

“Rocketdyne certainly stands by its consistent position: That we feel that radiation and chemical contamination emanating from the Santa Susana Field Lab do not pose a public health threat,” said Dan Beck, Rocketdyne’s media relations manager.

A recent epidemiological study of radiation effects on about 4,600 former and current Rocketdyne workers has only intensified neighbors’ fears.

The $1.6-million UCLA study, released last month, linked some work at Rocketdyne to higher-than-expected cancer death rates. It will be followed next year by a study of workers exposed to chemicals believed to cause cancer.

While the UCLA study addressed health effects among workers, little research has been done in the surrounding communities of Simi Valley, Box and Bell canyons, the Santa Susana Knolls, Chatsworth and West Hills, much to the chagrin of neighbors who blame bladder cancers, leukemia and birth defects on their aerospace neighbor.

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Within six months, Underwood and her colleagues will examine all existing off-site measurements of air, water and soil contamination from the field lab and will determine whether further measurements are necessary, she said.

If more tests are needed, the environmental investigators would first ask another public agency or Rocketdyne to take the additional off-site measurements. If needed, however, the investigators could take soil and water samples themselves, she added.

“As with most sites, a lot of that data doesn’t already exist,” she said. “We have data from the [next-door] Brandeis-Bardin camp and the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy, but we’ll look for whatever other data might be needed from the south, east and west of [the field lab]. We always press for more data.”

Rocketdyne recently settled a lawsuit in which the Brandeis-Bardin Institute, a Jewish studies center, claimed nuclear and rocket research polluted its land and water and lowered its property value. The settlement amount was not disclosed.

If strong evidence of chemical or radioactive contamination traceable to Rocketdyne is found in areas with higher-than-expected disease rates, a health study could follow, Underwood said.

Such a study, however, would very likely be difficult, time-consuming and costly, experts agree.

“It’s good for them to be responsive to the community concerns and look into doing a community health study,” Rocketdyne’s Beck said. “That said, the people who did the [UCLA] worker health study talked a lot about the difficulties in doing a community health study, and it remains to be seen how DHS is going to overcome those difficulties,” including expense.

Rocketdyne critics were cautiously optimistic about the involvement of the environmental investigators.

“I think it’s about time,” said West Hills resident Bonnie Klea. After surviving a bout with bladder cancer, she is among many neighbors suing Rocketdyne. “We have to have a community health study done. It’s absolutely crucial. I see so many people getting sick around me.”

At the Wednesday night meeting, community representative Sheldon C. Plotkin voiced a similar sentiment.

“Where have you been all this time?” he asked. “We’ve been doing this for nine years, and this is the first time I know of that the DHS is getting involved [in the community]. . . . We welcome the help, even if it is a little late.”

But Joseph K. Lyou, the executive director of the anti-nuclear group Committee to Bridge the Gap, warned that the community would only trust research that involved residents every step of the way. The UCLA study, for instance, was evaluated by an oversight panel.

State toxicologist Underwood assured him that Rocketdyne neighbors--perhaps members of the existing oversight panel--would be invited to participate in any research the state pursues.

“We’re sort of asking, as we go along, for the community to tell us about their experiences living here,” she said.

The Environmental Health Investigations Branch includes toxicologists, epidemiologists, nurses and physicians who have performed exposure assessments and health studies at hazardous waste sites around the state.

The first stages of a separate, less scientific health study of the surrounding neighborhoods took place Thursday night at the Rancho Santa Susana Community Center in Simi Valley. That’s where a nonprofit group called the Response Team for the Chemically Injured hosted a community meeting for Simi Valley residents who live near the craggy field lab.

At the meeting, attended by about 50 people, Response Team members said they were looking to determine whether there were any clusters of disease around the field lab. From there, routes of contamination would be pursued.

Along with others at the meeting, Chatsworth resident Helen Blaskovich and her grandson filled out brief health assessment forms that asked where they live, who provides their water and whether they suffer from skin disorders, cancer or stomach problems.

“We were just curious about what went on up there,” said Blaskovich, who said she has no health problems. “We never knew it [the lab] was up there, and we live so close. Now, after the the [UCLA] study, I wonder.”