DPH assures Tanapag residents of thorough health evaluation

Public Health Secretary Joseph Kevin Villagomez yesterday assured Tanapag residents that the department will carry out a thorough analysis of the effects of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) contamination based on the medical evaluation conducted among the people in the village.

Mr. Villagomez said he will send some blood samples taken from the residents for independent analysis and comparison to another laboratory, a recommendation which was earlier made by the head of the medical team currently handling the ongoing health evaluation in Tanapag.

“We are not going to shortchange the people or stop halfway but we will need to wait for all the results to come out before we make any specific decisions on what to do,” he said.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry is being eyed to fund for the planned congener-specific testing that will be performed on some of the residents who would have high levels of PCB based on the results of their blood analysis.

Dr. Richard Brostom, chief of the medical team assigned in Tanapag, has sent a letter to ATSDR seeking financial assistance on the second level of health evaluation since measuring PCB congener in blood is very expensive. Congener testing will cost approximately $200 for each person.

The DPH Chief said he also supports the request of Tanapag residents to identify a control group that will be used in comparing the analysis of PCB testing among the people in the village.

However, Mr. Villagomez said he wants all the data on the health evaluation to be analyzed first jumping to the next phase of the medical assessment.

Mr. Villagomez also agrees that results of the medical testing will have to wait before these are announced to the public and making any hasty conclusions.

Although the Tanapag clinic has already received between 200 to 300 results of the PCB testing, Dr. Brostrom said it is still too early to say that the PCB level among residents are generally low as announced earlier by Public Health Deputy Secretary Ned Arriola.

The medical team has yet to perform “lipid correction” which will allow them cot compare PCB values between different population. PCBs travel with lipids (cholesterol and other fats) in the bloodstream. If two people have the same amount of PCB in their bodies, the person with a high cholesterol will measure higher PCBs on the serum lab test.

Some 1,200 residents have already availed of the free medical evaluation and PCB testing conducted by DPH, which was carried out due to strong pressure from Tanapag residents who have been exposed to the toxic chemical for more than 20 years.

PCB contamination in the village began when an unknown quantity of capacitors containing the highly toxic chemical were shipped to Saipan in the 1960s. The Division of Environmental Quality was only notified about their presence in Tanapag village in 1988.