PCB AND DIOXIN CONTAMINATION Tanapag villagers seek justice

They were a group of young boys, eager to help the community rise from the ruins when typhoon Jean struck the Northern Marianas in April 1968. One by one they took the capacitors from the Public Works yard and loaded them onto a truck.

When they arrived in the village, they helped set up the capacitors as barricades along the beach, around the baseball field and the community social hall where the Headstart Center was housed at that time. Some residents even fought each other to have the capacitors placed as decoration in front of their houses.

Two weeks after, the young men who helped cleanup the village were declared members of the Boy Scouts of America.

“It was the proudest moment in our life because we were poor but we had new boy scout uniforms,” said Domingo Salazar (not his real name). About 20 years after he played with the capacitors lying around the village, Salazar now finds himself suffering from a rare skin disease that forced him to quit his job in government .

“I cannot work anymore, I felt I am losing my mind,” he said. It is a different type of acne that’s slowly eating his skin, layer after layer.

What started as a simple rash on his head, spread on his back, then on his arms and all over his body. His skin has been peeling off since 11 years ago, reaching its third layer. At one point, he showed his officemates two small plastic bags of skin that he has peeled off for several months just so they would understand his predicament.

“You just don’t know how painful it is for me to see my skin deteriorate everyday. Every night, I watch my children as they sleep, hoping that I have not passed on this disease to them, ” he added.

When news broke out in the village about the dangers posed by the capacitors, which contained the polychlorinated biphenyls, he knew right away that his sickness was due to the toxic chemical.

Mistrust

Anger, frustration and helplessness permeates in Tanapag as the people demanded an independent study to find out if the village, which has been contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, is already safe.

Investigation conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency showed that the ceramic PCB capacitors brought to Saipan in the 1960s were from the Ballistic Missile Command at Kwajalein Atoll.

The Division of Environmental Quality was only notified about the presence of these capacitors in the village in 1988. Immediately, DEQ sent a sample of the contents to Guam Environmental Protection Agency. It concluded that the contents were 100 percent PCB oil.

EPA warned the Department of Defense of potential liability under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act for mishandling a hazardous substance.

Four years after, DOD accepted responsibility for the PCB capacitors which led the site to qualify for remediation under the Defense Environmental Restoration Program for Formerly Used Defense Sites.

“We do not trust them anymore. How can we trust them when they have lied to us about the dangers posed by these capacitors all these years,” said Carl Falig.

Falig’s father and uncle, who were both exposed to PCBs, died of cancer. He said the U.S. Army Corps should first and foremost recognize that the health problems were brought about by the presence of the capacitors.

Health

In 1991, the capacitors were removed from Lower Base and transported to a US EPA-approved incinerator for destruction. A cleanup was conducted by the U.S. Army Corps in the village and the Lower Base yard. The military claimed the cleanup operation was completed in 1992. However, they later discovered that the contamination was more extensive than anticipated.

The U.S. Army Corps shipped to the mainland some 1,094,000 lbs of PCB- and dioxin-contaminated soil for disposal at a hazardous waste facility.

“The issue as to how many capacitors were really shipped to Saipan remains unanswered,” said Frank Aldan. He said a research on the exact number of capacitors brought to Saipan must be immediately conducted so that the U.S. Army Corps can look for them.

Medical studies strongly indicated that PCBs can cause cancer and other diseases after the chemical was tested in animals. Results showed that PCBs can destroy the immune, reproductive, nervous and endocrine systems. Studies in humans provide supportive evidence for potential carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic effects of PCBs.

According to EPA, the types of PCBs that tend to bioaccumulate in fish and other animals and bind to sediments happen to be the most carcinogenic components of PCB mixtures.

To help prove the people’s case that they got sick due to exposure to PCBs, they can have themselves tested by taking a sample of their body fats and biopsied, said Dr. Patrick Wilson, EPA toxicologist.

“If the concentration is high in the number of people sampled than what we expect in the general population, then the village can make an argument that at a minimum, I have been exposed to PCBs in higher concentration,” he said. Unfortunately, it is difficult to prove beyond a shadow of doubt that a group of people got sick because of PCB, he added. EPA can help control the contamination from spreading now as some sites have been declared safe.

In a move to get the various federal agencies help solve the contamination problem, the Tanapag PCB issue must be placed on the national hazard list so that it can avail of the super fund, said Ursula Aldan, a resident of Tanapag. “Once we are placed on this list, other federal government agencies would move in and conduct their own studies in the village,” Aldan said.

“I want to be the first person to be tested to prove to them that I sick because there is high concentration of PCB in my body. I want to be tested now to help find cure for the children,” said Miguel Magofna, who is also suffering from a rare skin disease.

Hidden

To allay people’s fears, the U.S. Army Corps hired Honolulu-based Ogden Environmental and Energy Services Co. Inc. to conduct a study on the human health evaluation of PCB contamination in Tanapag village.

Results of the study showed that there is no direct relationship between the symptoms known to be associated with human exposure to PCB contamination, and the exposure of Tanapag residents to PCBs could not be established due to absence of such symptoms in the medical records.

“Health problems seen among residents of Tanapag cannot be determined as having a unique aerial concentration at this time. While many of these problems are recurring, they are expected to reflect the general pattern of infection/disease occurrence of the population at large,” the study said.

A draft copy of the study showed that the U.S. Army Corps omitted four recommendations in the final report. Rep. Juan Babauta demanded that the U.S. Army Corps include these recommendations that were taken out in the final report:

• Provide the community an up-to-date, thorough background of the known effects of PCB contamination to be conducted by medical experts who have experience in diagnosis and treatment of the toxic chemical.

• Designate a locally-based medical expert, preferably a medical doctor at the Commonwealth Health Center ,who will be available to address the health concerns of residents. The doctor will undergo training on the effects of PCB contamination as well as exposure to other chemicals/toxins have on human health.

• Conduct a biologically-based health risk assessment of past and present residents of Tanapag who could have been exposed to PCB contamination through a segment sample of the village population.

• Monitor the continuing health status of Tanapag residents who are known to have been exposed or have come into contact with capacitors and PCB oils.

Ben M. Sablan, former Department of Lands and Natural Resources secretary said an independent study must be made to make sure that the PCB and dioxin contamination in the village have been removed.

“How credible is the Army Corps to say that the village is already safe and that there is no more threat to the community?” asked Sablan.