TAG seeks 500K funding

The Tanapag Action Group has asked Gov. Pedro P. Tenorio to provide $500,000 in funding which will be used to carry out a congener-specific testing on members of Tanapag community.

According to community leader Juan Tenorio, the money will also fund the blood test to be conducted on selected group of community members to verify the results of the earlier examination carried out by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry as well as the Commonwealth Health Center.

“We made it clear to the governor that we want the testing done as soon as possible,” said Mr. Tenorio.

While the governor has pledged to help the Tanapag community, he also asked the Tanapag Action Group to lobby with the Legislature for assistance in identifying the needed sources of funding.

Earlier, Dr. Richard Brostrom, former head of the medical team that handled the blood evaluation among residents, requested funding from the federal agencies to fund specific-congener testing since it is very expensive to measure PCB congener in blood.

Each type of PCB chemical is called a “congener” and various PCB congeners have very different toxicity in animal studies. Congener testing will cost approximately $200 for each person.

Community leaders have demanded new blood testing for a select group of Tanapag residents which will include representatives from those with high and moderate PCB level as well as those who tested negative for PCB.

During a recent meeting with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Mr. Tenorio assailed the federal representatives for lying to the community when the federal officials claimed that the taro and yam samples taken in Tanapag have no PCB.

Mr. Tenorio said the federal officials tried to hide the real results apparently to avoid expanding the coverage of the PCB cleanup since the areas where the root crops were taken were already very far from the highly contaminated places.

The community’s demand for another blood testing on a select group of Tanapag residents was also due to the discovery that ATSDR and the Department of Public Health used Arochlor 1260 in the analysis instead of Arochlor 1254, the type of PCB which contaminated Tanapag.

“Using this information, we feel that we were cheated because they used Arochlor 1260 to test the blood,” Mr. Tenorio said. (Lindablue F. Romero)