Toxicologist on cancer warnings: State acted despite science
Source: Associated Press
Toxicologist on cancer warnings: State acted despite science
Emery P. Dalesio and Michael Biesecker, Associated Press
Updated 5:41 pm, Wednesday, August 10, 2016
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Officials in North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory's administration are telling a string of misleading half-truths about the safety of well water containing a cancer-causing chemical near Duke Energy coal ash pits, a veteran state toxicologist said Wednesday, and he charged that they are the ones responsible for any resulting fear and confusion.
Toxicologist Ken Rudo's comments in a statement issued through his attorney came a day after high-ranking state environmental and health officials blamed Rudo for sowing fear about dangerous chemicals near Duke Energy sites with "questionable and inconsistent scientific conclusions."
In a deposition last month, Rudo said the state's top public health official acted unethically and possibly illegally by telling residents living near Duke Energy's coal ash pits that their well water is safe to drink when it's contaminated with hexavalent chromium, a chemical known to cause cancer.
North Carolina's state public health director Dr. Randall Williams and Department of Environmental Quality Assistant Secretary Tom Reeder said Tuesday that Rudo had established a too-cautious health standard for hexavalent chromium in groundwater. The standard — one chance in a million that people drinking contaminated water could develop cancer over a lifetime — was set by the state agencies before warning letters were issued last year to about 330 neighbors of Duke Energy coal sites. Officials this year decided that standard was too high. Williams and Reeder reversed course and declared the water safe to drink in a March letter to well owners.
Read more: http://www.chron.com/news/us/article/Toxicologist-on-cancer-warnings-NC-acted-despite-9133500.php
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