Vinyl Chloride Not A Threat Says Raytheon
Raytheon Corporation environmental experts spoke to a large crowd of residents last week and said that the plume of toxic chemicals that has spread from the plant is not a health risk. Among those at the meeting were state lawmakers, city council members and lawyers representing homeowners who have contaminated ground water under their homes.
It's been 17 years since the toxic plume was discovered when the Pinellas Trail recreation path was being built but most of the residents didn't find out until news reports surfaced in March.
There are about 700 irrigation wells within a mile radius of the plant plant. Of about 200 that have been tested, 12 have been found to be contaminated.
Gregory Taylor, senior environmental scientist at Raytheon, told the crowd there is no threat to public health. There is a risk of "less than one in a million" of developing cancer from any exposure scenario, he said.
Taylor noted, however, that experts tapped for the environmental assessment could not agree with the state on a computer model to determine whether fruit and vegetables irrigated with the contaminated water pose a health risk.
However, an environmental science professor at the University of South Florida put the test results into a formula that state health officials use for determining health risks. According to that formula the chance of developing cancer increased between one in a million and nine in a million if water from contaminated wells was used in growing fruit and vegetables.
Ratheon's Taylor responded by saying that any poisoning would be relative to the dose absorbed and the chemicals - TCE(trichloroethylene), vinyl chloride and 1,4-Dioxane - are also found in things like shampoo, spot remover and cigarette smoke. He went on to say that too much of anything can be hazardous, even eating too many bananas or carrots.
