Hazardous waste sites health effects

Nonemergency medical care should be arranged for hazardous waste site personnel who are experiencing health effects resulting from an exposure to hazardous substances. Off-site medical care should make sure that any potential job-related symptoms or illnesses are evaluated in the context of the employee s exposure. Off-site medical personnel should investigate and treat non-job-related illnesses that may put the employee at risk because of task requirements [1]. 

To help public health professionals and others address the needs of persons living or working near hazardous waste sites, the information in this section is organized first by route of exposure (inhalation, oral, and dermal) and then by health effect (death, systemic, immunological, neurological, reproductive, developmental, genotoxic, and carcinogenic effects). These data are discussed in terms of three exposure periods acute (14 days or less), intermediate (15-364 days), and chronic (365 days or more). 

The significance of the exposure levels shown in the Levels of Significant Exposure (LSE) tables and figures may differ depending on the user s perspective. Public health officials and others concerned with appropriate actions to take at hazardous waste sites may want information on levels of exposure associated with more subtle effects in humans or animals (LOAELs) or exposure levels below which no adverse effects (NOAELs) have been observed. Estimates of levels posing minimal risk to humans (minimal risk levels or MRLs) may be of interest to health professionals and citizens alike. 

This chapter of the profile is a health effects summary written in non-technical language. Its intended audience is the general public especially people living in the vicinity of a hazardous waste site or chemical release. If the Public Health Statement were removed from the rest of the document, it would still communicate to the lay public essential information about the chemical. 

However, a sample taken in the doctor s office can be properly packed and shipped to a special laboratory, if necessary. Because endosulfan leaves the body fairly quickly, these methods are useful only for finding exposures that have occurred within the last few days. At this time, these methods can only be used to prove that a person has been exposed to endosulfan. The test results cannot be used to predict if you wiU have any adverse health effects. Exposure to other chemicals at the same time at hazardous waste sites could cause some confusion in understanding these results. More information about tests to find endosulfan in the body is presented in Chapters 2 and 6. 

Reliable monitoring data for the levels of endosulfan in contaminated media at hazardous waste sites are needed. This information could be used in combinahon with the known body burdens of endosulfan to assess the potential risk of adverse health effects in populations living in the vicinity of hazardous waste sites. 

These substance-specific estimates, which are intended to serve as screening levels, are used by ATSDR health assessors to identify contaminants and potential health effects that may be of concern at hazardous waste sites. It is important to note that MRLs are not intended to define clean-up or action levels. 

In 1980, the U.S. Congress enacted the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA), the first comprehensive federal law addressing the protection of the environment from the threat of hazardous substances. The primary goal of CERCLA is to establish an organized cost-effective mechanism for response to abandoned or uncontrolled hazardous waste sites that pose a serious threat to human health and the environment.8 9 To accomplish this goal, two types of response capabilities are mandated by CERCLA13 ... 

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