Texas Department of Health

All toxic materials were disposed of in accordance with the policy of UTMDACC to handle and dispose of hazardous waste, which is in accordance with the regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency, Occupational Safety and Health Administration, Federal Department of Transportation, Texas Department of Health, and the Texas Water Commission. 

On November 18, 2005, in Houston, the Texas Department of Health Services asked the public to help locate some radioactive vials that disappeared earlier that month from a shipment out of New Mexico. The vials contain antimony-124, a radioactive material for use in the oil and gas industry, with the label RADIOACTIVE. It is believed by authorities that the vials were removed within Texas when the carrier s tractor trailer stopped in Abilene, Austin, Dallas, and Tyler. Anyone finding the missing vials should not touch the box or the actual vials, and should stay at least ten feet away from them. Anyone with factual information should call 512-458-7460. 

The Texas Department of Health measured formaldehyde in 443 mobile homes between April 1979 and May 1982 at the request of the occupants. Concentrations ranged from below detectable limits (<0.5 ppm) to 8 ppm (Norsted et al. 1985). Of the homes 1 year old, 27% had mean concentrations 2 ppm, while 11.5% of older homes has concentrations 2 ppm. The concentration of formaldehyde in mobile homes would be expected to be higher than that found in conventional homes due to their lower rate of air exchange (Wolff 1991). 

Norsted SW, Kozinetz CA, Annegers JF. 1985. Formaldehyde complaint investigations in mobile homes by the Texas Department of Health. Environ Res 37 93-100. 

Dermal Effects. Dermal effects have been documented in populations occupationally and non-occupationally exposed to coal tar and coal tar products. In patients medically treated with 5% coal tar, dermal applications induced a photosensitizing effect in all patients within 30 minutes of treatment. The Texas Department of Health documented an increased incidence of skin rashes among residents of a housing development built on contaminated land formerly occupied by a coal tar creosote wood treatment plant. The rashes were associated with contact with the soil in the housing area. In workers exposed to coal tar and coal tar products, the observed dermal effects appear to be generally limited to unprotected areas such as the hands, face, and neck, including the posterior part of the neck. There is also a report of... 

Coal Tar Products. No studies were located regarding developmental effects in humans or animals following inhalation exposure to coal tar pitch or coal tar pitch volatiles. As cited above, a site surveillance program conducted by the Texas Department of Health beginning in 1990 at a housing development in Texarkana, Texas, that had been built on part of an abandoned Koppers Company, Inc., creosote wood treatment plant on soil contaminated with creosote revealed no adverse developmental... 

Potential sources of non-occupational human exposure to creosote include contact with creosote-treated wood products (e.g., railroad ties used for landscaping), incineration of creosote-treated scrap lumber, and contact with contaminated environmental media at hazardous waste sites (e.g., ingestion of contaminated ground water). At the Koppers Company, Inc. NPL site in Texarkana, Texas, where a creosote wood treatment facility existed for 51 years prior to being converted to a residential area and an industrial site (sand and gravel company), a study by the Texas Department of Health found an increased incidence of skin rashes in residents who had dermal contact with soil at the site (Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry 1994). 

This prevalence rate of congenital hypothyroidism has been generally quite similar in subsequent multiple reports. The Texas Department of Healths Newborn Screening Program reported data collected from 1992 to 1998. Congenital hypothyroidism was identified in 4.18 per 10000 live births (Strahan et al., 2002). Contemporary data from a neighboring state, Oklahoma, were reported for 1997 there were 2.39 cases per 10000 (King and Bryant, 1999). 

Dennis M. Perrotta, Ph.D., is Chief, Bureau of Epidemiology, Texas Department of Health. Dr. Perrotta administers the Texas Poison Center Network, serves on the Armed Forces Epidemiology Board (AFEB), and recently prepared a report for the AFEB on mustard gas and sarin. In addition, he has served on review sections at NIH and ATSDR and served as a reviewer for the lOM report on Emerging Infectious Diseases. 

DENNIS M. PERROTTA, Chief, Bureau of Epidemiology, Texas Department of Health, Austin... 

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