This fact sheet addresses community concerns about public health issues associated with the Massachusetts Military Reservation (MMR). Terms identified in bold are defined in the glossary.

Superfund legislation directs the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) to prepare public health assessments for all sites on or proposed for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Superfund National Priority list, including sites owned and operated by the federal government.

WHAT IS A PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT?

A public health assessment reviews available information about contaminants at a site and evaluates whether exposure to them might cause any harm to people. A public health assessment was done on the MMR in 1994. At that time, after considering completed human exposure pathways, community health concerns and available health outcome data, ATSDR characterized contaminants originating from the MMR as a public health hazard. The assessment is a living document. As new environmental and health data become available, an addendum to the original document may be generated. The addendum to the 1994 Public Health Assessment on MMR will take the form of several health consults that will be released periodically.

WHAT DO PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENTS EVALUATE?

• Concentrations of contaminants (amount of contaminants in water, e.g., 5 parts per billion or ppb)
• Potential exposure to contaminants (e.g., inhalation, ingestion)
• Possible toxicity of contaminants (e.g., liver damage)
• Specific community health concerns (e.g., elevated cancer rates)
• Physical hazards (e.g., unsafe or abandoned buildings)

HOW DO RISK ASSESSMENTS AND PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENTS COMPARE?

WHAT PRIMARY SOURCES OF INFORMATION WERE USED IN THE MMR PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT?

• Environmental data (e.g., soil, groundwater)
• Demographic data (e.g., ethnicity, socio-economic status, age, and gender of the human population)
• Health data (e.g., available information on community-wide rates of illness, disease, and death)
• Community concerns (e.g., how the MMR may affect people’s health or quality of life)

HOW IS THE MMR PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT USED?

It is used to advise federal, state, and local agencies on actions to prevent or reduce people’s exposure to contaminants. For example, as a result of the 1994 conclusion in the Public Health Assessment, ATSDR conducted a symptom and prevalence study in the surrounding community; the study will be released in late spring of 1998.

Specific actions taken at the MMR as a result of the 1994 Public Health Assessment include:

• Propellant bag burning study currently being conducted (report is scheduled for late 1998)
• Community education implemented (e.g., medical education to local health care providers)
• Community Assistance Panel established

HOW WAS THE COMMUNITY INVOLVED IN THE 1994 PUBLIC HEALTH ASSESSMENT?

The community played a key role in the 1994 Public Health Assessment and activities which followed. Throughout the public health assessment, staff from state and/or federal health agencies talked with people living or working near the MMR¾ action groups, local leaders, health professionals, and other community members¾ about what they knew about the site and their site-related health concerns. Before the public health assessment at the MMR was finalized, the community had an opportunity to comment on the draft document. All written public comments were incorporated into the final Public Health Assessment and all concerns received a written response.

HOW IS THE COMMUNITY INVOLVED NOWS?

The Community Assistance Panel (CAP) is a group of citizens who work with the health agencies to identify community concerns and health information and, in turn, act as a liaison to inform the community about health agency activities at the MMR. The CAP was established in 1993 by ATSDR’s Division of Health Studies, to provide input on the symptom and prevalence study. The CAP continues to meet regularly with the health agencies and ex-officio members of the CAP, consisting of the DEP, the EPA, and the DoD. Agencies are kept apprised of community concerns and issues around the MMR. (For more information about the CAP, see ATSDR’s fact sheet on Community Assistance Panels.) Items requested by the CAP and provided through ATSDR include:

• A symptom and prevalence study around MMR (final due late spring 1998)
• A study to determine the feasibility of studying health effects among Bourne school children (presented to the CAP in summer 1997)
• A proposed study on low birth weight of children born in 1990 (initiated in fall 1997)
• A cancer incidence report of census tracts at and around the MMR (presented to the CAP December 1997)
• Dose reconstruction for ethylene dibromide (EDB) exposure in the Hatchville area (initiated in December 1997)
• Technical experts to advise community members on health studies (selected in June 1997)

GLOSSARY

concentration: the relative amount of a substance mixed with another substance such as water, air, or soil

exposure: the contact of an organism (humans, in the case of a health risk assessment) with a chemical or physical agent

qualitative: a relative measure that uses a descriptive scale such as high, medium, and low.

quantitative: a measure of quantity or amount that uses a specific numerical scale such as ten percent, ten dollars, or ten liters.

public health hazard category: a qualitative measure used by ATSDR to identify the level of public health hazard posed by a site to a community. The five categories include: Urgent Public Health Hazard, Public Health Hazard, Indeterminate Public Health Hazard, No Apparent Public health Hazard, or No Public Health Hazard.

symptom and prevalence study: a study designed to measure the occurrence of self-reported disease.

toxicity: the actual or potential danger presented by harmful effects of chemicals on living organism and ecosystem. The amount of chemical required to produce harmful effects varies widely with the nature of the substance and the amount of exposure to it.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Additional information about the cleanup program at the MMR is available on the program’s website (http://www.mmr.org). The website includes a variety of information, including technical documents, meetings agendas and summaries, maps, glossaries, weekly reports, and news releases. It also includes links to other websites, including those of EPA Region 1, DEP, DPH, and ATSDR.

In addition, five local libraries house information repositories for the cleanup program. The libraries are:

The Administrative Record, which is a public record of all documents used in decision-making, is available for review at the Falmouth Public Library or by contacting the IRP Office at (508) 968-4678.

This fact sheet was developed through a collaborative effort of the Air Force Center for Environmental Excellence (AFCEE), U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), Massachusetts Department of Public Health (DPH), Joint Program Office (JPO), and local officials.