Parents should demand remediation

Recently, state and federal health agencies announced that cancer risks were low for North Brunswick students attending a school addition built on an old municipal dump with contaminated soil and groundwater.

Having worked firsthand with the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) and the state Department of Health on contaminated sites across the state, I find no comfort in their empty assurances that the cancer risks are indeed low for these North Brunswick children.

The health agencies' studies are designed so that people are reduced to a number which is then compared to the overall size of the population. When people get sick as a result of exposure to contamination, they are compared statistically and it comes out insignificant. The agencies rarely interview the residents directly impacted, so they nearly always end up finding no impact to public health, especially children. Such consistently downplayed findings of low risk are hard to believe in New Jersey. After all, our state is both the most toxic superfund state and the cancer capital of America.

The recent travesty at the Ringwood Mines/Landfill Superfund Site captures the failures of the state and federal health agencies in making a link between chemical waste and adverse health effects. The Ford Motor Co. and their consultants dumped more than 700 tons of paint sludge and toxic chemicals on a 500-acre area in Upper Ringwood. Over a decade, ATSDR's two reports found no connection between the toxic exposure and the residents' adverse health effects - despite the fact that paint sludge lying exposed under children's swingsets, contaminated water flowing next to school bus stops, and children playing in uncontrolled toxic waste areas.

It was only after senators and congressmen demanded a new approach that the health agencies went back and re-examined the site. Their more honest evaluation of the contamination's impacts found that the site was indeed a public health hazard.

Any schools or day-care centers built on landfills must be clearly scrutinized, since children are the most sensitive receptors to even the tiniest amount of chemicals. Instead of waiting for something to happen to the students being exposed to these contaminants, the families of North Brunswick should take thismatter into their own hands. With 18,500 contaminated sites across New Jersey, I urge North Brunswick parents to demand a full investigation and remediation of this site- not just another temporary cap.

Robert Spiegel Executive Director Edison Wetlands Association