NEWS: PCB Dredging

On 24 November Dr. Robert Michaels, founder of The Center for Health Risk Assessment and Management (CHRAM), is scheduled to make a presentation to the Albany (New York) Society of Engineers, titled:

Hudson River PCB Dredging: A Critical View

EPA previously updated progress made toward meeting the engineering challenge posed by Hudson River PCB dredging. Dr. Michaels will present an alternative view, focusing on health risks potentially posed, and the need to implement procedures to assure adequate data collection to evaluate risk issues and protect public and environmental health. Scientific analysis is intrinsically critical. EPA's health risk assessment of PCBs in the Hudson River was found to be consistently biased in a dredging-friendly direction, and therefore to fail to preclude unacceptable health risks potentially posed by dredging. This conclusion was drawn by Dr. Michaels and co-author Dr. Uriel Oko in a paper published in the Cambridge University Press journal Environmental Practice in 2007, following rigorous peer review. Bias in favor of dredging on the part of EPA as project sponsor during project planning justifies taking a critical view of project implementation, because safety was not proven during the planning stage. Explication of these issues will be central to Dr.Michaels' presentation, as they should be in planning and implementing dredging project Phase I, and evaluating the wisdom and possibly the manner of entering Phase II and beyond.

Copyright © 2009 by The Center for Health Risk Assessment and Management, a Division of RAM TRAC Corporation