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Cancer-Causing Chemical Again Found Near Raytheon

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By MARK  DOUGLAS | News Channel 8

Published: November 10, 2008

For the second time since August, the Florida Department of Health has detected elevated levels of a cancer-causing chemical inside a home at the Brandywine Apartments near the Raytheon defense plant in St. Petersburg.

The agency is testing indoor air quality in apartments, condos, and homes near Raytheon to determine whether chemicals in an underground plume of toxic waste spreading under the neighborhood poses any danger to residents.

State records show a groundwater plume of industrial waste has been migrating under the neighborhood since 1999. It was first discovered under the defense plant in the early 1990s before Raytheon owned the property.

After the first round of residential air quality tests in August, the DOH concluded there was no connection between the cancer-causing chemical 1, 2 dichloroethane (DCA) in six groundwater test wells within 200 yards of Brandywine and elevated levels of DCA showing up in two Brandywine apartments.

The DCA levels inside those apartments measured more than a thousand times greater than what the EPA says can cause cancer during a lifetime of exposure.

Eckerd College Environmental Studies Professor Kent Curtis reviewed both the August and October test data at the request of WFLA News Channel 8.

"There is reason to be concerned, though probably not alarmed," Curtis said.

Curtis said he thinks the Raytheon plume is behind the problem.
He theorizes the DCA is vaporizing from the groundwater into the Brandywine apartments.

"In my opinion that is the most obvious likely source and I wouldn't know how else to explain it given the kind of chemical it is and the elevated levels that are being found," Curtis said.

The DOH retested Brandywine on Oct. 20 because of problems with the testing in August.

Researchers sampled at least one wrong location, lost or mishandled a quarter of the air samples, and mistakenly blamed the presence of DCA in Oscar Silva's Brandywine apartment on a smoking habit they thought he had. No one in Silva's family smokes.

A DOH spokeswoman later blamed the miscommunication on Silva. He speaks little English and the DOH says he answered "yes" to all of the researchers' questions.

In August, researchers found levels of DCA at 52 micrograms per cubic meter inside Silva's apartment in one sample and misplaced a second sample.

Last week, results from the second round of air testing at Silva's apartment showed DCA at a concentration of 37 and 38 micrograms per cubic meter in Silva's apartment.

Those levels are still more than 900 times the 0.04 micrograms the EPA says can cause cancer after long-term exposure.

After the August testing, the Department of Health told Silva and the tenant in a second Brandywine apartment that long-term exposure to the DCA found in their homes posed a "moderate" cancer risk, equivalent to about one fatality for every thousand people exposed.

Various levels of DCA were detected in all five sampling locations at Brandywine and the neighboring Stones Throw Condominiums, while none of the more distant sampling locations detected any trace of the chemical.

On Oct. 1, state Sen. Charlie Justice and state Reps. Janet Long and Rick Kriseman wrote a joint letter to Florida Secretary of Health Ana Viamonte Ros expressing "significant concern over the manner in which your department has handled indoor air testing."

DOH legislative coordinator Jacqui Sosa responded to the lawmakers by writing that "regardless of the source, the indoor air levels of 1,2,DCA in apartments, condos and other buildings around Raytheon are not an imminent health threat."

Sosa went on to say that DCA "is not likely to cause any non-cancer illness," but also pointed out it "may reasonably be expected to cause cancer in humans."

A spokeswoman for DOH says its analysis of the October findings should be complete sometime next week.

Meanwhile, Brandywine resident Oscar Silva says he is as confused as ever about what might be causing the contamination in his apartment. "Maybe it's the carpet," Silva said.

Mark Douglas can be reached at (727) 535-9603.

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