C.C.A.T.

By B.J. Plasket
Daily Record News Group

CANON CITY — To a pair of 29-year-old parents with three small children, Cañon City in 1958 seemed like a dream.

The picturesque little city on the banks of the Arkansas River had it all. Great weather. Great soil for farming, gardening and raising a few animals. A great 4-H program for the kids. And a great job on the ground floor of a burgeoning industry.

Lynn and Deyon Boughton thought they were buying a slice of heaven when they moved from their native Grand Junction in 1958.

Lynn had a new job as the assistant chief chemist at the Cotter Corporation's uranium mill just south of town. Deyon was able to grow much of the family's food on the three acres surrounding their beautiful old stone farmhouse on Cedar Avenue.

Lynn had a new job as the assistant chief chemist at the Cotter Corporation's uranium mill just south of town. Deyon was able to grow much of the family's food on the three acres surrounding their beautiful old stone farmhouse on Cedar Avenue.

The place had a big barn, fields and plenty of room to raise their three future Baby Boomers — a 5-year-old son, a 3-year-old daughter and second son barely a year old.

For the first 20 years, the family blissfully went about its way as the kids excelled in school and 4-H, and Lynn moved up to the position of chief chemist at the mill — only a 2-mile drive from the family home. Deyon was able to start a gardening store, which she now calls "fun and satisfying" but hardly lucrative. It was the mill that paid the bills.

"The idea of being part of peacetime uses of nuclear material was awesome," Deyon said, recalling the enthusiasm of her now-deceased husband. "There was a bright future."

By the late 1970s, however, the dream was starting to turn into a nightmare that would get worse for the next 20 years. The name Boughton, long respected throughout the county, would soon become a four-letter word in some circles.

During the 1970s, the normally healthy Lynn had often been ill. Never a smoker or a drinker, Boughton had begun experiencing violent episodes of vomiting and subsequent blood loss.

"His illness was diagnosed as ulcers and we changed his diet — changed our lifestyle," his wife said. "It didn't help."

In 1979, Lynn came home sick from work again and Deyon had seen enough. She told him not to go back — the family could survive on the store profits, and the stress at the mill wasn't worth it anymore.

Lynn, who had also become increasingly suspicious of the policies and procedures at the mill, agreed. He left the job he had loved for most of the 21 years he spent there. Deyon says he lost two important things the day he left Cotter.

"He lost his identity and his medical insurance."

The loss of identity might have been hard to detect in a man whose stoic manner never allowed him to become angry or bitter. The loss of his medical insurance, he would later learn, was going to be a much bigger problem.

After leaving Cotter, Boughton, according to his wife, began researching the industry that he had once revered.

"He didn't like what he found," she said.

One of the things he found out while still at the mill was that about 100,000 tons of waste generated in producing the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan, in August of 1945 had been moved to Cotter in open railroad cars in the late 1960s.

Until his death, Boughton maintained that Cotter officials never told him — or anyone else in the lab or the mill — that the material was actually the Manhattan Project residue and a product of the most radioactive ore on earth.

He also claimed the material, from which uranium was milled, was never tested or assayed for other materials and that the mill's process was not equipped to detect or remove those materials. He claimed that dangerous isotopes, as well as metals such as molybdenum and lead, ended up in tailings ponds.

Cotter executives acknowledged Sept. 4 in an interview that the wastes from the early bomb projects were brought there, and that some of the waste is still there unprocessed. Some is in the detention ponds on the site. Uranium and thorium were recovered from it, the Cotter executives said.

Deyon Boughton now says the presence of the Manhattan Project waste became "a secret to snicker about, and that distressed Lynn."

In 1983 the Environmental Protection Agency stepped in — designating the mill site and the Lincoln Park neighborhood as a Superfund site. That same year the state of Colorado sued Cotter, claiming it released pollutants that escaped the mill and entered the ground, air and water in a several-mile-wide area. By that time Lynn Boughton, when not working at the family's Lynde Garden Center, was continuing his research and quietly mobilizing his Lincoln Park neighbors.

It was also in 1983 that Lynn Boughton began keeping a diary. The diary reads like a scientist's log, listing life-changing events as matter-of-factly as one would describe a trip to the hardware store.

"April 23, 1984," the diary reads. "Dad died, left for Fruita."

While in Fruita for his father's funeral, Boughton made note of his own health problems. "April 24, ulcer flared up last night. Signs of bleeding. Started taking Tagament today."

Later that summer, the news would get worse. On Sept. 9, Boughton checked into St. Thomas More Hospital. The diary simply read, "surgery conducted." The next day's diary entry clerically records, "In hospital — told I have lymphoma. Removed approximately 14" lower bowel and also told that lymphoma is treatable."

While taking medication and receiving chemotherapy, Lynn Boughton also stayed busy working at the store, attending public meetings regarding Cotter and closely tracking the state's lawsuit against the mill.

When the state's suit was settled in late 1987, he wrote a guest opinion for the Cañon City Daily Record decrying what he saw as a weak settlement that left many Lincoln Park-area residents out in the cold. By this time, Boughton has become a pariah both at the company he had worked for and in the community.

"He quietly tried to obtain support for the neighborhood from the community, but it became a 'kill the messenger' crusade until he had enough and pushed for a lawsuit," Deyon Boughton said of her husband's efforts of the late 1980s. Active membership in a new group — the Lincoln Park Area Concerned Citizens — further identified him as the leader of a group referred to as whackos, alarmists and tree-huggers.

In September 1989, Lynn and Deyon Boughton and 550 other Lincoln Park-area residents made good on their threat to sue Cotter — filing a $500 million federal suit charging that radiation and metals from the mill had contaminated their property.

After a series of legal maneuvers, eight plaintiffs were chosen as "bellwether" plaintiffs in a trial that would see five plaintiffs — Lowell and Edna Soester, Marjorie Lawhead and Patricia and James Shelby — split a jury award of just over $141,000.

The second wave of plaintiffs in that case, including the Boughtons, agreed to an out-of-court settlement that remains sealed. The Boughtons, who were without medical insurance, weren't thrilled with the settlement but accepted it. That settlement is believed to have included medical monitoring for the plaintiffs.

By 1993, the Lynde Garden Center was also in trouble. The garden center's note was called.

"I also believe people were boycotting us because of our stand regarding Cotter," Deyon said.

Throughout the 1990s, Boughton's diary is filled with references to blood transfusions, chronic fatigue and cancer treatments as well as community meetings and speeches. He often stayed home sick from his part-time job as a handyman at St. Thomas More Hospital.

As his health deteriorated, Boughton realized his family was ill prepared to go on without him and in 1996, he filed a worker's compensation action against Cotter, alleging that his cancer was caused by years of over-exposure to radiation at the mill. As part of a hearing before an administrative law judge, samples of tissue removed from Boughton during his 1984 surgery were tested and found to have 700 times the normal background radiation found in the human body.

Cotter's lawyers did not dispute the results, which were produced at a lab approved by them, but they claimed he was not exposed at the mill.

Prior to his 21 years at Cotter, Boughton had worked in a uranium-assay lab in Grand Junction for three and-a-half years, but his wife discounts the theory that he was overexposed during that time.

"That's a pretty remote possibility when you consider how long he worked at Cotter," she said.

The judge agreed and in late 1997 ordered Boughton to be paid just under $500,000.

"Great news for us this Christmas season," Boughton wrote in his diary.

Legal fees and costs reduced the worker's comp payment by about $63,000. The check was issued in May of 2000, but Lynn Boughton's time to savor a victory was limited. He would be dead within a year.

During his last months Boughton, who rarely mentioned his illness publicly, maintained a fairly busy schedule when he wasn't being treated.

Boughton's diary for April 16, 2001, mentions an appointment for hip replacement surgery — the least of Boughton's health problems. The April 17 entry mentions a DeWeese Ditch board meeting.

"Good meeting" were his only written words that day.

The April 19 entry in the diary was made not by Lynn, but by Deyon.

"Lynn died between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m.," it says. "Coroner: no autopsy needed."

Boughton's death certificate says the 71-year-old died of lymphoma caused by radiation exposure at a uranium mill located at 0502 County Road 68. The name Cotter, the only uranium mill in the county, is not mentioned. Cotter, meanwhile, maintains it has never injured anyone.

For Deyon Boughton, who is also a cancer survivor, the fight against what she calls "pollution, cover-ups and lies" continues. She is involved in the Citizens Committee Against Toxic Waste, which is currently fighting Cotter's efforts to store waste from another Superfund site. The couple's daughter, Jeri Fry, co-chairs the group.

The decision to keep fighting was easy, Deyon said.

"To do otherwise would disrespect Lynn's memory," she said.

__________________________________________________________________

Residents face illnesses with blame, exoneration, questions

By Jackie Hutchins
Daily Record News Group

Though scientists have an idea of what causes certain types of cancer or other health problems, when individuals become ill, their doctors cannot always point to what caused the problem.

So, while some Cañon City-area residents are convinced exposure to materials from Cotter Corporation caused their health problems, others are equally convinced their health problems are not related to anything the company did.

Others merely wonder, realizing they will never know for sure.

Esther Lombardi of Florence is among those who wonder.

Her husband, Gene, who had worked at the Cotter facility years earlier, died of lung cancer in 1997.

Lombardi said her husband worked for three to five years running a loader, moving dirt around on the mill property. The loader didn't have a cab, so he was exposed to the elements.

She said she thinks the exposure he got there could have given him the cancer that showed up later.

"I often felt that it was. I knew that that stuff wasn't good for him."

When his cancer was diagnosed, the doctors asked if he was a smoker, she recalled. He had been, but had quit 15 years earlier.

He died at age 66, "too young, I'll tell you that," Lombardi said. "We still miss him, that's for sure."

His eight-month fight included 81 radiation treatments and five rounds of chemotherapy. It was difficult, his widow said.

She said they thought about suing, but never did.

"I was just so shook up when he passed away. I didn't want to go through the hassle."

Bruce and Virginia Hadley moved to Lincoln Park before son Jack was born 34 years ago.

When he was diagnosed with abnormal bone growths, he was told radiation exposure while his mother was pregnant had likely caused them. He has lived in the Lincoln Park area his whole life, and he's convinced his problems and those of others around him were caused by radiation exposure.

"I don't have any doubt in my mind," he said.

The growths afflict his knees, wrists and shoulder, and his left leg is bowed. He had surgeries on that leg when he was 8 years old and twice again as an adolescent.

"It wasn't much fun," he recalled.

The pain has gotten worse through the years.

"When I was a kid I had some pain, but nothing like it's been as I've gotten older," Hadley said.

The growths have pushed into his joints, especially affecting his knees.

"I've got pain everyday in my knees," he said. He eventually may have to have his knees replaced, but his doctor says he's too young now.

Other members of his family also have had health problems. His sister also has a couple of bony growths. His mother has arthritis, as does Hadley.

A jury agreed with the Hadley family's belief that their problems were related to exposure to hazardous materials from Cotter. The family members are among those who won a $43.5 million settlement in the Dodge et. al. v. Cotter lawsuit, but it is under appeal and he hasn't gotten any money to help with his medical expenses.

Hadley said he has no idea what his future will hold, but it may be like his present.

"I live in pain every day," he said.

Not everyone agrees that Cotter has caused their health problems.

When Royal Anderson got prostate cancer while working at Cotter, some people might have assumed he had been exposed to a carcinogen on the job.

But his wife thinks the routine health tests employees got actually saved his life that time. She said he had a family history of prostate cancer — his father died from the disease — but the tests found his cancer while it was still early enough to easily cure.

Later, when he developed chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, a combination of emphysema, bronchitis and asthma, it likely happened because he had been a three-pack-a-day smoker, Margaret Anderson recalled.

"It was just a gradual process over the years," she said of his disease. It started with coughing and progressed until he was having pneumonia a few times a year.

"You just can't get enough oxygen into your lungs and it shuts down the other systems," Margaret Anderson said.

He died of the disease in February 2000.

Royal Anderson, who worked for Cotter for 23 years, retired in the late 1980s, and he and his wife moved to a cabin they had near the site of the Iron Mountain fire. They lived there for eight years before moving back into Cañon City.

"We did a lot of hunting and fishing and things. We enjoyed retirement," she said.

Anderson said she doesn't hold Cotter responsible for the health problems her husband suffered.

And, she noted safety procedures at the company were strengthened through the years. In the early days of the company, "they didn't realize or know the things that could happen," she said.

"You learned as you went along, so you can't blame them for that."

Carolee Bullen of Artesia, N.M., hasn't lived in Cañon City since 1965. So she isn't sure what to think about the cancer that killed her husband, Glenn, three decades later.

He died of kidney cancer in 1995.

He had been diagnosed with the cancer in 1982 and had a kidney removed at that time to rid his body of the disease.

"They thought it was gone, but it came back," Bullen said.

Her husband had worked in the Cotter chemical lab with Lynn Boughton, and the Bullens kept in touch with the Boughtons, so she is aware that Boughton's lymphoma was ruled to be a result of radiation exposure.

But she said there's no way to know if her husband's cancer was caused by exposure to radiation.

They did wonder about it, though, as they heard of health problems among others who had worked there.

"I think a lot of them had health problems afterward," she said.

The couple lived in Lincoln Park during the time her husband worked for Cotter. She said she hasn't had any health problems that she thought were remotely connected with exposure to radiation.

Jody Enderle grew up in Lincoln Park, living there 18 years. Four years ago, at age 32, she was diagnosed with systemic lupus of the central nervous system and brain lesions. Since that time, she has been hospitalized 19 times.

Her first rheumatologist told her that her lupus was not hereditary, so he believed it was caused by environmental factors.

"I know I could never prove this, but deep in my heart I feel it's Cotter," Enderle said.

She was diagnosed with lupus when pregnant with her now 4-year-old daughter. One doctor told her she would never live to see her daughter go to school.

Her son, at age 10, has had to learn how to set up an intravenous line for her.

But after going to the Mayo Clinic in August 2001, where doctors corrected her medications to help control her disease, she feels her condition has improved significantly.

"I'm doing a lot better now. I haven't been in the hospital since October," Enderle said. "I really do feel like I owe my life to them."

If the soil from the Maywood, N.J., Superfund site is brought to Cotter, she may reluctantly move from Cañon City.

Enderle said she doesn't think she could willingly expose her children to the risks the dirt might pose.

They live on the other side of town, but she feels the wind blows so hard that waste could reach them.

"I'm really fighting to keep this material from coming here," the member of Colorado Citizens Against

ToxicWaste said.

Ella Rosenstrauch's husband, Lloyd, died 12 years ago of prostate and lung cancer. He had worked at Cotter for nearly 24 years, retiring in 1982. "He was a shift foreman and he worked pretty much all over the place. I feel like he acquired it out there," his wife said.

Before he went to work for Cotter, he worked briefly for Pinnacle, where the ore Cotter processed was mined.

Rosenstrauch has begun to file for an Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program payment, but after so many years she's finding it hard to get ahold of the records she needs to document his cancer case. "They really don't care much, some of the hospitals," she said.

The Energy Employees Occupational Illness Compensation Program provides benefits to people who qualify under the Radiation Exposure Compensation Act, or their survivors.

Her husband's prostate cancer was first diagnosed in 1977. The lung cancer was found later, and Mrs. Rosenstrauch now has been asked to find medical records that will show which cancer came first, she said.

She said her feeling on seeking the payment is "I wouldn't want anything if I'm not supposed to have it."

But, "If he got it out there, I'm entitled to it."

"I feel like he got it there," she said. "I'm searching for answers, yet — and I've got some more to look into."

Another man contacted for this article asked not to be included. He had worked for Cotter for 18 years and said the company had been a good employer, helping him buy his house and raise his family. He does not believe that Cotter was responsible for any health problems he has.

_____________________________________________________________________

Studies don't support claim of widespread cancer
But certain diseases have higher incidence rates in Fremont County

By Jackie Hutchins
Daily Record News Group

The words "hazardous waste" can strike fear into those who live or work near it.

It's for good reason. The hundreds of materials classified as hazardous can cause health problems ranging from general aches and pains to fatal cancer.

Some people who worked at the Cotter Corporation later developed such diseases, including longtime company chemist Lynn Boughton, who died in 2001.

Boughton fought for years to prove his lymphoma was related to exposure to radiation at work, finally prevailing in a lawsuit in 1998.

But workers were not the only ones who were exposed to hazardous substances.

As uranium and molybdenum migrated through groundwater into the Lincoln Park neighborhood north of the Cotter facility, and the area was declared a Superfund cleanup site, residents there came to believe pollutants from the groundwater and blown through the air had caused their health problems.

In 2001 a judge agreed, awarding $43 million to a group of 30 Lincoln Park residents, who claimed exposure to hazardous substances had caused their individual cases of cancer, arthritic problems, tooth problems, abnormal bone growth, gout and general aches and pains.

The decision is under appeal by Cotter.

Lawsuits and legal responsibility aside, studies of cancer in Lincoln Park are largely inconclusive. The incidence of some cancers are higher than what researchers expected to find, but because the population of cancer victims is small, conclusions are difficult to draw based upon statistics alone.

The radiation-caused health impact most feared is cancer.

According to statistics compiled by the Colorado Central Cancer Registry, it is likely 46 percent of Coloradans will develop cancer at some time in their lives. Daily exposure to natural background radiation accounts for part of the risk. The state's high altitude and higher-than-average levels of indoor radon and radiation from rocks and soil, contribute to the risk, according to the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment.

Radiation can cause cancer by altering the structure of cells. Different hazardous substances react differently in the body, and where they migrate can affect what kinds of cancer or other health problems develop.

Some, such as uranium, deposit in the lungs, kidneys, bones and soft tissues, causing cancers or other diseases in those organs.

Molybdenum increases uric acid and can cause gout-like symptoms.

Thorium, the substance of most concern in the soil at the Maywood Superfund Site in New Jersey, deposits in the lungs and bones, and can lead to cancer in those body parts.

Radium, a decay product of thorium and uranium, is carried throughout the body, but most commonly deposited in the bones.

Radon is most commonly breathed in, so it also can lead to lung problems.

Statistics compiled in Colorado and studies done specifically in Lincoln Park do not point to what are termed "statistically significant" variances in cancer rates, although they do point to a higher-than-average level of lung cancer cases.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment conducted three cancer studies in the Lincoln Park area during the 1990s, trying to calm residents' fears that exposure to uranium and molybdenum had increased their chances of getting the disease.

The first two studies showed slightly elevated numbers of lung cancer cases, enough to warrant continued watch, according to Jane Mitchell of the CDPHE epidemiology department, and Jack Finch, who coordinates statistics in the Colorado Central Cancer Registry for the health department.

The first study, issued in 1991, showed 30 lung cancer cases among men, where just 21.5 were expected, and 13 among women, where 10.1 were expected.

The 1991 study examined the 30 male lung cancer cases found then for evidence of an occupational influence accounting for the disease, but said none was found.

The 1993 study showed 41 cases of lung cancer among men, where just 30.12 cases were expected. If two additional cases had been found it would have been enough variation to make it statistically significant, Mitchell said.

The 1998 study found 48 cases of lung cancer in men, where 42.87 were expected.

Overall, the researchers found 74 lung cancer cases involving both men and women had occurred in the 17-year-period from 1979 to 1995 in Lincoln Park. They had expected to find 66.

Finch said the studies focused on cancer diagnoses that occurred in 1979 to 1995 among residents of the census tract that most closely corresponds with Lincoln Park.

The studies looked at cancer of the lungs, bones, liver, breast and thyroid, and leukemia and lymphoma, because radiation exposure has been linked to those cancers.

They also examined brain and prostate cancer rates because of concerns expressed in the community.

Nine cases of brain cancer during the 17-year study period, five of thyroid cancer and 24 of lymphoma also were higher than the rates expected for those diseases, but not statistically significantly.

None of the other cancers studied reached the levels that researchers would have expected based upon statewide cancer rates.

By coordinating with census figures, the researchers can compare cancer cases to other demographic factors. An aging population or unusual gender balance can influence the rate at which cancers occur, Finch said.

"It's not so much looking to see if there's cancer at all," he explained. The studies instead compared the number of cases found to the number that would be expected in a population with the age and gender breakdown of Lincoln Park.

The cancer cases documented in the studies were those of people whose addresses were within the Lincoln Park census tract, even if they died at hospitals elsewhere, Finch said.

But the studies could not take into consideration how long those people had lived in the area — whether they were longtime residents or relative newcomers to a community that attracts many retirees. The studies also could not count people who formerly lived in the area but moved away prior to diagnosis.

The health scientists conducting the study also had no way to know the levels of uranium or other chemicals each person was exposed to from the soils.

And, the first study did not take into consideration the number of people who smoked. Smoking is a major risk factor for lung cancer, which is the most common form of cancer found in Lincoln Park.

Another study, "Cancer in Central Colorado, 1997-1999," conducted by the Colorado Comprehensive Cancer Prevention and Control Program, found people in an eight-county region that included Fremont County were more likely to smoke.

Twenty-nine percent were current smokers, compared with 20.2 percent statewide. In the 18-34 age group, 43.4 percent smoked, compared with 24.4 percent statewide, the study said.

Mitchell, the CDPHE epidemiologist, said the third Lincoln Park study eased researchers' worries that there might be an undue number of lung cancer cases there.

And, with work to clean the Lincoln Park Superfund site progressing, the researchers felt comfortable that cancer rates would not rise. "You wouldn't expect to see rates go up," Mitchell said.

She said she hoped that the work done to clean up the Superfund site and work at the Cotter property would contain the contaminants on site so there wouldn't be any exposure in the neighborhood.

But if there was an increase in exposure rates, it would be five to 10 years before related lung cancer cases would begin to show up. "It takes quite awhile to see that," she noted.

Mitchell added that the small size of the population — Lincoln Park had 3,904 residents according to the 2000 census — means there is less opportunity to detect a significant statistical difference in the rate of cancer cases.

She said the health department would be willing to take another look at Lincoln Park cancer rates if members of the community request it.

Other, more broad studies also seem to indicate that Fremont County residents do not experience an unusual rate of cancer.

CDPHE death statistics for 1990-2000 show there were 4,934 deaths of Fremont County residents in that time period. Cancer deaths accounted for 19.8 percent of the total.

Within the 81212 ZIP code specific to Canon City, there were 3,544 deaths and again 19.8 percent were due to cancer. Elsewhere in the region, 20.7 percent of deaths in Pueblo County were because of cancer, 23.1 percent in El Paso County, and statewide the rate was 22.1 percent.

The main area where Fremont County stood out among the death statistics was in cardiovascular disease deaths, which accounted for 42 percent of deaths in the county, compared with 35 percent in Pueblo County, 34 percent in El Paso County and 35.4 percent statewide.

Another report, "Cancer in Colorado 1993-1998" done by the Colorado Central Cancer Registry, compared cancer rates of the state's counties. It found the highest mortality rates for all types of cancers among men in 1995-96 were in Fremont, Adams, Denver and Mesa counties.

Other areas where Fremont County stood out included:

— A higher rate of colon cancer among women.

— A higher rate of colon cancer deaths among both men and women.

— A higher rate of skin cancer among women.

— A lower rate of lung cancer among women during the 1997-98 study period. With that exception, Fremont County did not stand out among the other counties in its rates of lung cancer.

Dr. Dorothy Twellman, Fremont County coroner, is charged with investigating "deaths by poison, suspected poisoning, chemical or bacteria, industrial hazardous material, or radiation."

But in her 10 years as coroner, she can recall issuing only one death certificate citing radiation exposure as the cause of death, the one for former Cotter chemist Lynn Boughton.

Fremont County has many cancer deaths, but she hasn't had time to look into which were radiation-related, she said.

Twellman said she only sees deaths, but there are people who are still living who may have been exposed to radiation and could be affected in the future.

"I think the reality is a lot of people who have been exposed haven't died yet," she said.

Between the Lincoln Park and Maywood Superfund sites, as many as 19 hazardous substances have been detected.

An ecological-risk assessment of the Lincoln Park area conducted for Cotter by Stoller Corp., released in 1998, identified several chemicals of concern, including radioactive elements: uranium, radium-226 and thorium-230, and metals: arsenic, cadmium, copper, lead, mercury, molybdenum, selenium and zinc.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment released information from that report in 1999. The report concluded: "Overall, potential risks at the site are low and not of health concern."

The Maywood site's 2001 annual environmental monitoring report identified several chemicals of concern there, including aluminum, arsenic, beryllium, cadmium, chromium, iron, lead, manganese, nickel, radium, radon, tetrachloroethene, thorium and uranium. The beryllium, cadmium, chromium, lead or nickel measurements were within state or federal limits.

A 1997 report by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry on "Cancer Incidence in Three Communities Near the Maywood Area Superfund Sites (Bergen County), New Jersey: A Site-Specific Follow-up Health Study," said the only unusual finding there was a twofold increase in cancer of the brain/central nervous system among women, but because the study sample was so small, the increase might not be statistically significant.

It found incidence rates for all cancers and for other specific types of cancers were not significantly different than expected in comparison with average New Jersey incidence rates.

The Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment acknowledges that some risks in life are acceptable, while others are not.

"We tend to ignore everyday risks, like driving to the grocery store or riding a bike. Risks imposed upon us are less acceptable," according to a report the Health Department did analyzing risks posed by the Rocky Flats Superfund site.

The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry cites the lack of control residents near a Superfund site have over their situations as a contributor to another common health problem — stress.

The agency initiated a study in 1999 on psychological responses to hazardous substances, looking at adverse effects on psychological health that might result from living near a hazardous-waste site or being exposed to a hazardous substance.

An expert panel put together by ATSDR said most of the responses people have to toxic substances are normal.

"Sociologists and psychologists performing field research in communities near hazardous waste sites have pointed out that unlike a natural disaster — which has a discernible low point followed by a recovery phase when life begins to return to normal — life near a hazardous-waste site is a more nebulous and uncertain situation," the report stated.

The researchers said life near a hazardous waste site "can breed uncertainty about exposures and subsequent and latent health effects and spark social and political turmoil, all of which serve as additional stressors."

Chronic stress can lead to long-lasting elevations in blood pressure, changes in immune-system function and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, the report said.

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