Levels of trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), volatile organic chemicals linked to increased incidence of leukemia, kidney and liver cancer, were found in 38 of 42 residences so far tested in the neighborhood.
Experts say the chemicals, from chlorinated solvents used at the plant, traveled in groundwater from a contaminated plume under Dryden Avenue and up into homes and a church in the neighborhood. Last week, Moraine City Council approved testing inside the city hall. The owners of about 20 properties have yet to authorize preliminary testing.
In January, Mark Case, director of environmental health for Dayton and Montgomery County, requested the state study in response to concerns from residents frightened about their health and safety as contractors installed radon removal systems to vent the vapors out of their homes
“We’re scared. We don’t know what to do and where to go,” resident Shari Steele said earlier this year.
Similar systems have been installed in about 300 homes around the area. But some Riverview residents resisted the installations and others expressed doubts the systems were purging their homes of the hazards.
David Deutsch, a lawyer representing the residents, said the study failed to consider other health problems linked to exposure to the hazardous chemicals.
“That exposure can also cause other illnesses,” Deutsch said.
Deutsch urged health officials to examine current Riverview residents, as well as those who have moved away in recent years.
The state study was based on reports to the Ohio Cancer Incidence Surveillance System, from its beginning in 1996 through January 2012. It found 10 cases of six different types of cancer, but none of the types “most strongly associated with TCE and PCE,” Sobotka said in the letter.
“Therefore further actions to investigate the cancer burden in this neighborhood are not warranted at this time,” Sobotka said.
On Friday, Ohio Department of Health spokesperson Shannon Libby said, “Future assessments are yet to be determined.”
Health officials will be calling a public meeting to discuss the findings. Meanwhile Case encouraged Riverview residents to sign agreements authorizing testing and installation of the systems.
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