Miscarriages, Ill Health Reported in Spill Wake

State Health Director Molly Coye, alarmed by new evidence of health effects from last month’s toxic spill on the Sacramento River, said Friday she will investigate reports of at least two miscarriages and more than 100 people suffering unexpected persistent symptoms.

Nearly six weeks after a Southern Pacific train derailed and dumped the herbicide metam-sodium into the river, many residents and clean-up workers exposed to the chemical are still suffering such symptoms as coughing, rashes and headaches, health officials said.

“We are beginning to see reports of some symptoms that apparently are persistent longer than we would have expected and, in combination with reports of miscarriages, we are quite concerned,” said Coye, the state’s new health director.

She said the state will investigate the health effects of exposure to the herbicide, tracking the progress of individuals who became ill from the chemical and monitoring births and miscarriages in communities along the river.

“At the very minimum we will have to study the patterns of reproductive effects in the community and we will be investigating the other symptoms that are reported,” Coye said in an interview. “There is every reason to look into it.”

After the July 14 spill, which forced hundreds of residents to flee the area and killed aquatic life along 45 miles of the upper Sacramento River, health officials announced that metam-sodium would not cause long-term health effects.

But weeks later, state officials said they had found a report in their files showing that the herbicide caused birth defects in laboratory rats and rabbits. Based on those studies, scientists say the chemical could cause birth defects in humans that may lead to miscarriages.

At a meeting in Dunsmuir on Thursday night, angry residents--including at least 20 who reportedly are still suffering symptoms from their exposure--confronted health officials and complained that they did not receive proper warnings about the danger of the herbicide.

For the first time, state experts said, they learned at the meeting of the reports of at least two miscarriages and one premature birth since the spill.

Some residents also reported that symptoms they suffered immediately after exposure to the spill cleared up when they left the area temporarily, but the people became ill again when they returned home.

“I am very concerned, based on what I heard,” said Dr. Lynn Goldman, a top state epidemiologist and pediatrician. “There were a number of people who were angry and I think their anger was justified.”

Among the reports of persistent symptoms are rashes suffered by cleanup workers, including prison inmates, who went into the river seven to nine days after the spill--at a time when the level of the herbicide in the river had dropped sharply.

“Out of a group of 40 to 50 men, half of them developed very striking rashes on their feet and ankles,” Goldman said. “That also has been a disturbing finding for us. There is nothing in the literature that would have led us to expect a dermatological reaction so many days later.”

In addition to rashes, residents of the area are reporting headaches, general malaise, coughing, bronchitis and persistent breathing problems.

Goldman said she was most concerned about continuing respiratory problems. She noted that one of the breakdown chemicals of metam-sodium, MITC, is closely related to the chemical that caused lasting respiratory illness in victims of toxic contamination in Bhopal, India.

Goldman said residents complained at the meeting that they were not notified of the danger for up to 12 hours after the spill.

“One thing that was disturbing and contributed to the anger of the community was that not everybody knew they should be relocated,” she said.

Dr. Lee Hamilton, an obstetrician in Yreka, said one of his patients from Dunsmuir suffered a miscarriage and initially blamed the spill but is now uncertain whether that was the cause.

“She’s confused and upset by all the mays and mights being put out by the health officials,” Hamilton said.

Dunsmuir resident Janet Norton, 32, is in the 17th week of her pregnancy and said she has had “no particular health problems” since she was exposed to vapors from the chemical spill. But she is aware of reports about miscarriages and is dismayed by reports of possible birth defects.

Times staff writer Jenifer Warren contributed to this report.