EPA Is Latest to Probe Alleged Suppression of Cancer Survey

The state’s Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it also will launch an investigation into whether officials at Boeing Co.’s Rocketdyne division and the state Department of Health Services conspired to suppress health studies and dissolve a citizens advisory panel.

It is the third investigation opened in as many days after internal department memoranda were released that some maintain show the department buried a 1997 cancer survey and worked with Rocketdyne to dissolve a committee overseeing health studies and cleanup of the company’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Chatsworth.

Both the department and Rocketdyne have steadfastly denied the allegations.

Earlier this week, department officials said they will appoint an outside auditing agency to investigate the department’s involvement with the aerospace facility.

Assemblyman Scott Wildman (D-Glendale), chairman of the Joint Legislative Audit Committee, announced that he will look into the allegations as part of a broader probe into the department.

The state EPA’s decision came after the release of several internal department documents by Assemblywoman Sheila Kuehl (D-Santa Monica). She alleges the documents show the department suppressed the survey, which showed a 15% higher lung cancer rate, and conspired with Rocketdyne to dissolve the citizens committee.

The assemblywoman has urged Gov. Gray Davis and state secretary of Health and Human Services Grantland Johnson to fire department officials in charge of the Rocketdyne case.