U.S. Officials, Residents Meet on Lab Issue

Federal officials looking into possible health impacts from decades of defense work at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory met with more than 125 residents Tuesday night as part of a weeklong fact-finding mission.

The Agency for Substances Disease Registry scheduled two days of one-on-one meetings, the first Tuesday at a Chatsworth hotel. A second meeting is scheduled today in Simi Valley.

The meeting was designed to give residents in the area a chance to discuss their concerns with agency officials, all employees of a division within the federal Department of Health and Human Services.

Betty Reo, 72, of Chatsworth, told the federal officials about her husband, who worked as an instrumentation engineer at the Santa Susana site between 1957 and 1960 and later died from multiple health problems, including kidney and heart disease. Reo said her 41-year-old daughter recently contracted breast cancer.

“There’s no proof that the chemicals there caused his death,” Reo said. “[But] I would like to know how he could be so ill unless he was subjected to toxic chemicals. My children want to know, was it caused by heredity or by the chemicals?”

Woodland Hills resident Sarah Clippinger also wanted information. Her concern: a twin sister who had lived near the Rocketdyne facility since 1978, later dying of leukemia.

Ruth Bartnof, a Chatsworth resident, said she lived near the site and simply wanted information.

The federal agency conducting field research normally is charged with reviewing federal Superfund toxic sites, but was asked to come to Chatsworth at the request of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley).

In addition to reviewing statements from residents, the team will examine data provided by Rocketdyne, a Boeing Co. subsidiary, as well as by the federal Environmental Protection Agency, state agencies, academics, watchdog groups and other sources, substances disease agency spokeswoman Kathy Skipper said.

Skipper said the team--made up of a dozen members, including environmental health scientists, toxicologists and health physicists--is expected to complete its task about November.

Afterward, it could recommend a number of steps to state or federal agencies. Those steps could include educating doctors and residents, steps to avoid exposure to health problems, sampling and further study, Skipper said.

Team member Burt J. Cooper said the size of the crowd, which was standing-room only, was not lost on officials, who arrived with a larger than normal response team.

“Normally we don’t bring nearly as many people,” Cooper said. “We brought a larger team than we normally do because there are complex issues here.”

Some of those issues were raised in an epidemiological study by UCLA researchers. The study showed lab workers who were exposed to toxic chemicals and radiation had higher cancer rates than colleagues.

Also, several lawsuits have been filed against Boeing and Rockwell International Corp. (the former owner of Rocketdyne) stemming from the Santa Susana lab, including a class-action case pending in federal court.

That suit contends decades of nuclear research and rocket-engine testing have contaminated water, air and soil near the lab and compromised the health of nearby residents.