Neighbors Need Facts

After four decades of rocket and nuclear reactor testing at Rocketdyne’s Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a massive cleanup is underway to rid the area of contaminated water and soil.

But how do you rid the lab’s neighbors of lingering fear and suspicion over possible health and environmental hazards? What is needed is thorough research, solid information--and openness in disseminating that information. In other words, according to a stinging report released last week, everything the state Department of Health Services failed to deliver.

The report, the result of a three-month investigation by a branch of the California Environmental Protection Agency, faulted the health services department for failing to disclose a 1997 survey that describes an elevated incidence of lung cancer among people living near the lab, in the hills between Simi Valley and Chatsworth.

Health services department officials said they did not release the survey because the study’s methodology was flawed and did not take into account other factors such as smoking. But because of the intense public interest in the issue--the survey coincided with a UCLA study that found higher than normal levels of some types of cancers among lab workers--the investigators rightly concluded that simply sitting on the survey was not an alternative to providing a detailed explanation.

Ironically, experts at the state EPA and two independent scientists who participated in the investigation found no evidence in the study that the community was at risk. But the very act of not releasing the survey increased the public’s suspicions, once the survey came to light this spring, that there was something to hide.

If state health services department officials were stingy with information to the public, investigators found that they divulged information to Rocketdyne officials despite a directive by a citizens’ oversight committee not to do so. The result, according to the report, was an “intensifying spiral of distrust.”

And investigators found that although the health services department publicly pledged to conduct a community health study, internally it considered such a study unwarranted and unfeasible.

The investigators did not say such a study is warranted. But they rightly took the health department to task for not being open with the public about what it was doing--or not doing--and why.

The report concludes with recommendations on ways to improve management of the department and foster better relations with the public it serves. Gov. Gray Davis, who ordered the investigation, needs to make sure that the health services department officials who are promising to implement these changes are not the ones who made--and broke--earlier pledges. If state health officials fail to understand that their allegiance is to the public, then a cleanup of the department is needed to restore the public’s trust.

Earlier this month, federal health investigators began conducting preliminary research into health concerns around the Rocketdyne test site. A decision is expected in November on whether to launch a broader public health assessment. The Times has long argued that a comprehensive and impartial study is needed to put lingering questions to rest. In light of the community’s contaminated relationship with its own state health department, a federal study is more needed than ever.