Consultations vary in complexity; either an
Following are examples of sites for which
individual health professional or a team may
respond to a question about a site or issue. In
provided health consultations in fiscal year
some cases, ATSDR prepares more than one
2001.
health consultation in response to a request for
help with an exposure or potential exposure.
Herculaneum/Doe Run Company
Health consultation reports may be either writ-
Primary Lead Smelter, Missouri
ten or oral, and they are timely; for example,
an oral report might be provided on the day a
Operating for more than 100 years, the Doe
request reaches ATSDR.
Run Company's lead smelter in Herculaneum,
Missouri, is the largest and oldest smelter oper-
In fiscal year 2001, ATSDR staff members and
ating in the United States. Residents in the
state health assessors issued 343 health consul-
community surrounding the smelter likely have
tations (56 NPL, 287 non-NPL) for 333 hazard-
been exposed to lead and other metals from air
ous waste sites in 38 states, the Navajo nation,
emissions, other process leakage, transportation
and Saipan. Unlike public health assessments,
spillage, and process-waste disposal for many
the majority were non-NPL sites, (see Figure 3).
years.
Manufacturing or industrial sites were the main
type of hazardous waste sites addressed by these
During fiscal year 2001, state officials discov-
health consultations. Eighty-seven of the health
ered that highly concentrated lead ore was being
consultations responded to public health con-
spilled from trucks along residential streets. The
cerns about manufacturing or industrial sites.
ore, which was trucked to the smelter, had pre-
viously been transported via rail. Levels of lead
Figure 3: NPL Status of Fiscal Year 2001
ranging from 30,000 to 300,000 parts per mil-
Health Consultations
lion were discovered along streets, along the
city park roadside, and at the smelter entrance.
In response to the spills of lead ore along
the streets, the Missouri Department of Health
NPL
16%
ner, advised state and federal regulatory agen-
cies that "an imminent and substantial public
health threat" was being posed to the residents
of the community and that actions needed to
be taken to eliminate this threat. In addition,
Non NPL
ATSDR issued a public health consultation in
84%
July 2001 that found that past and present expo-
sures to lead in the community posed a persis-
tent and unacceptable public health hazard.
More than 600 residents were recently tested
by the state health department, with help from
ATSDR, during two voluntary, communitywide
blood lead screening events. Of the 124 children
under 6 who were screened for lead exposure,
36 (29%) had blood lead levels that were at
20 chapter 1
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