BUTTE — State, local, and federal health agencies held a listening session in Butte and encouraged citizens to share their concerns about potential exposure to arsenic.
This is the first meeting held in Butte by the CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. A similar meeting was conducted five years ago in Anaconda and led to an exposure investigation.
"We are inviting citizens to come and tell us about any health concerns that they may have related to potential exposure to arsenic," says Laura Williamson, the state epidemiologist for DPHHS.
"This meeting today is extremely similar to what we did in Anaconda where we just invited the citizens to come in and tell us their story. Tell us their specific concerns and then we came back to the community a few months later. Eventually, ATDSR did decide to come into the community and do an exposure investigation."
According to a pamphlet given out at the meeting, arsenic occurs naturally in soil and minerals and can enter the air, water, and land from wind-blown dust and it can be ingested by eating food, drinking water, or breathing air contaminated by arsenic.
The CDC says ingesting very high levels of arsenic can result in death and exposure to lower levels can cause nausea and vomiting, decreased production of red and white blood cells, abnormal heart rhythm, and damage to blood vessels. Another side effect of ingesting arsenic can result in a sensation of "pins and needles" in hands and feet.
The Department of Health and Human Services and the EPA have determined that inorganic arsenic is a known human carcinogen and long-term exposure to arsenic in children may result in lower IQ scores.
The CDC also reports that there is evidence that inhaled or ingested arsenic can injure pregnant women or their newborn babies, but the agency says that the studies are not definitive.
Williamson says findings from the Sept. 26 meeting will be used to determine the next step in the process.
