Former congressman and current congressional candidate Alan Grayson (D-Orlando) expressed outrage at the report on Vieques issued by the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR). The federal agency announced Thursday that its investigation concluded that there is no evidence linking decades of U.S. Navy bombing exercises on the tiny island, eight miles east of the Puerto Rico mainland, to an increase in health problems for the people who live there.
“This is a disgrace. It’s arrogant and dangerous for the ATSDR to dismiss the scientific evidence on the effects of more than sixty years of bombing. Instead, these bureaucrats are trying to shift the blame to utterly implausible reasons,” said Grayson.
A study by the Puerto Rico Health Department concluded the cancer rate among people on Vieques is 27 percent higher than for those on the main island, despite no significant differences in lifestyle. People on Vieques also show evidence of elevated risks for high blood pressure, diabetes and epilepsy.
The ATSDR report suggests that the health problems are caused by eating fish with high levels of mercury, but denies that those elevated mercury levels are the result of contamination from uranium, Agent Orange and other toxins used in the bombing exercises that ended in 2003. The ATSDR suggests that people on Vieques eat fish low in mercury to reduce the potential health effects.
“That’s the best advice of the ATSDR? Really? Maybe the ATSDR should invest in Chick-Fil-A and put up billboards that read, ‘Eat Mor Chikin,’ quipped Grayson.
The ATSDR report did acknowledge that some areas of the Vieques bombing range still present a health risk.
The ATSDR will accept public comment for 90 days before releasing its final report. People can submit a comment via email to [email protected].
Grayson is running for a new U.S. House of Representatives district that is expected to be created in Orlando.
