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Final Release LLNL Site 300 (USDOE) Foreword The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, ATSDR, is an agency of the U.S. Public Health Service. Congress established ATSDR in 1980 as part of the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, also known as the Superfund law. This law set up a fund to identify and clean up our country's hazardous waste sites. The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, and the individual states regulate the investigation and cleanup of the sites. Since 1986, amendments to the Superfund Law have required ATSDR to conduct a public health assessment at each of the sites on the EPA National Priorities List. The aim of these evaluations is to find out whether people are being exposed to hazardous substances and, if so, whether that exposure i 'harmful and should be stopped or reduced. (The legal definition of a health assessment is included on the inside front cover of this health assessment.) If appropriate, ATSDR also conducts public health assessments when it is petitioned by concerned individuals. Public health assessments are conducted by environmental and health scientists from ATSDR and from the states with which ATSDR has cooperative agreements. Exposure: As the first step in the evaluation, ATSDR scientists review environmental data to see how much contamination is at a site, where it is, and how people might come into contact with it. Generally,ATSDR does not collect its own environmental sampling data; rather, it reviews information provided by EPA, other government agencies, businesses, and the public. When insufficient environmental information is available, the report will indicate what further sampling data is needed. Health Effects: If the review of the environmental data shows that people have or could come into contact with hazardous substances, ATSDR scientists then evaluate whether any harmful effects will result from these exposures. The health assessment focuses on public health, or the health impact on the community as a whole,rather than on individual risks. Again,ATSDR generally makes use of existing scientific information, which can include the results of medical, toxicological and epidemiological studies, and the data collected in disease registries. The science of environmental health is still developing, and sometimes scientific information on the health effects of certain substances is not available. When this is so, the health assessment will suggest what further research studies are needed. Conclusions: The health assessment contains conclusions about the level of health threat, if any, posed by a site and, in its public health action plan, recommends ways to stop or reduce exposure. ATSDR is primarily an advisory agency, so usually these health assessments identify what actions are appropriate to be undertaken by EPA,by other responsible parties, or by the research or education divisions of ATSDR. But in the event of an urgent health threat ATSDR can issue a public health advisory warning people of the danger. ATSDR can also authorize health education or pilot studies of health effects, full-scale epidemiology studies, disease registries, surveillance studies, or research on specific hazardous substances. i