Page 14/The Battalion/Thursday, November 15, 1984
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A construction worker walks among the scaffolds of the site
of the new Hilton Hotel on University Dr. The hotel is ex
pected to be completed in May 1985 at an estimated cost of
$17.8 million dollars.
lliiil
Dioxin
Army admits to contamination in camp
United Press International
Photo by MELINDA PETO
Hilton Highlights
WASHINGTON — The Army
admitted Wednesday that it knew of
a dioxin contamination at a Virginia
campground in 1978, where 32,000
Boy Scouts attended a 1981 jambo
ree, but was not aware of the dan
gers of herbicides at the time.
Both the Army and the national
Centers for Disease Control assured
the Boy Scouts Wednesday that
there was no reason to be concerned
about the spill of cancer-causing di
oxin at Fort A.P. Hill, Va.
Army Assistant Secretary Pat Hill-
ier told the Scouts’ executive direc
tor J.L. Tarr in a 45-minute meeting
at the Pentagon that the site “hope
fully” will be cleaned up by the end
of the year, in time for the July jam
boree.
It was not until Nov. 5, following
the final testing of the site’s soil sam
ples, that the Army officially in
formed the Boy Scouts of America
of the herbicide spill and told them
there was no cause for concern be
cause there was “little contami
nation,” Army spokesman Maj. Rob
ert Mirelson said.
Under the supervision of the En
vironmental Protection Agency,
there will be another soil sample of
the site to determine how much of
the area will be excavated, Mirelson
said.
The Boy Scouts also are conduct
ing their own testing at the site with
an independent laboratory.
Mirelson quoted Tarr as saying he
was sure there was no hazard to the
Boy Scouts during the 1981 jambo
ree and that “the parents shouldn’t
be worried about the kids who were
there. We will use the site in July
1985.”
The Centers for Disease Control
in Atlanta said that “the chance for
harmful dioxin exposure of scouts
during the jamboree is exceedingly
remote. Therefore, medical exami
nations of scouts who attended the
jamboree are not necessary or rec
ommended.
fense Department found there was
dioxin contamination of 228 parts
per billion that had leaked into the
soil from the floor of the shed.
Mirelson said, however, that this
amount “is not really hazardous.”
The chemical remained close to
the surface because of heavy clay
like soil at the site and did not pen
etrate to water wells 500 feet down,
he said.
Scouts’ spokesman Raul Chavez of
Irving said more than 30,000 letters
will be sent to the families of the boys
who attended the 1981 jamboree ad
vising them to the contamination
and urging them “not to panic.”
“It is our estimate that no harm
was done since the scouts would
have had to be exposed to the herbi
cide for 70 years to incur risk. They
were there only two weeks.”
Mirelson said a 100-by-100 foot
area was contaminated by the Silvex,
a herbicide containing dioxin, when
it was spilled in 1978 on the wooden
floor of a shed as forestry service
workers were moving.
As part of its 1982 survey, the De-
Toxicologist Alan Hall of the Poi
son Control Center in Denver
warned that the soil samples may not
be an accurate measure of the toxic
ity of the dioxin in 1978 because
they were taken in 1982. He said
sunlight causes dioxin to lose its tox
icity.
“All the soil tests will show is the
amount in the soil three years after
the exposure,” Hall said. “We still
don’t know how much there was at
the time the Scouts were there.”
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