Spring Valley residents are questioning the link between the chronic diseases they have and the chemical weapons that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers tested and buried at AU during and after World War I, the local newspaper The Northwest Current reported last week.
Military objects were discovered in Spring Valley, a 66-acre area in Northwest D.C. that includes AU land, in 1993, according to the Army Corps of Engineers. Arsenic was discovered at AU's main campus in 2001 after student athletes who played on the intramural fields noticed that blisters appeared on their bodies when it rained, The Eagle previously reported. The Army Corps had tested chemical agents and munitions at AU during the World War I era.
In Spring Valley, 131 people developed chronic and rare diseases, according to an unscientific survey done by The Northwest Current over one year that included 345 houses.
These people have 56 different diseases, 30 of which can be linked to arsenic and other chemicals used in the World War I chemical weapons testing, The Current reported. The survey found 58 cancers and 27 autoimmune disorders.
"I've never in my life seen so many things go wrong in people's families," Current staff writer Charles Bermpohl told The Eagle. "I've been working on this for a long time, and it was always rather stunning to see this stuff come in."
Bermpohl, who has worked as a journalist for 35 years, conducted the majority of the research for the survey.
"I'm not saying all this came from the chemicals buried in the ground," Bermpohl added. "[The survey] is not scientific, but science hasn't done that much for us in Spring Valley."
Bermpohl wrote that the survey is not an "irrefutable link between the chronic diseases and the toxic chemicals buried in the area some 85 years before."
Geza Teleki, 60, lived in Spring Valley for about 30 years and now has diabetes, hypothyroidism, and kidney, colon and heart disease.
"I've been progressively losing the function of my internal organs," Teleki told The Eagle.
Teleki moved his family to Bethesda two years ago and now calls himself a "refugee" of Spring Valley. He links his illnesses to the chemicals the Army tested in the area during the war.
"When you're exposed at very low levels, it takes a long time to develop," he said. "It can't be considered a natural course of events when I'm dying from thyroid failure, heart failure, kidney failure and colon failure."
The Agency for Toxic Substances Disease Registry did two exposure investigations in 2002 and concluded that none of the arsenic levels found would be expected to cause health problems.
The D.C. Department of Health did a comparison study with Potomac, Md., and national cancer rates and did not find an increased rate for arsenic-related cancers in Spring Valley.
According to Teleki, the problem is not necessarily arsenic.
"[The Army] spent 10 years looking for arsenic and ignored the other chemicals used," he said.
He said that his property tested positive for other harmful chemicals, which the Army did not report.
"What I'd like to see the Army do now is get the hell out of here and bring in someone who will do a decent, honest job," Teleki said.
Teleki suggested that the Environmental Protection Agency should be in charge of the cleanup.
An Army Corps of Engineers spokesperson was not available for comment.
The Army Corps of Engineers removed contaminated soil from some Spring Valley lots, including the intramural field and the area the Childhood Development Center used to be located on. The Army Corps finished work on AU's intramural field this summer.
The Corps resumed excavations in Lot 18 in November. Lot 18 is the area behind the Public Safety and Hamilton buildings where lewisite, a material used in World War I chemical weapons testing, was found in a sealed glass container last June.
"The soil did not pose any health risk to the campus. ... Any potential effect to health would be through ingestion, or by consuming multiple tablespoons of the soil over an extended period of time," said AU President Benjamin Ladner in a Nov. 11 press release. "The university's top priority is always the health and safety of the entire campus community."
AU Media spokesman Todd Sedmak said removing Army debris from Lot 18 is very important.
"It is a major concern for the university, and the Army Corps needs to clean it up as soon as possible," Sedmak said.
However, some students are not concerned.
Sophomore Heidi Hershberger, a field hockey player who will soon be playing regularly on the field formerly contaminated with harmful chemicals, said she's not afraid of developing any diseases because of it.
"The level of pollution is so high in society anyway," Hershberger said. "I'm more likely to die from second-hand smoke on the Quad."
The Lot 18 project will continue until 2006, when all the weapons testing debris is removed, said Gary Schilling, Spring Valley project manager for the Army Corps.
Once Lot 18 digs are complete, the Army Corps' work at AU will be nearly done. However, there is still a "grid" near Hughes Hall that contains low contamination, Schilling previously told The Eagle.
