CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Public health experts from the federal Centers for Disease Control were in Charleston Thursday to meet with the state DHHR to discuss plans for medical monitoring following the Jan. 9 chemical spill on the Elk River and the water emergency that followed.
The CDC promised support following a meeting with U.S. Senator Joe Manchin earlier this summer in Washington, D.C.
National Center for Environmental Health, acting Associate Director of Communications Kathy Harben said Thursday’s meetings focused on setting up a public health tracking plan following the spill of crude MCHM that impacted approximately 300,000 residents in parts of nine counties.
“We’re talking about what the state can do to monitor the population’s health, environmental hazards and how that can help respond to future events,” Harben said. “We’re figuring out what the normal look of health is and then once you know that you can pay attention to anything that is unusual or surprising that shows up.”
Harben said there’s already a lot of data available on how the spill and the Do Not Use water order that followed impacted residents. The DHHR tracked emergency room visits by those residents after the spill and the CDC helped with a door-to-door survey.
“All of that has led us to….where we are and here’s what we can do now until we can learn more about the chemical,” according to Harden who added the work is also beginning to try and answer the unanswered questions about MCHM.
At some point the path for medical monitoring will be chosen and information released to the public. Harben said this is the kind of thing CDC and the National Center for Environmental Health specializes in and it will ultimately help some other community.
“The country has experience with spills of a variety of kinds but when there’s a new chemical involved, one we haven’t seen before, everything helps us plan better for the next event,” Harben said.