RESULTS OF STUDY ON LAB'S LEGACY DUE OUT TODAY SOME RESIDENTS DOUBTING REAL VALUE OF TEST'S DATA.

Byline: Rachel Uranga Staff Writer

SIMI VALLEY - A long-awaited update of a two-year study to determine if residents living near the Santa Susana Field Laboratory may have been exposed to contaminants will be released Tuesday.

The preliminary findings will rank potentially harmful pollutants such as radioactive contamination and certain chemicals. It will also take a critical look at previous studies done by Boeing Co., which owns the defense and aerospace testing site, as well as federal and state agencies, said Yoram Cohen, professor of chemical engineering at University of California, Los Angeles.

The study, funded by the Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry in Atlanta and headed by Cohen, is expected to be completed by December. It is the first part of a larger study aimed at assessing whether neighbors were exposed to chemicals or radiation and whether those contaminants may have put them at risk for cancer or other health problems, Cohen said.

``We have looked at all documents and all studies done associated with the site,'' Cohen said. ``Part of the point here is to explain to people that we are an independent party with no stakes.''

Tuesday's meeting comes nearly four years after the ATSDR released preliminary findings that showed there was no connection between testing by Rocketdyne and health problems of nearby residents, causing an outcry from the community.

Skeptical residents questioned the credibility of earlier studies conducted by federal agencies and information provided by the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, both of which contracted with Rocketdyne.

``I am not expecting much,'' said Barbara Johnson, who sits on the Santa Susana Field Lab Work Group, a group of representatives of federal and state agencies, along with community members, that monitors the lab's cleanup. ``So far, they have only taken information from Rocketdyne and not the residents of the community.''

Boeing spokesman Dan Beck would not discuss the preliminary results.

``We don't believe there has been an impact on public health, in the surrounding city,'' he said. ``It would be very difficult to gather meaningful data and do a community health study like they are asking for.''

The first part of the study is a peer review study, examining investigations and studies already conducted by Boeing, the parent company of Rocketdyne and other agencies involved in overseeing cleanup of the site, Cohen said.

Based on that information, researchers are pinpointing contaminant paths around site, which sits atop a bedrock mountain that cleaves Chatsworth and Simi Valley.

Ultimately, Cohen said, the first study will determine there is cause for concern.

The lab - which was used for nuclear energy research until the late 1980s and is now undergoing a $148 million cleanup - has long been a source of anxiety for neighbors because previous studies of workers had found higher cancer mortality rates for those that had been exposed to radiation and certain chemicals, Johnson said.

``We want a true unbiased, independent community study, and that is not what we are getting,'' Johnson said. She noted that an advisory committee that oversaw a previous UCLA study was dissolved and not included in this study.

Hal Morgenstern, a professor of epidemiology at UCLA who was involved in the worker study, will also lead the second part of the study, which looks at whether there is a link between illness in the community and contaminants released.

That portion of the study hinges on the first and cannot begin until areas at risk for toxic releases in the air or water are identified, he said.

Rachel Uranga, [phone]

rachel.uranga(at)dailynews.com

IF YOU GO

--UCLA will release a status report on contaminants at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at the Grand Vista Hotel, 999 Enchanted Way, Simi Valley.

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IF YOU GO (see text)