State and federal government officials are misleading the public about potential health hazards from toxic contamination in New Orleans, according to a Feb. 23 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). Hurricane Katrina's winds and floodwaters released heavy metals and other industrial byproducts throughout the area, according to the report. These hazardous materials then deposited in homes, yards, and schools across the region, in what is now a cracked layer of toxic muck. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ), however, state that contamination levels in the city pose no "unacceptable" health risks -- a statement disputed by the NRDC report using EPA's own data.

EPA took hundreds of soil samples in the New Orleans region from Sept. 10, 2005 to Jan. 15, 2006. While EPA has posted its testing data online, the agency has provided no comprehensive analysis of that data. The hundreds of data points are too complex to be useful to the average concerned citizen trying to determine if it is safe to return to his or her home, or what precautions should take before returning home. Without analysis of the data, residents are left with little other than EPA's and LDEQ's vague press statements about environmental conditions in the area.

The NRDC, for the first time, analyzed the hundreds of EPA soil samples, connecting the data to create the missing overview for the area. The NRDC analysis found high levels of arsenic, lead and dangerous petroleum compounds across the city at levels that represent serious health threats.

NRDC and local advocacy groups, however, point out that state and federal agencies are downplaying the potential health threats despite the data, and are failing to provide adequate guidance to protect the public. Nor have officials initiated an adequate plan to clean up residents' homes.

"It is stunning that the state's environmental agency can look at these results and say there's no problem," said Dr. Gina Solomon, the NRDC senior scientist who oversaw the analysis. "More than a third of the EPA samples in New Orleans had arsenic levels that exceed the Louisiana threshold level requiring an investigation or cleanup. Federal and state agencies have to clean up this toxic mess to ensure returning residents are safe."

The report identified eight hot spots where levels of diesel fuel ingredients, which can cause kidney damage, increased blood pressure, and decreased ability to form blood clots, are more than 100 times higher than the LDEQ's standard for residential neighborhoods. These hot spots are located in Bywater, Lakeview, Central City/Garden District, and Mid-City, as well as in Chalmette and St. Bernard Parish.

In the absence of meaningful state and federal warnings against possible chemical exposures, community members in St. Bernard Parish are taking matters into their own hands. The Louisiana Bucket Brigade, and the St. Bernard Citizens for Environmental Quality held a March 4 training to distribute and instruct on the use of sampling kits for residents to take soil samples on their property. The samples collected by residents will be shipped to a laboratory to be tested for heavy metals and diesel fuel ingredients -- called diesel-range organics.

Environmental groups are pressing EPA to remove toxic sediment and contaminated soil from yards, fully inform people of the precise scope and nature of the health threats, and provide detailed information about what precautions citizens should take to protect themselves and their families.