WESTSIDE/EASTSIDE STORY
By: Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program
Tags: In Utero Transmission, Heavy Metal Exposure, Superfund Site, Breastfeeding, Developmental Delays

From 1990–2000 she lived with her Mother on Revere Avenue within 0.5 miles of the radiation contaminated shoreline of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard. On that nearby shoreline is sited the campus of the US Naval Radiological Defense Laboratories. Building 815 operated as main headquarters for the NRDL from 1955 to 1969 and can be seen from the terminal end of Revere Avenue where she lived for almost a decade.

Revere Avenue at Ingalls Street is within 500 feet of the radiation contaminated southern shoreline of the Hunters Point Naval Shipyard and the Parcel E-2 landfill — federal Superfund properties.

Building 815 is the windowless iconic historical remnant of NRDL operations from 1946–1969. The six story building contained laboratories and administrative offices. The Atomic Energy Commission allowed NRDL scientists to pour effluents of radioactive waste into laboratory drains and to dump radioactive objects and irradiated animal carcasses into a 46 acre industrial landfill called Parcel E-2 on the shoreline. On a hot day in August 2000 the landfill erupted into multicolored flames and was not fully extinguished for months. An ATSDR report concluded volatile organic compounds including benzene and elevated levels of manganese were detected in air monitoring conducted over 30 days after the landfill fire erupted.

Fence line at Revere Avenue east of Ingalls Street separating the radiation contaminated Parcel E-2 shoreline and industrial landfill from residences within 500 feet according to Google maps. There are no dust barriers and the dangerous shoreline can be easily accessed by the public via breaks in the chain metal fence line at the north shore of Yosemite Slough.

In 2000 she moved to live with family on the Hunters Point hilltop overlooking the Superfund sites and in 2001 gave birth to a daughter. In 2002 she moved to Gilman Avenue south of Yosemite Slough where she lived with her first child until 2006.

Google Earth aerial view of Hunters Point Naval Shipyard southern shoreline, South Basin and Yosemite Slough. The chemical and radiation contaminated shoreline is designated Parcel E-2 and includes an industrial landfill. Gilman playground marks Gilman Avenue where our subject lived with her oldest child for four years.

US Navy Remediation Document Parcel F Feasibility Study documents extent of radiation contamination of the southern shoreline.

In 2006 she married and moved five miles west to Holloway Avenue near San Francisco State University. Three years later she and her husband welcomed a son…a small for gestational age special needs child with global disabilities and neurodevelopmental delays. At age 12, he is underweight, requires a feeding tube and relys on a rescue inhaler five times a day for poorly controlled asthma. Additionally he suffers from a spectrum of allergies and food sensitivities. He was breast fed for a year and is intolerant of dairy, nuts and gluten. A feeding jejunostomy tube was surgically installed as a result of his cachexia that was complicated by post-surgical infections.

Using the advanced EPA mapping tool EJScreen to analyze environmental indicators at the Holloway Avenue residence the major environmental impacts are determined to be proximity to traffic and lead based paint. Traffic proximity exceeds the 95th percentile for the US population south of Holloway Avenue however, hazardous waste sites and Superfund proximity are not major impacts on the cities westside.

Additionally, a unit in the apartment building where mother and child live was cited by the San Francisco Department of Public Health for health code violations due to indoor mold. Exposure to indoor mold can trigger allergies, asthma, chronic cough,colds and CNS disturbances.

In June of 2021, her 12 year old son underwent biomonitoring evaluation and urinary toxic exposure testing. The screening was remarkable in its detection of a profile of heavy metals that closely matched or exceeded the body burden of chemicals detected in his mother. Arsenic was detected in both mother and child at 30ug/g.

The radioactive metal uranium was detected in an alarming concentration five times higher than allowable for the reference population. The detection of uranium in concentrations double the concentration of the mother suggests bioaccumulation the result of prolonged exposure from breast feeding and/or intrauterine transmission.

“Although breastfeeding of infants is recommended globally, the fact that maternal toxic metal stores are mobilized into breast milk implies infants, whose mothers live or work in mining [or industrial] communities, are at risk of multiple exposures to toxic metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium and arsenic through breast milk intake, in addition to in utero exposure.” Cross-Sectional Assessment of Infants’ Exposure to Toxic Metals Through Breast Milk. Bansa et al — BMC Public Health Article number:505(2017)

Breast feeding transmits nutrients and transfers immunity from mother to offspring…and acts as a pathway of exposure to the body burden of maternal toxins. For decades medical scientists have detected traces of heavy metals in breast milk disturbing because these toxicants are being transferred to infants who lack immunity.

The use of biomonitoring in toxicological assessment of mother and offspring during lactation was studied in mice by Cai and Wang who found a reduced body weight and survival rate in breastfed offspring of mice exposed to nanoparticles of heavy metals. Exposure via the airway route led to greater tissue injury and elicited an aberrantly high immune response.

Maternal exposure to environmental toxins is one of the biggest causes of growth retardation and developmental delays in children. The Navajo Birth Cohort Study examined levels of uranium in mothers and their children by testing urine samples of newborns in the Navajo Nation. They found high uranium levels despite the fact uranium mining and processing has been banned on Navajo nation Land for over 15 years. According to Dr. Loretta Christensen, “Neurodevelopment delays were apparent on testing by ten months of age.”

[https://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2020–6-november-december/feature/uanium-widows-navajo-country]

“Among them, 26% had concentrations of uranium that exceeded levels found in the highest 5% of the U.S. population, and newborns with equally high concentrations continued to be exposed to uranium during their first year.” Loretta Christensen — Chief Medical Officer — Navajo Nation for Indian Health Service

“About a quarter of Navajo women and infants who were part of federally funded study on uranium exposure had high levels of the radioactive metal in their systems, decades after mining for Cold War weaponry ended on their reservation, a U.S. health official Monday. The early findings from the University of New Mexico study were shared during a congressional hearing in Albuquerque. Dr. Loretta Christensen — Chief Medical Officer on the Navajo Nation for Indian Health Service said 781 women were screened during an initial phase of the study that ended in 2018.” [US Official: Research finds uranium in Navajo women and babies. https://apnews.com/article/334124280ace4b36beb6b8d58c328ae3]