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MINUTES ORANGE COUNTY BOARD OF HEALTH May 24, 2006 Board of Health Minutes Transcription completed by Anne Miles Cassell 6 May 24, 2006 on proper animal care without endorsing the use of animals for education. Motion to write a joint letter with the Animal Services Board to the school boards offering assistance in developing guidelines for visiting and residential animals was made by Moses Carey, Jr., and seconded by Alice White, and carried without dissent. C. Mill Creek Road Studies Final Report Rosemary Summers reported that in the summer of 2005, environmental health staff was approached by two residents of the Mill Creek Road area with concerns about their water and the water in their neighborhood and the perception of a high incidence of cancer in their neighborhood. The Board of Commissioners authorized the Health Department to undertake a special water study and to gather data on frequency and type of cancer experienced in the neighborhood. The study design included 133 homes and consisted of two separate and distinct parts: 1) total suite of water samples for each household that completed an application and 2) a telephone survey to discover the incidence and type of cancers. The NC Cancer Registry also completed a cancer cluster assessment. The final report was completed in early May 2006 and presented to the community on May 15. Dr. Summers thanked the Board of Commissioners for their financial support of this study, and key team members, Ron Holdway, Candice Watkins-Robinson, Tom Konsler, and Donna King, for their leadership, perseverance, and creativity in eliciting a maximum sample size from the study area and for their professional and scientific approach to the study. Mr. and Mrs. Holloway, Mill Creek community members, also deserve special recognition for their persistence in securing the applications and cooperation from community members in the study area. She presented a power point presentation that outlined the process followed and the results of the study. Matt Vizithum inquired whether the cancer statistics were a result of self-report and/or confirmed by medical records. Dr. Summers replied that all information was self-report by community members but correlates closely with the statistics reported by the NC Cancer Registry. The end result of the study showed no long-term health risks were identified, ground water appears untainted by contaminants, no unusual geology soils or terrains that would affect water quality, and the water quality issues that were found were largely aesthetic and are of continuing concern to the community. Environmental Health staff are working with a few remaining households to further diagnose their particular well problems. Alice White suggested adding a slide to the PowerPoint presentation immediately before the final slide repeating the findings regarding cancer and Tim Carey agreed. Dr. Carey will also forward an article on arsenic and skin cancer to the staff. This report has also been sent to the Board of Commissioners and will be scheduled for a presentation at a future meeting.