Representatives from ATSDR will be available to meet with members of the news media from 4:30 p.m. until 5:30 p.m. on December 10 at the Clark County Community Building in Dubois.

What: The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will hold a public availability session in Dubois, Idaho, to provide area residents an opportunity to discuss their health concerns related to the Idaho National Engineering & Environmental Laboratory (INEEL).

ATSDR wants to talk with residents about their health concerns related to the site as part of the agency's efforts to prepare a public health assessment.

Where & When: The public availability session is set for December 10, 2001, between 6:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m., at the Clark County Community Building, 260 North Clark Street, Dubois.

Public availability sessions are not intended to be large-scale meetings. Instead, community members may drop in any time and meet one-on-one with ATSDR staff to discuss health and site concerns. Attendance is open to the public, although individual conversations with ATSDR staff will be confidential.

Background: INEEL is on the upper Snake River Plain in southeastern Idaho. Its 890 square miles spans Butte, Bingham, Bonneville, Clark, and Jefferson counties. Past site activities resulted in contamination of areas with non-radioactive and radioactive materials. As a result, the site was added to the Environmental Protection Agency's National Priorities List (making it a Superfund site) on November 21, 1989.

Under the Superfund laws, ATSDR is required to assess each EPA Superfund site to determine whether contaminants from the site are reaching people in the area, and if those contaminants are likely to harm the health of residents. In preparing its public health assessment, ATSDR evaluates environmental data, health outcome data, and reports of community health concerns.

For more information about the meeting or about ATSDR activities in the area, residents can call ATSDR Community Involvement Specialist Dawn O'Connor, toll free, at 1-888-422-873. Callers should refer to the "Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory" site.