Note for Correspondents: Representatives from ATSDR will be available to meet with members of the news media from 4:30 until 5:15 on March 4 at the Burrillville High School Auditorium, located at 425 East Avenue in Harrisville.

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 meeting on March 4, and two public availability sessions on March 5, 2002, in Harrisville, Rhode Island, to discuss the agency's work related to water contaminated with Methyl tert-Butyl Ether (MTBE) in the Pascoag Utility District in the latter half of 2001.

Where & When:

*Public availability sessions are not intended to be large-scale public meetings. Instead, members of the public are invited to drop in at any time during the session to talk one-on-one with representatives from the agencies about their health concerns related to the site. While the session is open to the public, individual conversations with agency representatives are private.

Background: Residents of the area became aware of the MTBE because of an objectionable odor in their drinking water. They expressed their health concerns to Senator Jack Reed, who petitioned ATSDR to look at whether MTBE in the drinking water represented a health risk.

ATSDR is a public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ATSDR's mission is to prevent exposure and adverse human health effects and diminished quality of life associated with exposure to hazardous substances from waste sites, unplanned releases, and other sources of pollution present in the environment.

Public health assessments report information about hazardous substances in the environment and evaluate whether exposure to those substances in the past, present or future could harm people in the area. They also identify other activities that might be needed to better understand the health effects associated with the site. Public health assessments also make recommendations to other government agencies, such as the EPA and state and local health and environmental departments, concerning actions to protect public health.

In preparing public health assessments, ATSDR health assessors rely on various sources of information. These sources may include: environmental data, health data and reports of community concerns. Environmental data detail the chemicals at a site and indicate their potential pathways to reach humans. Health data can include reports of injury, disease, or death in the community, as well as information on the known health effects of chemicals at the site. Reports of community concerns document the public's descriptions of how the site affects their health and quality of life.

For More Information: For more information, members of the communities can contact ATSDR Environmental Health Scientist Danielle DeVoney, toll free, at 1-888-42-ATSDR (1-888-422-8737). Please refer to the "Pascoag Utility District site" when calling the toll free number. ATSDR Senior Regional Representative Bill Sweet is also available to answer questions at (617) 918-1495 in Boston.

Additional information on the health effects of MTBE can be found in the ToxFAQs section on the ATSDR web site at: http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov