After "outstanding participation" from community members, the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) completed more than a month of field activities in Warren, Ohio, as part of a hydrogen sulfide health investigation near the Warren Recycling Landfill.

Agency scientists launched the investigation June 10. The field activities were ATSDR's first step in attempting to determine if a correlation exists between hydrogen sulfide emissions from the landfill and health problems reported by people living or working nearby.

One hundred eight community members participated in ATSDR's study. "The community did an excellent job in doing what we asked of them," said ATSDR epidemiologist Preethi Rao. "For such a long-term project, we received outstanding participation."

ATSDR earlier identified the landfill as a source of hydrogen sulfide emissions. Some community members living or working near the landfill told ATSDR they experienced breathing difficulties, eye irritation, headache and fatigue.

After ATSDR issued a public health consultation classifying the Warren Recycling Landfill an "Urgent Public Health Hazard," the Ohio Department of Health asked ATSDR to conduct the health study.

Each day, some study participants wore a badge measuring the amount of hydrogen sulfide in the air around them. Some also used a breathing monitor twice daily. All participants noted in daily diaries information about their health and whether they had smelled unpleasant odors.

Five participants also allowed ATSDR to install monitors that measured hydrogen sulfide outside their homes.

Working from office space donated by Warren Township, two ATSDR scientists spent five weeks assisting study participants and monitoring hydrogen sulfide emissions.

Next, ATSDR researchers will analyze data collected during their field work. They will return to Warren in November 2004 to announce the study's results and recommendations.

At very high levels, hydrogen sulfide is a broad-spectrum poison, meaning it can poison several different systems in the body. Breathing very high levels of hydrogen sulfide can cause loss of consciousness or death within just a few breaths.

Scientists know much less about the health effects of long-term, periodic exposures to lower hydrogen sulfide levels such as those found in Warren. These exposures may result in shortness of breath, eye irritation, fatigue, loss of appetite, headaches, irritability, poor memory and dizziness.

For more information about ATSDR's hydrogen sulfide health study in Warren, community members can contact Environmental Health Scientist Lynn Wilder or Epidemiologist Preethi Rao, toll-free, at 1-888-422-8737. Regional Representative Michelle Colledge also may be contacted at 312-886-1462. Callers should refer to the Warren landfill site in Warren, Ohio.

ATSDR, a federal public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, evaluates the human health effects of exposure to hazardous substances.

Established by Congress in 1980 under the Superfund law, ATSDR conducts public health assessments at each of the sites on the EPA National Priorities List, as well as other sites when petitioned. Headquartered in Atlanta, ATSDR is staffed by more than 400 health professionals including epidemiologists, physicians, toxicologists, engineers and public health educators.