The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), a public health agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, today announced that an open house/public availability session will be held on Monday, April 28, in Anniston, Ala., concerning two public health consultations. The public review and comment period on the two documents is being extended through May 12, 2003.

The purpose of the public availability session is for ATSDR representatives to meet one-on-one with members of the community to discuss findings of the two health consultations: Anniston PCB Air Sampling Review and the Summary of Recent Work on Children's Blood Lead Levels. The session will be held from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. on April 28 at the Anniston Meeting Center at 1615 Noble St. Also, a one-on-one media availability session will be held from 4:30 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. No appointment is needed.

Public availability sessions are not intended to be large-scale meetings. Instead, community members are invited to drop in at any time during the session and meet one-on-one with ATSDR staff to discuss the agency's findings in the two public health consultations. Attendance is open to the public, and individual conversations with staff during the session will be confidential. No appointments are necessary.

The public review and comment period is being extended through May 12. The documents are available for review at the following nine repositories in Anniston and one in Eastaboga, Ala.:

Community Against Pollution (CAP)
Headquarters -- 1012 West 15th St.
Outreach Office - 1521 Cobb Ave.

Anniston Public Library
108 East 10th St.

Carver Library
722 West 14th St.

EPA Community Center
1313 Noble St.

First Missionary Baptist Church
1100 Pine Grove Road

Bethel Baptist Church
520 E. 6th St.

Seventeenth Street Baptist Church
801 W. 17th St.

Sweet Valley/Cobb Town
7733 Highway 78 West
Eastaboga, Ala.

Community members are encouraged to provide ATSDR with written comments, which must be received by May 12, 2003.

Mail comments to the following address:
Chief, Program Evaluation, Records and Information Services Branch
ATSDR
1600 Clifton Road, N.E., Mailstop E-60
Atlanta, GA 30333

Comments received -- without the names of those who made them -- and ATSDR's responses to the comments will be included in an appendix to the final public health consultation. Names of those who submit comments are subject to release to requests received under the Freedom of Information Act.

Community members seeking information on public availability session procedures may contact environmental health scientists Lynn Wilder and Clem Welsh, toll free, at 1-888-422-8737, 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Community Involvement Specialist PerStephanie Thompson also may be contacted at 404-498-1755, or Regional Representative Bob Safay may be called at 404-562-1782. Callers should refer to the Anniston site in Alabama.