Today health officials have made a truly incoherent statement regarding UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station and Campus Bay: the sites are safe for current residents but are not safe to build homes on. What!?

The report linked exposure to hazardous compounds in the cesspool, I mean area, with several minor ailments like impaired neurological developments and cancer, which should definitely leave residents breathing easier.

A Berkeley Daily Planet article said:

While state and county health officials said a chemically contaminated site in southeast Richmond poses no dangers to their current users, concerns remain about past users and those to come.

They also acknowledge that their findings don’t include the possible interactions between the more than 100 toxic metals and chemicals found at the site.

Ethel Dotson, who initiated the Community Advisory Group [CAG] now advising the state about cleanups at Campus Bay and UC Berkeley’s Richmond Field Station, died Nov. 1 in the firm conviction her cancer was caused by exposure during her childhood…

Dr. Michael Esposito, a retired UC Berkeley scientist who chairs the CAG’s toxics committee, cited the interactions “between certain pesticides and herbicides and Tagamet,” a prescription medication commonly prescribed for ulcers. Esposito said the interaction leads to a thousand-fold increased in the probability of strokes.

With well over a hundred different metals, pesticides, herbicides, PCBs, volaatile organic compounds and solvents found on the site, Esposito said, “at some point common sense will tell you that their interactions are multiplicative.”

The standards used by the survey don’t consider possible synergistic effects, and only add one set of individual risks to another when considering interactions.

So if you’re looking for a great spring break spot, consider the possibility of swimming in Campus Bay. It’s so contaminated, the water can make you trip. That’s the only explanation I can come up with for the convoluted statements made by the health officials.