Experts at odds on Katrina effect - The Clarion-Ledger

Experts at odds on Katrina effect - The Clarion-Ledger: "A year after the storm, debate over Katrina's environmental and health impacts still rages.

The Environmental Protection Agency and state environmental agencies say it's safe for storm victims to return home.

'We don't see anything there that possesses a long-term health threat,' said Sam Coleman, a senior EPA official in Dallas.

But environmentalists and some scientists say Katrina's unprecedented 25-foot surge spread dangerous sediment - especially arsenic, lead and benzo(a)pyrene, a carcinogen - from the Mississippi River and other bodies of water and caused chemical and oil spills that have poisoned the region.

Wilma Subra, a chemist with an environmental consulting firm in New Iberia, La., says state and federal health officials are dismissing symptoms - like skin rashes and antibiotic-resistant infections - that she says are caused by toxins like arsenic.

'They're in denial - overwhelmingly,' Subra said. 'Because it would cost too much money to address the problem.'

Subra says Katrina may leave a legacy of miscarriages, birth defects and cancer that won't be revealed right away."