Public Health Assessment for Aircraft Components (Michigan Radiologic) (a/k/a Dand L Sales) Benton Harbor, Berrien County, Michigan, Region 5. CERClIS No. M10001119106 and H and K Sales (Michigan Radiologic) (a/k/a D and L Sales), Belding, Ionia County, M

摘要

The Michigan Sites of Radium Dial Contamination addressed in this assessmentcomprise three widely-separated though related locations, two of which are on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) National Priorities List (NPL). Aircraft Components, Inc. of Benton Harbor, Michigan, dealt in second-hand aircraft instruments, including many that had dials painted with radium-containing luminous paint, originally acquired as surplus after World War II. Aircraft Components, Inc. had contracted for instrument repair and calibration services to a private individual who performed the work in a workshop in the basement of his home near Bear Lake, Michigan. The house was eventually demolished, and the structure, contaminated soil, and other contaminated material from the property and an adjacent property were disposed of in an off-site facility. The Benton Harbor and Belding warehouses pose a potential public health hazard from the radioactivity present in and around them. The Bear Lake house posed an urgent public health hazard, though the demolition and removal have since eliminated the hazard. Contaminated soil from the Benton Harbor warehouse property may have washed into the Paw Paw River, which flows by the site. Should either of the two warehouses catch fire, radioactive material may spread to neighboring areas through fly ash.