Tag: Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program

The indomitable Dr. Ahimsa Porter Simchai continues to expose the deadly injustices, today in the form of Strontium-90, threatening residents around the Hunters Point Shipyard Federal Superfund site.

In the protracted work of Dr. Ahimsa Sumchai to research, educate and eradicate the harms of the deadly dumping of killer contaminants at Hunters Point Naval Shipyard, Sumchai exposes the additional history of animal radiation experiments compounding the suffering.

The once-pristine Yosemite Slough is not lost and justly not forgotten as Yvonne Fong of the EPA and community involvement coordinator Jackie Lane announce plans to advance remediation and restoration.

Absence a response by the local health officer or designee moves Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai to declare a Local Health Emergency under Section 101080 of the California Health and Safety Code at Naval Stations Hunters Point and Treasure Island.

When a comrade is impassioned, dedicated and committed we notice, and as humans, recognizing the gifts of one that permeate and uplift our community, the desire to bestow acknowledgement and honor is undeniable. Accepting the UCSF School of Medicine Alumni of the Year Award 2021, Ahimsa Porter Sumchai, shares her gratitude for and experiences with those who supported her journey.

The injustice continues with Ahimsa Porter Sumchai’s ongoing exposure of the relentless suffering and death attacking the residents of Bayview Hunters Point – the result of the U.S. Navy’s poisoning the land with no cleanup or accountability, handing it off to profiteering developers, years of government and corporate corruption and greed, and crimes against humanity, culminating in three federal Superfund sites now confirmed.

Environmental justice is inseparable from racial justice, as expertly shared by Ahimsa Porter Sumchai about sometimes deadly impacts disproportionately affecting Black, Brown and other people of color resulting from unregulated energy players and what is necessary to keep people safe – and who is being brought into policy-making to do what is necessary.

A perception shift is emerging due to deliberate indifference perpetrated upon citizens by those in power, which this country has witnessed in the criminal behavior in the Flint Michigan Water Crisis. Whereas ignorance and propaganda by those in power convinced citizens that those behind bars are “the worst of the worst,” we are learning that this narrative has been a tactic to distract and the truth is that the “worst of the worst” are more frequently those we entrust to protect our health and wellbeing.

We will fight this attempted toxic genocide! So say Bayview Hunters Point residents, once again, clearly stating they will not accept the radiated, toxic grounds of their community, bearing the pain of years of deliberate indifference, lies, deceits and government and corporate shenanigans resulting in egregious harm and suffering to families’ lives.

Endlessly bombarded by the triple slam of the capitalist corporate installed food desert, poverty and government refusal to take responsibility for the toxic remains of the Hunters Point Navy Shipyard wedded to developer greed and other shenanigans, Bayview Hunters Point community continues to take the steps necessary to claim a healthy environment.

The ongoing reveal of the life-threatening contaminants plaguing the residents of the Bayview Hunters Point community was further enhanced by a recent virtual tour by Dr. Ahimsa Porter Sumchai and Dr. Mark Alexander imparting first-hand knowledge to attendees, including first-year UCSF medical students. Information focused on the toxic elements adding weight to the body burden as revealed by the biomonitoring program testing being done within the community.

“On Sunday, the 15th of July, about noon, we were at Hunters Point and they put upon us what we now know was the atomic bomb.” – Capt. Charles McVay III, US Navy Commanding Officer, USS Indianapolis (Operational Archives Branch, Naval Historical Center)

“Our power comes from the fact that we create the wealth. Wealth is power; we have the ability to withhold that power.” – Boots Riley, filmmaker and activist, Juneteenth 2020 ILWU shutdown Port of Oakland

A letter was sent to the team of UCSF-USB scientists reviewing retesting procedures for Hunters Point Shipyard Parcels A and G, via Ms. Laura Kurtzman, the designated contact person.

There has been no independent community-wide human biomonitoring program implemented in the United States designed to screen residents living adjacent to a federal Superfund site for toxic chemicals and radionuclides … until HP Biomonitoring! The new clinic, at 5021 Third St., next to the library, will be open soon.

The medical necessity for the Hunters Point Community Biomonitoring Program for residents living within a one mile radius of the federal Superfund site at the Hunters Point Shipyard is met by understanding the scope of contamination of this property placed on the National Priorities List in 1989 and assigned Hazard Ranking Scores of 80-100 percent based on risk of exposure, number of toxins and proximity to sensitive receptors, including over 20 schools and daycare centers, vulnerable neighborhoods and San Francisco Bay.

Driving the environmental health movement in southeast San Francisco is a clear sense of urgency and duty to protect current and future generations from an avalanche of toxic chemicals linked to cardiopulmonary diseases, cancers, neurological and immune diseases, behavioral disorders, birth defects and infant mortality rates. The investigative team included myself and pioneering community scientist Raymond Tompkins. Offering academic leadership were San Francisco State University chemistry professor Dr. Peter Palmer and UCSF School of Medicine Clinical Professor of Pediatrics Carol Miller, MD. Dr. Kim Hooper of the State of California Toxic Laboratories assisted in submission of the proposal.