Did toxic waste pollute the minds of Columbine High?

0 Comments | Insight on the News, June 21, 1999 | by Catherine Edwards, | Eli Lehrer, | Jennifer G. Hickey

In the wake of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colo., politicians have made much of the idea that "cultural pollution" is a root cause of teenage mayhem. But could other types of pollution be playing a role? The Colorado county in which Columbine High is located has a concentration of toxic-waste sites that one Environmental Protection Agency, or EPA, official calls "quite high." But while EPA officials are insistent there are no causative links between the sites and anything that happened at the school, some environmental groups are more skeptical.

Jefferson County, Colo., which contains the school but not the city of Littleton, has five toxic-waste sites including the infamous Rocky Flats nuclear site. Three other sites, including a contaminated former Air Force launch pad, send contaminants into groundwater.

"It's highly unlikely to impossible that any sort of environmental contaminant would have caused what those boys did," EPA spokeswoman Sonya Pennock tells news alert! "Epidemiological thinking indicates that you just can't trace anything as complex as behavior to one or two sources."

None of the contaminants found in the area are known to cause dementia.

But for some extreme environmental groups EPA's assurance "isn't enough." Although an extensive Colorado study determined that the Rocky Flats site didn't pose any immediate risks to humans, the group Stand for Truth About Radiation is protesting against the site.