Participants in manganese study chosen

The head of a study aimed at determining the effects of manganese in the air on local residents' health says the 100 people needed for the study have signed up.

"We are grateful for the many responses we have received in the last week," Dr. Rosemarie Bowler of San Francisco State University said in a news release on Wednesday.

"Although we will call a few alternates if someone cannot meet their appointment, we clearly will not be able to accommodate all the generous volunteers who wanted to participate," she said. "But we want residents to know this is a true epidemiologic study, and participants were selected at random from within the city boundaries, which means the results should apply to all residents of Marietta, even those who were unable to participate."

The federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) had recommended the health study after completing a year-long air investigation in the Mid-Ohio Valley to determine levels of manganese emitted from the Eramet plant south of Marietta on Ohio 7.

Manganese is an essential nutrient needed in the human body, but studies have found that in high doses it can cause movement disorders and neurological damage in children.

Eramet officials are cooperating in the study.

"We support any scientific study that has to do with any products manufactured in our facility, and we will cooperate with Dr. Bowler and her staff on this study as we always have," said Joy Frank-Collins, spokeswoman for Eramet Marietta.

Bowler reminded participants to attend their appointments at the Lafayette Hotel on Front Street where testing will take place from Aug. 16 to 19.

Funded through a grant from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the study, the first of its kind, is expected to be completed by late 2010 or early 2011, after which Bowler's team will return to Marietta with feedback from any findings.