RINGWOOD -- Notice to those hunting near Ford's toxic dump site: This year, squirrels are safe to eat, but don't add lead-laced wild carrots to the recipe.

That's the latest advice from federal and state agencies investigating potential health threats from toxic waste buried in Upper Ringwood near a residential neighborhood and in a corner of Ringwood State Park.

After startling local hunters with an official report last winter that elevated levels of lead were found in a squirrel at Ford Motor Co.'s former landfill area, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced last week that those test results were actually caused by a lab problem.

The EPA issued a press release stating that the problem was caused by a defective blender. But adding to confusion on the wildlife tests, the federal agency also posted on its Web site a detailed April report from its lab consultants describing how they found the same defect in three blenders, which led to discarding five of 73 wildlife samples.

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"Are we safe with eating squirrels?" asked Roger DeGroat, who lives across Peters Mine Road from the area where the wildlife was tested. "I'd like to have a definitive answer."

If you need squirrel meat that badly to risk consuming toxic waste, you must really like to eat squirrel.