But levels may not pose health risk, experts say

By Monica Eng, Chicago Tribune

Just in time for cookout season, some unsettling news arrives for guacamole and salsa lovers: Federal testing turned up a wide array of unapproved pesticides on the herb cilantro — to an extent that surprises and concerns government scientists.

At least 34 unapproved pesticides showed up on cilantro samples analyzed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture as part of the agency’s routine testing of a rotating selection of produce. Cilantro was the first fresh herb to be tested in the 20-year-old program.

“We are not really sure why the cilantro came up with these residues,” said Chris Pappas, a chemist who oversees the Virginia-based USDA pesticide testing. Researchers suspect growers may have confused guidelines for cilantro and flat-leaf parsley, for which more pesticides are approved.

In all, 94 percent of the 184 cilantro samples tested in 2009 came up positive for at least one pesticide, according to an annual Pesticide Data Program report posted online last week.

Chris Campbell, a pesticide analyst for the Environmental Working Group, an advocacy organization, said data show that 44 percent of cilantro samples had residues of at least one pesticide not approved for use on that crop — “higher than I have ever seen” in nearly a decade of analyzing the USDA’s pesticide reports.

By comparison, only about 5 percent of spinach samples and 2 percent of apples had at least one pesticide that violated federal rules, according to Campbell’s calculations.

The news comes as a one-two punch to cilantro growers and distributors, who in March were hit with a rare “guidance letter” from the Food and Drug Administration citing 28 positive salmonella findings in cilantro since 2004 and warning the industry to “take action to enhance” cilantro safety. This is only the fourth such letter the agency has issued since 2005, according to FDA officials.

Samir Assar, director of produce safety at the FDA, advised consumers with compromised immune systems to consider the salmonella findings when choosing their food. He noted that cooking and thorough washing can reduce, but not necessarily eliminate, the risk from disease-causing bacteria.

Washing did not remove the unapproved pesticides found on cilantro samples tested by USDA.

The cilantro results have captured the attention of both regulators and industry leaders, who said they would take action in response.

“I can assure you that some of these will be followed up,” said Ronald Roy, a food safety specialist at the FDA. “When we have a clustering of non-permitted residues around a certain (crop) or with a certain grower, then we investigate to find the cause and correct the specific problem so that it doesn’t continue.”

“It’s something we need to look into,” said Kathy Means, vice president of the Produce Marketing Association, a major industry group. “We need to determine: Why this year, why this crop? What’s going on? … There aren’t that many cilantro suppliers. And so if you have a problem with one supplier, percentage-wise (contamination) may be higher.”

Means said that in the wake of the FDA’s salmonella letter, the industry had been working on “safety protocols for cilantro” and strategies “to be more careful with cilantro in the future.”

Of the samples tested, about 81 percent were grown in the U.S. and 17 percent were imported, with the rest of unknown origin.

Regulatory officials caution that unapproved pesticides on cilantro may not always represent a health threat. Many pesticides not approved for cilantro are OK for use on other plants at certain levels, and regulatory officials recommended taking those levels into consideration when assessing the health threat posed by pesticide residues.

Most levels of the unapproved pesticides found on cilantro did not exceed average limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for other crops, the Tribune found. But the fungicide quintozene was found at levels as high as 0.3 parts per million, above the limit of 0.1 ppm set for foods such as tomato paste, and the insecticide diazanon was found at levels as high as 1 ppm, when the limits for other foods on this year’s USDA list range from 0.1 to 0.75 ppm.

One insecticide found on 37 percent of the cilantro samples, the organophosphate chlorpyrifros, is approved for cilantro but, in at least one case, was three times higher than the EPA’s established limit for the herb.

The USDA’s pesticide program usually tests fewer than 20 fresh fruits and vegetables a year from a rotating lineup of produce items. Tested this year were apples, asparagus, cilantro, cucumbers, grapes, green onions, organic lettuce, oranges, pears, potatoes, spinach, strawberries, corn and sweet potatoes — with the vast majority of tests showing no violations of federal rules.

In terms of unapproved pesticide residues, cilantro was the outlier of the group, with at least 34 of 43 pesticide residues not allowed for use on the herb. The next greatest number of non-permissible pesticides were found on cucumbers, with 17.

Azoxystrobin and captan are legal for use on potatoes but were found 16 times at levels that exceeded federal limits, the most such detections in this round of testing. Next on the list for excessive amounts of legal pesticides were imported asparagus and domestic spinach.

Scientists, industry representatives and regulators interviewed for this story say the cilantro test results should be addressed but also note that most Americans — and especially American kids — don’t eat piles of cilantro at a sitting.

* Related
* Chart Graphic: Graphic: 11 foods testing positive for pesticides
* Produce industry seeks to soothe fears on pesticides Story: Produce industry seeks to soothe fears on pesticides
* Prenatal pesticide exposure linked with lower IQ Story: Prenatal pesticide exposure linked with lower IQ
* With no labeling, few realize they are eating genetically modified foods Story: With no labeling, few realize they are eating genetically modified foods

“We would not pooh-pooh these violations,” said Roy, of the FDA. “They all constitute adulterated food. But we are also talking about a relatively minor food. … We have to be risk-based and apply our main resources to foods consumed most often by infants and children — and those are your major fresh fruits and vegetables.”

Still, Means said cilantro growers recognize the importance of addressing the potential safety issues.

“Cilantro is a very important herb in a lot of cuisines, and it’s delicious, and I happen to love it,” she said. “So we don’t want people thinking that there is anything wrong with cilantro. We need to be sure our food safety protocols are up to snuff and listen to FDA and see what it suggests.”

The EPA is concerned by the number of unregistered pesticides found on the crop but believes the small amount of cilantro consumed, paired with relatively low levels of residue, make it unlikely to “present a big risk,” said David Miller, chief of the Chemistry and Exposure Branch in the agency’s Health Effects Division.

Some medical experts, however, are increasingly concerned about even low-level exposure to pesticides, especially in utero.

“The story of pesticides in food is part of a larger story of our growing knowledge of the exquisite vulnerability of the developing human brain to pesticides and other toxic chemicals,” said Dr. Phillip Landrigan, director of the Children’s Environmental Health Center at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. Along with colleagues, he has been researching the effects of chlorpyrifros on humans.

Serving a diet rich in fruits and vegetables remains the healthiest course of action for parents, said Bill Jordan, senior policy adviser to the director of the EPA’s pesticide programs.

Jordan suggests thorough washing and peeling to remove some of the surface pesticides on fruits and vegetables like apples, oranges and cucumbers.

“And if people are very, very concerned,” he said, “then choosing foods that are grown organically is another option.”

Of the six samples of organic cilantro tested by the USDA, only one was found to carry residues of an unapproved pesticide other than the chemical descendants of DDT, which was banned years ago but persists in the environment.

Pappas, of the USDA, advised consumers who are still worried to follow his lead and plant their own.

“I grow cilantro on my deck,” he said. “There is less waste because I only take as much as I need, which is only a little at a time, and it’s always fresh. If someone is really concerned, they can do that too.”

meng@tribune.com

Chicago Tribune

By James Ridgway Jr
The Courier of Montgomery County

Two county water systems contaminated with radiation

Houston, TX–Two public drinking water systems in Montgomery County have been reported as being contaminated with radiation.

Long-term exposure to the radionuclide contaminants within the water has been linked to an increased risk of cancer, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

The Hulon Lakes Subdivision and Vista Verde Water Systems, both near Lake Conroe, have exceeded the Maximum Contaminate Levels (MCL) as regulated by the EPA.

Dr. Alicia Diehl, drinking water quality team leader with the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality, said radionuclide contamination in drinking water occurs naturally.

“(Radiation) comes from all around, the sky, from the surrounding geology. Even if someone avoided drinking any water at all, all of us are exposed to radiation every year from natural sources,” Dr. Diehl said.

Elston Johnson, TCEQ manager of the public drinking water section, said in addition to radiation occurring naturally, the radiation levels present in aquifers fluctuates.

“The levels can vary from year to year, season to season, decade to decade. That’s the problem with monitoring radioactivity; a lot of factors play into it.”

However, even with fluctuating levels of radiation, Hulon Lakes and Vista Verde Water Systems have been cited multiple years in a row for exceeding maximum contaminate levels.

Janice Hayes, communications manager with the managing company overseeing Hulon Lakes public water, SouthWest Water Company, said they have only received one call regarding the radionuclide contamination as of their last quarterly notice.

“Currently, the one well that is creating the violation is off-line and the pump station associated with this well is isolated from the distribution system. Because the Gross Alpha levels are lower in the other wells, we have created an in-tank blending system which should result in lower levels of Gross Alpha. We will continue to test, monitor and make adjustments as needed,” Hayes said.

The owner/operator of the Vista Verde Water System declined comment.

Dr. Diehl said the maximum contaminate levels established by the EPA for radiochemicals are extremely protective of public health—“They are based on what would happen if someone drank about a half-gallon of (public) water, every day, for 70 years.”

Water analysts test for two primary radionuclide contaminates initially, Dr. Diehl said, adjusted gross alpha radiation and combined radium-226/228. The MCL for the former is 15 picoCurie/liter (pCi/l), and the latter 5 pCi/l. Public drinking water exceeding these MCLs has been connected to increased risk of cancer.

Dr. Diehl said, in the past, the EPA had considered radionuclide levels posing an unreasonable risk to public health to be twice the MCL. However, these levels did not necessarily consider all the potential factors, she said.

“The jury is still out on this particular concern,” she said.

While residents on a public drinking water system are protected by EPA regulations, Johnson said residents on private wells are on their own.

“Unfortunately for private well owners, private wells are not regulated. They have to do the same type of analysis that the public drinking water systems do,” Johnson said. “And there’s no quick field test that can really achieve the results a lab test yields.”

Across Texas, the public water systems contaminated with radionuclides frequently show up in clusters. Dr. Diehl said these clusters are a sign of geological similarities.

Although there is no public data reporting radionuclide levels on private wells in Montgomery County, Dr. Diehl said it is possible that private wells near the same vicinity of the contaminated public water systems may show increased radionuclide levels.

“When we talk to private citizens about these concerns, basically what we try to do is find out their level of risk aversion,” Dr. Diehl said. “Take a family with kids on a private well. They might have a real concern. But we don’t have the authority to tell them to do anything. I would ask what are they most concerned about. They would probably say ‘we are concerned about our kids drinking this water.’ Then we could talk about treatment options that they could use just to ensure that they had drinking water that met their own standard.”

More information on radionuclide contamination can be found under the water section of the TCEQ’s website found at www.tceq. state.tx.us. Specific details on individuals community water systems can also be searched on the TCEQ site.

The Courier

The National Disease Cluster Alliance (NDCA) is looking for passionate cluster advocates to join them in their efforts by sitting on one of its four committees—Executive and Organizational Development, Alliance/Direct Response, Science and Policy, or the Fund Development. Below is more information about each of the committees and some of the exciting initiatives they’re working on.

If you’re interested in becoming more engaged in the work of NDCA, please send an email to Anna Dillingham, (annie_dillingham at yahoo.com), with the following: 1.) your name and contact information; 2.) a couple of lines about your background; and 3.) which committee you’d like to join and why.

We hope you will join us!

Sincerely,

Anna Dillingham

NDCA Board Secretary

The Executive and Organizational Development Committee: is responsible for providing strategic and tactical advice, for reviewing and evaluating the performance, salary and compensation of executives, to advise, develop and grow strategic alliances with like-minded organizations, to develop and build bridges between NDCA, governmental agencies, impacted Communities and others who share our vision of prevention of disease and empowerment of communities. The Executive Committee is responsible for developing and cultivating strategic partnerships with elected officials, their staff and governmental agencies.

The Alliance/Direct Response Committee: is responsible for building our alliance, creating partnerships with non-government organizations, and community groups and members. This committee is responsible for documenting known clusters and community concerns. It also seeks to empower community advocates to aid themselves by developing and providing access to a variety of training materials and resources, such as fact sheets, videos, online tools and videos. Depending on the availability of funding, this committee will build on our “Each One Teach One” mentorship program, offer leadership training, and organize an annual disease cluster conference. We are committed to using cutting edge technology to reach out to all people young and old who are affected by or concerned about disease clusters.

The Science and Policy Committee: is responsible for advising the Board of Directors on methods, processes, and protocols by which NDCA may best serve impacted communities, by reviewing and advising on scientific methods, processes and protocols which may be suggested by governmental agencies, allied organizations, impacted communities or others. The Science and Policy Committee is responsible for the development and deployment of forward-looking, science-based initiatives by which to best serve impacted communities and by which to achieve the vision and goals of NDCA.  This committee supports legislative efforts aimed at protecting communities from environmental threats such as “Strengthening Protections for Children and Communities from Disease Clusters Act,” also know as “Trevor’s Law,” introduced by Senators Boxer and Crapo earlier this year.

Fund Development Committee: is responsible for identifying and reaching out to foundations, organizations, charitable institutions, groups or individuals who share our vision and goals, who are interested in partnering with us in our work, and who are willing to award grants, stipends, honoraria or funding by which NDCA may establish itself as a functioning, self-sustaining national organization.

NDCA founding member Floyd Sands, age 56, passed away May 29, 2009 after battling brain cancer. Floyd Sands has been a powerful voice about the need for intervention in the Fallon, Nevada childhood leukemia cluster and the need for a better nationwide response to cancer clusters and the children’s health crisis.
Fallon suffered a leukemia cluster so dramatic the odds of it being due to chance alone were calculated to be 1 in 232 million by state and University of California epidemiologists. Floyd was President of Families In Search of Truth (FIST).

Here is Floyd in his own words, about Fallon and his daughter Stephanie:

STEPHANIE’S STORY
My daughter Stephanie Suzanne Sands was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocyte Leukemia- T cell in mid-July 1999. I would later learn that Stephanie’s was the 2nd case diagnosed as attributable to the Fallon, Nevada childhood leukemia cluster.

Stephanie Sands in 2008, shortly before diagnosis

Stephanie Sands in 2008, just before diagnosis

In early June 2001 I again found myself traveling to the University of Pennsylvania Medical Center at Philadelphia to spend the day with Steph; she had undergone an UCB stem cell transplant there on 23 MAY 2001. Although the transplant had gone very well with engraftment beginning soon after the procedure, Steph remained hospitalized. During my drive to Philadelphia I struggled to find the words that I had to speak to Stephanie that morning that young Adam Jernee of Fallon who also battled ALL T-cell, had died the previous day in a hospital in Southern California. Stephanie and I spent perhaps our first hour together that morning in idle chitchat and with Steph good naturedly complaining about hospital food and that sort of thing. She complained bitterly of how badly she missed her son. She could tell that something was bothering me and I could not delay the inevitable any longer. There are no good words by which to deliver bad news and as gently as I could I told Steph of Adam’s passing. Stephanie turned away in silence and remained sullen and detached for what seemed like an eternity. After a while Steph turned back to me and asked me how old Adam was; I told her that Adam was 9 years old. Steph’s eyes filled with tears and slowly those tears were replaced with anger.

STEPHANIE’S PLEA
“Daddy, they’re just little kids. They didn’t do anything wrong……Why won’t those bastards help us?”.

Adam Jernee, died April 2001. Richard Jernee with a photograph of his son Adam.

THE FALLON, NEVADA CHILDHOOD LEUKEMIA CLUSTER
By her own words Stephanie planted the seeds of my activism that June day; her death lit a fire within me.

The Fallon, Nevada childhood leukemia cluster is the most aggressive attack of cancer in medical history worldwide, in terms of time/spatial clustering. The official investigation into the Fallon leukemia cluster recognizes 17 cases of childhood leukemia. In Truth, there are no less than 25 children who have been cut down by Fallon leukemia over the course of several years; no less that 5 of our young warriors have died. The Fallon, Nevada childhood leukemia cluster was identified and exposed, not by the Nevada Cancer Registry or by the Nevada State Health Division, but by the parents of Fallon children undergoing treatment for leukemia at Oakland, CA Children’s Hospital when they literally ran into each other there. Richard Jernee would later tell me that after encountering several other Fallon parents there in Oakland that “What the hell?” Became the word-of-the-day among Fallon parents who found themselves thrown together several hundred miles from home.

The Fallon, Nevada childhood leukemia cluster soon hit the Public consciousness and the glare of national media attention forced CDC- the Centers for Disease Control to launch it’s first cancer cluster study in more than 20 years. CDC and the Nevada State Health Division publicly predicted that their work would fail and several years later gloated in their failure as they closed their Fallon investigation. As with all of CDCs previous cancer cluster investigations, their Fallon study was doomed to be Inconclusive by Design from the very outset. I know of no other individuals, agencies or businesses which claim to achieve success through failure, yet this is CDC’s stock in trade.

CDC’s Fallon childhood leukemia cluster study is it’s 109th consecutive failure at cancer cluster study. If CDC were a horse, it would have been put down decades ago.
Stephanie Suzanne Sands died in my arms on 1 SEP 2001 at the age of 21.

She left behind an adoring 3 year old son, Ewan Mikel Sands, and a heartbroken family.

DO SOMETHING, DO ANYTHING

In the months following Stephanie’s death I continued to receive many reports and rumors of rare cancers striking my friends and former neighbors living in Fallon, Nevada. For months I heard stories of young Fallon boys diagnosed with a rare testicular cancer; other stories came to me of Fallon children diagnosed with brain cancer. The media accounts of yet more Fallon children being diagnosed with leukemia continued.

In AUG2002 along with another Fallon leukemia family I appeared on the Phil Donahue Show live on MSNBC. A representative of the Nevada State Health Division appeared via satellite; he had refused MSNBC’s request to appear in person and at no cost to the State of Nevada. Privately this Nevada State Health Division mouthpiece had confided to Donahue’s senior producer that he could not face the Fallon families in public. On air the then Nevada State Epidemiologist, when pressed to explain why it had taken him and the Nevada State Health Division well over two years to begin an examination of the cases of the Fallon childhood leukemia children, mumbled and stammered “Well……well we had to make sure that our equipment and test tubes were clean.”.

In SEP2002 after consulting with friends and researchers I decided to conduct a volunteer health survey of Fallon, Nevada. In my 20’s and early 30’s I was involved in PA politics at the county and state level. Through my successes with grass roots political campaigns I was known as the “go to guy” for all things involving long shot door-to-door campaigning. It was from those successes that I gathered the audacity to tackle Fallon.

In the PR build up to the health survey the local media in Nevada dubbed my project “Stephanie’s Walk- the Fallon, Nevada volunteer health survey”. The Nevada State Health Division groused and ridiculed my project; it would not take long to discover why they reacted so.

The evening before I traveled to Fallon to do the health survey in OCT2002 my phone rang. Calling was Dee Lewis of Calvine-Florin, CA; a reporter with the Associated Press had given Dee my contact information and told her of my Fallon plans. Dee and her CRI associates would conduct their own volunteer health survey of Calvine-Florin residents the weekend before I started Stephanie’s Walk in Fallon that following Monday.

Early that first Wednesday afternoon of Stephanie’s Walk, Dee Lewis and an associate walked into the war room at my hotel in Fallon. Dee was exhausted, yet she made the effort to travel to Fallon from her home in CA to support me and my health survey. That previous weekend Dee and her CRI associates had canvassed 8,000 homes and 25,000 residents of Calvine-Florin, CA. I was in the middle of canvassing 3,000 homes and 7,600 residents in Fallon. As tired as she was Dee insisted in taking a packet and doing some ground pounding for me, she would not take “No” for an answer. Dee is like that! Several hours later, Dee and her friend returned to the war room after covering their assigned territory. Weeks later as I wrapped up the hard verification process of illnesses reported, one of Dee’s reports turned out to be the “trophy report” of all those cases reported to and verified by Stephanie’s Walk.

OTHER COMMUNITIES, SAME STORY

In 2002 Dee Lewis and community activists in Calvine-Florin, CA became alarmed at the excesses of cancers, many of them rare cancers, among their neighbors. The CA activists were rebuffed and derided by governmental agencies as they presented their concerns.

Also in 2002 Terry Nordbrock of Tucson, AZ began mentoring and supporting many parents in Sierra Vista, AZ whose children had been diagnosed with leukemia. The Arizona Department of Health used every trick in the book to keep the Sierra Vista case count below “statistically significant” levels in order to avoid conducting a cancer cluster study there. AZ DOH went so far as to hand off one of the Sierra Vista cases to the Nevada State Health Division for inclusion into the Fallon “study”.

Advocates from cluster communities meet in Sierra Vista in 2004

Cluster Advocates Conference in Sierra Vista, 2004.

In 2002 Paul Spracklen, father of a daughter fighting AML at NAVMEDCTR-San Diego bumped in to a woman there who seemed familiar to him. During a brief conversation Paul and this woman realized that they had been neighbors living in base housing while stationed at Guam. Within a short period of time Paul was in contact with a number of other former Guam neighbors whose children were fighting childhood leukemia at various locations around our country. Through personal tragedy Paul discovered and exposed the Guam childhood leukemia cluster which struck the dependent children of US Navy and US Air Force personnel serving on Guam.

In 2003 concerned parents of children diagnosed with ALL and living in Hoisington, KS contacted independent university researchers involved in Fallon, Nevada and Calvine-Florin, CA studies.

More recently the story of the struggle of Trevor Schaefer formerly of McCall, ID has come to light, and Trevor’s and his mother Charlie’s work has begun.

Most recently Michael Barry and concerned residents of Victor, NY have discovered stunning clusters of cancer and autoimmune disease among the residents of 50 homes there which sit atop a known groundwater TCE plume.

The list goes on and on and on. The stories remain the same, only the names and faces change.

These communities share one common theme; they have all been neglected and abused and ignored by Public Health.

He addressed groups nationwide, such as this Military Toxics Conference in San Antonio TX in 2005.

Terry Nordbrock and Floyd Sands. Terry’s son Linus is the child in the photo on the FACT banner.

THE BIRTH OF NDCA- THE NATIONAL DISEASE CLUSTER ALLIANCE

Many months following our respective health surveys, Dee and I once again found ourselves on the phone together sharing war stories and complaining about the sorry state of Public Health. We each had spent of lot of time commiserating with others around our country who had experiences identical to ours. Our experiences had taught us that there had to be a better way. Our experiences had taught us that failure is never success. Our experiences had taught us that Public Health has never truly tried to aid impacted communities and in fact intentionally takes advantage of those impacted and suffering communities.

It was a watershed moment as Dee and I realized “Well, why not us and why not now?”.

Over the course of the next year or so Dee and I gathered together with many people whom we had come into contact with over the years. Many of our new partners were folks whom we might otherwise have found ourselves in adversarial relationships with. We joined with people from Public Health who had the “skill and the will” to make change happen. We joined with Dick Clapp, Dan Wartenburg, Frank Bove, Paul English, Amy Kyle and others from the world of Public Health. We joined with parent and community health activists who had suffered at the hand of Public Health. We joined with Agnes Reynolds, Jill McElheney, Terry Nordbrock, Paul Spracklen and others from suffering communities. We joined with other activist and community based organizations around our country. We joined with some of the finest minds in Science. We joined with Mark Witten, PhD of the University of Arizona, Karen Montgomery, PhD of the University of Wisconsin, and others already mentioned here.

We all are from very different backgrounds and areas of expertise, yet we are all much the same in one very important way. We all have the skill and the will, the focus and the desire to reach across the table for the common good. We all have the passion and the desire to drive change.

Floyd with Charlie Smith, mother of Trevor Schaefer, at an NDCA event with keynote speaker Jocelyn Elders. Floyd and Trevor together led the NDCA Direct Response committee, and Floyd would be amazingly proud of Trevor’s tremendous advocacy for Trevor’s Law.

WHAT NDCA DOES

We reach out to, mentor and advise communities experiencing emerging disease clusters and those suffering toxic assaults. We work with impacted communities to become self-determining and self-empowered. We respond to each and every community which seeks our help.

We bridge gaps between historical adversaries and grow our alliances to benefit impacted communities.

We only accept success; failure is never an option.

We do what we do, because no one else will.

Personal Vision

It is my dream and my personal vision that I help communities facing emerging disease clusters.

It is my dream and my personal vision to contribute to those communities’ efforts to become empowered, to become self determining, to take their futures into their own hands, and to mentor those communities as they seek answers to the problems which they face.

It is my dream and my personal vision to travel to these communities and to work with them in their daily struggles.

It is my dream and my personal vision to help develop and build a new way of thinking and a new way of studying emerging disease clusters, to access and share the tools and resources necessary to build bridges between communities, governmental agencies and the Future.

It is my dream and my personal vision that no community ever endures what Fallon, Nevada and our Children endured, and lost.

–Floyd Sands 2008

Today is Such A Sad Day

Unfortunately, Floyd was diagnosed with a brain tumor later in 2008 and died on May 29, 2009. Here are tributes from some of us who loved him:

Today is Such a Sad Day

by Dee Lewis

National Disease Clusters Alliance

This page also contains Floyd’s personal vision statement and resolve to end his silence and fight for children and communities.

Fallon cancer cluster activist dies of brain cancer

by Bryant Furlow

Epi Medical News & Expose

Floyd Sands’ March Through Georgia

by Jill McElheney

MICAH’s Mission

Floyd Sands and Matthew Warneke. Photo by Robert Farmer, taken at the

Matt Warneke’s Tribute to Floyd Sands

Rest in Peace, Floyd.

If you want to help continue the work Floyd dedicated himself to, consider getting involved with NDCA. You can:

Write for the Cluster Wiki
Make a donation
Volunteer or Serve on a committee

Questions? Call 877-676-NDCA (6322) or email terry@clusteralliance.org

Stamford, Conn.–Somehow the plan for the city to subsidize well water testing in North Stamford is considered controversial. To us it’s a no-brainer.

The city has a public health problem on its hands. It’s been two years since contaminated water was discovered in North Stamford, and still no answers.

Back then it first seemed the contamination was coming from the dump beneath Scofieldtown Park. But the problem appears to be much more complicated than that.

Many private wells in North Stamford have been found to contain harmful chemicals, spread out over a wide area, which indicates that if the park is a source of contamination (a city study said it wasn’t) it’s likely not the only one.

Locating possible sources of contamination is a very difficult job, and has to be approached from many angles.

One is testing wells. The more wells that are tested, the more that can be mapped. Clusters of contamination can help point to potential sources.

The problem is, two years on, and relatively few wells have been tested. There are approximately 5,000 Stamford homes that use private wells. About 300 have submitted testing results to the city Health Department.

One of the reasons so few people are testing could be the high cost — an average of $350 per test.

Then there are the people who do test, but who don’t share their results with the city, largely out of concerns for their property values.

To tackle both problems, the Board of Representatives North Stamford Water Supply Committee has approved an ordinance to spend about $100,000 a year to subsidize testing. Homeowners who take advantage would have to pay only $100 to have their well tested, but they would be required to share test results with the city. The relatively minor expenditure could pay for roughly 750 tests a year, according to health officials.

It’s not likely that many well owners would participate, but if even half that number did to start, the city would more than double its data. So where is the problem?

City Rep. Harry Day, R-13, a Water Supply Committee member, voted against the subsidy. “We don’t do this for radon,” he said. “Indeed, we don’t really do it for anything else. So why are we doing it here?”

Although he’s not the only one to have asked that question, we think the answer is obvious. If groundwater is being contaminated at a source or sources and is spreading, that’s exactly the type of situation that a city needs to confront and not leave to individual homeowners.

Then there is the North Stamford Association, which argues that subsidize testing would unduly burden people connected to water lines.

“It would be unfair to ask homeowners without private wells to subsidize the testing of private wells,” the NSA wrote in a letter to the Board of Representatives.

Well, if that’s the kind of community we have become, or want to be, Stamford is a drastically different place than it once was. Hard to believe as it may be, there really was a time when communities like this rallied together in times of crisis. Everyone didn’t say “Not my problem” and pull down their shades.

The city has before it a sensible ordinance by which it would spend a modest amount of money and amass valuable information — and, not incidentally, potentially alert residents who have contaminated wells.

There was a tremendous sense of urgency in Stamford when this problem was publicized in 2009. That urgency has since dissipated until the issue has become what Board of Representatives President Randy Skigen, D-19, accurately called “a quiet health crisis.”

It’s time to turn up the volume again.

Mr. Skigen proposed subsidized testing about a year ago — yet another example of how progress on water contamination has been too slow. Much too slow.

Perhaps the only conclusion to be drawn at this point is that the city must come together to solve this particular problem.

Stamford Advocate

The proportion of children and teens in the U.S. who have a developmental disability such as autism has increased 17% since the late 1990s, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Between 1997 and 2008, the number of children with a disability rose from 8.2 million to roughly 10 million, or more than 15% of all kids between the ages of 3 and 17, the researchers found.
This upward trend has been driven largely by surges in the number of children found to have autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, although the prevalence of stuttering and learning disabilities has also increased.

By Megan Eckstein
News-Post Staff

Frederick, Md.–High levels of arsenic in soil near Fort Detrick’s Area B have local activists concerned, saying the Army post’s past use and testing of arsenic may be contributing to cancer cases in Frederick.

The Kristen Renee Foundation has been regularly taking soil samples around Area B and testing them for contaminants, publicist Rachel Kelley-Pisani said. In April, the foundation tested two new locations, one along Rocky Springs Road, the other from a cistern near Kemp Lane. The lab report showed high arsenic levels, something that had not come up in any of the other samples.

As much as 94.6 milligrams of arsenic per kilogram of soil was found near Kemp Lane, and 4.3 milligrams per kilogram was found near Rocky Springs Road, Kelley-Pisani said.

This geographic area is known for high levels of arsenic in the soil, and Frederick has an even higher level than other parts of the state, according to data from the Maryland Department of the Environment.

Whereas eastern Maryland has about 2.3 milligrams of arsenic per kilogram of soil and central Maryland has 3.3 milligrams per kilogram, Frederick has 4.9 milligrams of arsenic per kilogram of soil, MDE spokeswoman Dawn Stoltzfus said in an email.

In the 19th and 20th centuries, arsenic was used in Frederick as an agricultural pesticide in orchards and crop fields, and as an industrial herbicide along railroads, she said. It is now known that chronic exposure to arsenic can increase a person’s risk of developing skin, lung and bladder cancers.

Kelley-Pisani acknowledged the naturally occurring arsenic in the ground but said she had reason to believe Fort Detrick could have exacerbated the problem.

“There are levels of arsenic that are naturally occurring, but you wouldn’t see an exceedance like that, you wouldn’t see it to that extent,” she said Tuesday afternoon.

Kelley-Pisani said the Kristen Renee Foundation would not yet release information it has on past research at Fort Detrick and how it relates to arsenic, but she said the foundation is in contact with several former Fort Detrick researchers who have agreed to turn over lab notes outlining what carcinogens they worked with at Fort Detrick.

Dozens of people who live or lived near Fort Detrick who have developed cancer are submitting liability claims to Fort Detrick for as much as $5 million each.

The only liability claim Fort Detrick has ever paid out was in 1951, when 11 cows died near Fort Detrick’s fence line from arsenic poisoning. Kelley-Pisani said the foundation was aware of this incident, which was part of what inspired the group to investigate whether arsenic could be behind what the foundation believes is a cancer cluster, though health officials have not found evidence that one exists.

In 1951, a contractor sprayed a weed killer along the Fort Detrick fence line that contained sodium arsenite, according to The Frederick News-Post’s archives. The cows ate grass covered in arsenic and died over a three-day period.

Fort Detrick spokesman Chuck Gordon said current Fort Detrick leaders were familiar with the 1951 incident, but he said Fort Detrick regularly tests its groundwater and soil and there is no evidence of arsenic contamination on post.

When 26 wells and a spring were tested in September for metals, including arsenic, only one well tested positive for arsenic. That well had about 5 parts per billion. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency allows 10 parts per billion, he said. Gordon added that MDE has reported groundwater in Frederick County may naturally contain anywhere from 1 to 26 parts per billion.

Rederick News Post

By Kelly Kennedy, USA TODAY

U.S. troops in Iraq, Afghanistan and Kuwait have inhaled microscopic dust particles laden with toxic metals, bacteria and fungi — a toxic stew that may explain everything from the undiagnosed Gulf War Syndrome symptoms lingering from the 1991 war against Iraq to high rates of respiratory, neurological and heart ailments encountered in the current wars, scientists say.

“From my research and that of others, I really think this may be the smoking gun,” says Navy Capt. Mark Lyles, chair of medical sciences and biotechnology at the Center for Naval Warfare Studies at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I. “It fits everything — symptoms, timing, everything.”

Lyles and other researchers found that dust particles — up to 1,000 of which can sit on the head of a pin — gathered in Iraq and Kuwait contain 37 metals, including aluminum, lead, manganese, strontium and tin. The metals have been linked to neurological disorders, cancer, respiratory ailments, depression and heart disease, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Researchers believe the metals occur both naturally and as a byproduct of pollution.

Researchers in and out of the military say the particles are smaller and easier to inhale than most dust particles, and that recent droughts in the region have killed desert shrubs that helped keep down that dust. The military’s heavy vehicles have pounded the desert’s protective crust into a layer of fine silt, Lyles says. Servicemembers breathe the dust — and all it carries — deeply into their lungs.

The dust contains 147 different kinds of bacteria, as well as fungi that could spread disease, Lyles found. Since the wars began in Iraq in 2003 and in Afghanistan in 2001, the military has seen a 251% increase in the rate of neurological disorders per 10,000 active-duty servicemembers, a 47% rise in the rate of respiratory issues and a 34% increase in the rate of cardiovascular disease, according to a USA TODAY analysis of military morbidity records from 2001 to 2010. Those increases have researchers seeking possible causes.

Despite the research by Lyles and others, and the documented spikes in respiratory illnesses, Defense Department officials contend there are no health issues associated with the dust.
Researcher: Windbornedust more dangerous

Until about a decade ago, scientists believed that any pathogen living in desert dust would be killed if it made its way into the daylight.

But emerging research questions whether that is true, as well as how wind-bornedust might spread disease.

William Sprigg , a science professor at Chapman University in California and the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona , works with medical researchers to try to understand how dust interacts with human cardiovascular and respiratory symptoms, as well as how dust may spread disease. He uses NASA satellites to predict dust storms and where they might travel so susceptible populations — such as people with asthma or heart problems — can be warned. He advises the New Mexico and Arizona state health departments about his predictions.

Researchers have found previously that Saharan dust storms may spread meningitis through central Africa, he says, and Americans get “valley fever” every year from a fungus that may spread through airborne dust.

Sprigg first looked at dust from Africa 10 years ago.

“I was shocked,” he says. “The current wisdom is that any bacteria or virus that might be alive, after it hits the air, it’s exposed to ultraviolet radiation and killed.”

But weather systems pick up the particles, protecting them from ultraviolet radiation with clouds, outside layers of yet more bacteria, and the sun-blocking dust itself.

“I think it can fly for hundreds of miles and not contact sunlight,” he says.

He’s also looked samples found in air above the Atlantic Ocean and found that some of the bacteria could cause ear infections and mouth lesions. And researchers have identified 213 viruses and 201 species of fungi in African dust. That dust has traveled as far as Florida, says Dale Griffin , an environmental public health microbiologist with the U.S. Geological Survey.

Griffin said dust blowing through the Caribbean islands from Africa may have caused more cases of asthma in children on Caribbean islands — the asthma rate in Barbados is 17 times greater than it was in 1973.

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued guidelines for particulate matter in the past, but the organization focused on industrial pollution, rather than the possibility that naturally occurring dust could cause a problem, Sprigg says.

He said more research funding needs to go toward researching disease and dust, as well as to predicting dust storms and letting people know when they should stay inside.

“We need to encourage measurement,” he says. “We need to determine what is in it. We need to forecast it.”

“The (Defense Department) has examined the concerns raised by the studies accomplished by Capt. Lyles,” says Craig Postlewaite, who heads up the Secretary of Defense’s Force Readiness and Health Assurance Office. He said the military found the dust is “not noticeably different from samples collected in the Sahara Desert and desert regions in the U.S. and China.”

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STORY: Harmful elements found in war-zone dust
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MORE: U.S. lives lost in Iraq, Afghanistan

Lyles initially analyzed dust samples from Iraq and Kuwait in 2003 to help determine a way to keep the grit from rendering medical equipment useless.

“When I saw the data, I said, ‘Oh my God. This can’t be right,’” Lyles says.

Harry Fannin, a chemistry professor at Murray State University, analyzed the dust for Lyles in late 2004.

“It was a little bit unusual,” he says, citing high levels of chromium, nickel and other metals.

“You wouldn’t see metal like that in the U.S.,” he says, adding he was most concerned about the tiny size of the particles. “Any time you have respirable particles, it’s bad.”

Scientists know fine particulate matter — that smaller than 10 micrometers, or about one-fourth the size of a single grain of table salt — can cause lung and respiratory problems.

Catherine Cahill, associate professor at the Geophysical Institute at the University of Alaska, began collecting airborne dust for the military with the Army Research Lab in Baghdad in 2008.

“I’ve done sampling since 1986, and I’ve never seen anything that bad — not even in China,” she says, referring to China’s extreme levels of pollution. The everyday fine particulate matter levels in Iraq were about three times greater than what the EPA says is healthy within a 24-hour period, she says — and those levels should not be exceeded more than once per year. “We’re blowing that standard out of the water.”

She called the abundance of aluminum and lead she found “our worst-case scenarios.” Cahill says her research mirrors the work done by Lyles.

“Most things are high is the bottom line,” she says. “I would expect chronic coughs, asthma, respiratory disease in the short term; and (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease), heart problems and hypertension long-term. Mark’s theory, to me, makes perfect sense.”

Lyles’ team found almost 150 kinds of bacteria, 25% of which may cause or worsen diseases such as meningitis, cystic fibrosis, septic arthritis, gastroenteritis, staph infections, diarrhea and food poisoning.

Defense: Not so fast

The Defense Department says it hasn’t linked any illnesses among servicemembers to bacteria in the soil.

“All soil, no matter where it is found, has germs present, so this finding is not unusual,” Postlewaite says. “We have closely examined our medical surveillance data for those personnel who have deployed — some multiple times — and we have not been able to identify any increased disease that could be associated with the germs that were identified in the soil.”

But Lyles found others who saw anomalies.

Bob Miller, a pulmonologist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, worked with 101st Airborne soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky., after they complained of being short of breath and unable to run as fast as they had before they deployed.

Many had been exposed to a sulfur fire in Mosul, Iraq. They also had been exposed to burn pits — the military disposes of trash at bases in Iraq and Afghanistan by burning as much as 240 tons of it a day in open pits. All of them came through chest X-rays and CT scans with clean bills of health. The soldiers volunteered for a procedure to obtain lung cell samples, and when Miller examined the biopsies, 50 of 54 showed constrictive bronchiolitis — a rare lung disease that closes the tiniest airways.

Those biopsies also turned up dust.

“A polarizing lens shows sparkling — that’s the dust,” Miller says. “It is a concern.”

He plans to analyze that dust, as well as a brown pigment mixed with it.

“(Lyles) has pretty convincing evidence that the dust is a carrier of toxins,” Miller says. “But we need more information before we can make any sweeping generalizations.”

Veterans Affairs researcher Anthony Szema found that about 7% of veterans who had deployed to Iraq from 2004 to 2007 had asthma, compared with about 4% who did not deploy. Then he heard about the burn pits, as well as Lyles’ theories.

“Lyles gave a lecture in Denver,” Szema says. “Everyone’s jaw was falling on the floor.”

The range of respiratory disease he saw didn’t appear to be caused by one problem. And it seems to be getting worse: About 11% of soldiers returning from Iraq have respiratory problems, he says.

Ronnie Horner, chairman of the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Cincinnati, saw clusters of servicemembers with ALS— or Lou Gehrig’s Disease — after the 1991 war in Iraq.

ALS affects about 1 to 2 people per 100,000 — usually men older than 55. Half the Desert Storm veterans diagnosed with ALS were younger than 25, and 98% were younger than 55.

“We know that aluminum has been associated with ALS, as well as lead,” Horner says. “We were definitely interested in Lyles’ work.”

And early heavy-metal poisoning symptoms also look the same as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), he says. “It’s all speculation,” he says. “But it’s very intriguing, especially when there are such high levels of PTSD.”

Former Army specialist Jeremy Bowman, 33, worked as a mechanic in Baghdad in 2003. While he was still in theater, his hands began to shake as if he were nervous. Now the shaking shimmies up his arms, into his legs and sometimes into his face. He takes medication to prevent the shaking from interfering with his daily life. His legs often feel numb or tingly, his back hurts and his leg muscles feel weak.

“It all falls under ‘neurological signs and symptoms,’ but nobody knows what it is,” he says. “Everything new that comes out — burn pits, dust, depleted uranium — I think, ‘Maybe that’s it.’”

Bowman also has troubles breathing since he deployed and must use an inhaler.

Capt. J.A. “Cappy” Surrette, spokesman for the Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery, said Navy researchers investigated to see whether the dust in Iraq and Afghanistan is toxic. The Navy has no record of troops complaining of cognitive difficulties unrelated to traumatic brain injuries, he says.

However, he says the Naval Health Research laboratory found that trace metals in the dust showed levels of toxicity.

“There is no definitive basis to say the sand is harmful to people or animals,” he says.

However, one Navy study is examining the toxicity of sand from Afghanistan to see how it affects cell death, he says. A second is looking at whether Afghanistan dust contributes to brain trauma pathology in animals.

Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Rob Erckenbrack, 40, of West Fargo, N.D., deployed at Taqaddum, Iraq, in 2006, and guarded the perimeter at Taji, Iraq, in 2008. He began losing weight, and having respiratory problems and migraines. He also dealt with short-term memory loss but says he was not in an incident that would have caused a traumatic brain injury. In June 2010, he had a stroke.

“My doctors were surprised because I’m a healthy, active, adult,” he says. “Then another guy from my unit went through the same thing.”

Dale Griffin, an environmental public health microbiologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, also found metals and bacteria in the dust.

“We know that certain metals are toxic,” he says. “I believe there is a risk there.”

‘It’s a very complex problem’

Early in the 2003 Iraq War, a rare flu — eosinophilic pneumonia — infected 18 and killed two servicemembers in Iraq, according to a military study. Researchers theorized that the bacteria entered troops’ lungs through the dust or through bacteria picked up from the ground from tobacco in foreign cigarettes.

In 2003, Richard Stumbo worked as a civilian contractor for the Department of the Army when he became sick with a flu so bad he had to be airlifted out of Iraq.

“My doctor said he thought it was some kind of bacteria in the dust that I picked up,” Stumbo says. “My boss called me after I got home and told me a couple of the guys had died.”

It took Stumbo two months to recover.

Geoff Plumlee, a research geochemist with the U.S. Geological Survey, sifted through dust samples in the aftermath of the World Trade Center attacks in 2001 to determine what in that particulate matter might affect first responders. His work led to legislation meant to take care of people with respiratory problems and cancers who had breathed in the dust.

After looking at Lyles’ work, as well as military-sponsored and EPA research, Plumlee said he wants to see more.

“It’s a very complex problem,” he says. “I think all of the different studies are pointing to a need for a very detailed look.”

Richard Meehan, chief of rheumatology at National Jewish Health in Denver, assisted the Army’s Public Health Command with a particulate matter study.

National Jewish had received several cases similar to those of Miller’s at Vanderbilt, and Meehan began to think it might be more than simply the burn pits. “We wanted to know why we were seeing these rare injuries that Bob Miller was finding,” Meehan says.

He is part of a team working on a study to determine how to address the problem. “We need to see this in peer-reviewed journals,” Meehan says. “I’d like to have this done correctly upfront so we don’t end up with another Agent Orange.”

Meehan emphasized that the dust isn’t the only problem: Stress causes post-traumatic stress disorder. Explosions cause traumatic brain injuries. And burn pits shape yet another piece of the puzzle.

“I don’t want a false cause,” he says. “You miss really discovering what else is out there.”

Meanwhile, Lyles says he wants samples taken in several places to determine hot spots in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan. He wants to follow people in units to see how they fare after exposures. He wants toxicology studies and more animal studies. And he wants the military to take notice.

“This has to be confronted,” he says.

USA Today

By Day Owen
Guest Viewpoint

The Register-Guard

My urine — and the urine of 20 of my Triangle Lake area neighbors — was tested and came back positive for two of the most dangerous pesticides: 2,4-D and atrazine.

It is probable that nearly everyone who lives in our coastal mountain logging community also is poisoned. We are now going to offer free tests for children at Triangle Lake School.

Our recent tests were conducted by one of the world’s premier experts: Dana Barr, who for two decades ran the labs at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta. The analytical chemist is a researcher at Emory University, specializing in chemical exposures.

For seven years, we begged the state of Oregon unsuccessfully to test our urine. We knew that the timber industry helicopters that were spraying pesticides from the sky near our homes and schools were making us sick. We got zero help.

The stumbling block was that the pesticide industry is so powerful in Oregon that it exercises considerable control over state government. The agency in charge of investigating pesticide complaints is overseen by the Pesticide Division of the Department of Agriculture, which is heavily influenced by the pesticide industry.

Last year, we petitioned the federal Environmental Protection Agency for redress. It sent an investigator from the CDC, Capt. Richard Kauffman, to look into our allegations of foul play. His report on PARC — the Pesticide Analytical Response Center, overseen by the pesticide division — was scathing.

After seven years of being treated like dirt by Oregon government, we decided to take matters into our own hands and asked Barr to test our urine. Her results proved us right, but we are not celebrating.

Vindication is not sweet when every organ in your body hurts. The yearly spring spraying season has begun, and the amounts of 2,4-D and atrazine in our second urine samples taken in April have gone way up. Many of us are very sick.

Lawyers.com, a resource for environmental lawyers, lists the dangers of atrazine: increased risk of breast and prostate cancers; birth defects and fetal deaths; low birth weights and premature births; and increased toxic effects when combined with other chemicals.

2,4-D, is also more toxic when combined with other chemicals. Now they are combined in our bodies — along with who knows how many other herbicides that our budget does not permit us to check.

Almost no research has been done on the synergistic effect of several herbicides in the body, but it is believed to create a far more toxic brew than any one pesticide alone.

2,4-D is found in just 2 percent to 4 percent of the general population. But like atrazine, it was found in 100 percent of Triangle Lake residents tested so far.

Here is what we are now asking the state to do. Note that we are especially interested in fixing structural flaws in the spirit of Oregon’s legally mandated policy of best management practices.

We ask that the governor lead an effort to move PARC back under the authority of the state Public Health Division.

We ask that the governor move the authority to establish pesticide buffer zones around homes and schools from the Department of Agriculture to the health division. Pesticide lobbyists previously caused that authority to reside solely with agriculture. That is a glaring structural flaw for two reasons: Agriculture has no expertise in health and environmental toxins. And significantly, it has a financial conflict of interest because it is linked to the pesticide makers.

We ask that the governor order an investigation into exactly how the atrazine and 2,4-D entered our bodies. Both herbicides recently were sprayed aerially near our homes, and we want the governor to confirm the obvious: The stuff drifts farther than industry admits.

Oregon must repeal the part of the Oregon Right to Farm Act that prohibits a county from enacting a pesticide buffer zone.

We believe we have a cancer cluster in our region. We want that studied.

We want meaningful pesticide reform, beginning with adoption of a strong precautionary principle. Whatever steps are necessary to prevent trespass of pesticides into our bodies against our will must be taken, even if that means banning them entirely.

We demand that Oregon alter its rules that currently permit three members of the state Board of Forestry to have financial conflicts of interest.

Unless the above-named structural flaws are remedied, we will file a class action lawsuit alleging that the state of Oregon has failed to abide by best management practices. You can’t put the fox in charge of guarding the henhouse, yet that is exactly what Oregon has done.

Day Owen is the founder of the Pitchfork Rebellion, a forest dwellers support group that can be contacted at P.O. Box 160, Greenleaf, OR 97430.

The Register-Guard

By Andrew Dodson
| Booth Mid-Michigan The Bay City Times

MIDLAND, Texas — Two lawsuits have been filed on behalf of more than 250 West Texas residents against four companies they contend contaminated their water with hexavalent chromium, according to the Associated Press.

According to court documents obtained by the Midland Reporter-Telegram, the residents want compensation for past and future medical expenses, diminished property values, emotional distress, cases of wrongful death and other losses.

One of the four companies being sued in the lawsuit is Midland, Mich.-based Dow Chemical Co. Other defendants in the biggest lawsuit, filed by Midland, Texas attorney Brian Carney, are Schlumberger, Schlumberger Technology Corp. and Lear Corp. The second, smaller lawsuit, was filed on behalf of 10 plaintiffs.

Dow Spokesman Greg Baldwin said Dow received the complaint Monday and is currently reviewing it.

Hexavalent chromium is recognized as a human carcinogen through inhalation. Exposure is known to occur among workers who handle chromate-containing products as well has those who arc weld stainless steel.

The chemical compound was found in drinking water in the 1990s in Hinkley, Calif. and was brought to the attention by the involvement of Erin Brockovich. Carney is working in conjunction with Brockovich on the case.

In June 2009, the ground water in Midland, Texas, was found to be contaminated with chromium, which also involved Brockovich. Watch the video, here.

Read the full report from the Midland Reporter-Telegram.

Dow Chemical continues to face scrutiny after acknowledging responsibility for the dioxins and furan released into the Tittabawassee River from the 1930s to the 1970s. The chemical byproducts of combustion are linked to cancer, reproductive problems and weakened immune systems in laboratory animals.

A recent study says women living along the Tittabawassee and Saginaw rivers may be at a higher risk of developing breast cancer, due to the contamination, although Dow is critical of the report.

Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmentalist group, and the National Disease Clusters Alliance have released a report indicating Midland, Bay and Saginaw counties form a disease cluster, and researchers point the finger at the chemical dioxin.

Michigan Live

CDC and partners reinforce World Asthma Day’s message take control of your asthma

People diagnosed with asthma in the United States grew by 4.3 million between 2001 and 2009, according to a new Vital Signs report released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In 2009, nearly 1 in 12 Americans were diagnosed with asthma. In addition to increased diagnoses, asthma costs grew from about $53 billion in 2002 to about $56 billion in 2007, about a 6 percent increase. The explanation for the growth in asthma rates is unknown.

Asthma is a lifelong disease that causes wheezing, breathlessness, chest tightness, and coughing, though people with asthma can control symptoms and prevent asthma attacks by avoiding things that can set off an asthma attacks, and correctly using prescribed medicine, like inhaled corticosteroids. The report highlights the benefits of essential asthma education and services that reduce the impact of these triggers, but most often these benefits are not covered by health insurers.

“Despite the fact that outdoor air quality has improved, we’ve reduced two common asthma triggers—secondhand smoke and smoking in general—asthma is increasing,” said Paul Garbe, D.V.M., M.P.H, chief of CDC’s Air Pollution and Respiratory Health Branch. “While we don’t know the cause of the increase, our top priority is getting people to manage their symptoms better.”

Asthma triggers are usually environmental and can be found at school, work, home, outdoors, and elsewhere and can include tobacco smoke, mold, outdoor air pollution, and infections linked to influenza, cold-like symptoms, and other viruses.

Asthma diagnoses increased among all demographic groups between 2001 and 2009, though a higher percentage of children reported having asthma than adults (9.6 percent compared to 7.7 percent in 2009), Diagnoses were especially high among boys (11.3 percent). The greatest rise in asthma rates was among black children (almost a 50 percent increase) from 2001 through 2009. Seventeen percent of non-Hispanic black children had asthma in 2009, the highest rate among racial/ethnic groups.

Annual asthma costs in the United States were $3,300 per person with asthma from 2002 to 2007 in medical expenses. About 2 in 5 uninsured and 1 in 9 insured people with asthma could not afford their prescription medication.

“Asthma is a serious, lifelong disease that unfortunately kills thousands of people each year and adds billions to our nation’s health care costs,” said CDC Director Thomas R. Frieden, M.D., M.P.H. “We have to do a better job educating people about managing their symptoms and how to correctly use medicines to control asthma so they can live longer more productive lives while saving health care costs.”

This report coincides with World Asthma Day, an annual event sponsored by the Global Initiative for Asthma. This year’s theme is “You Can Control Your Asthma.” Reducing asthma attacks and the human and economic costs of asthma are key priorities for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the focus of a collaborative effort involving many parts of HHS. In support of this effort CDC recommends:

Improving indoor air quality for people with asthma through measures such as smoke-free air laws and policies, healthy schools and workplaces.
Teach patients how to avoid asthma triggers such as tobacco smoke, mold, pet dander, and outdoor air pollution.
Encouraging clinicians to prescribe inhaled corticosteroids for all patients with persistent asthma and to use a written asthma action plan to teach patients how manage their symptoms.
Promoting measures that prevent asthma attacks such as increasing access to corticosteroids and other prescribed medicines.
Encourage home environmental assessments and educational sessions conducted by clinicians, health educators, and other health professionals both within and outside of the clinical setting.

About Vital Signs
CDC Vital Signs is a report that appears on the first Tuesday of the month as part of the CDC journal Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR). Vital Signs is designed to provide the latest data and information on key health indicators – cancer prevention, obesity, tobacco use, alcohol use, access to health care, HIV/AIDS, motor vehicle passenger safety, health care-associated infections, cardiovascular health, teen pregnancy, asthma, and food safety.

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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES

read press release on CDC media page