CLYDE — Warren and Wendy Brown are in Washington, D.C., this week to make sure money is being appropriated for childhood cancer research.

“We’ve attempted to make contact with the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations committee members,” Warren Brown said several days before he left.

The Browns’ daughter, Alexa, died in August at age 11. Brown had been fighting medulloblastoma — a common brain tumor in children that also can affect the spine. She was diagnosed in May 2006, when she was 8.

Alexa was one of 38 children in the Eastern Sandusky County cancer cluster investigation, which is being investigated. She was the third in the cluster to fall victim to the disease. Medulloblastoma also claimed the life of a 6-year-old boy, Kole Keller, in April 2007. Shila Donnersbach, 20, was the second death in the cluster in December 2007. She was diagnosed with Ewing’s sarcoma at age 18.

Several days before the Browns left for D.C., they had three confirmed meetings with committee members, and the other 12 members either declined or hadn’t given a response.

“We’ll still be knocking on their doors and dropping off a letter from Sen. Sherrod Brown and a DVD on childhood cancer,” he said. “Hopefully someone will look at this and realize this is a population that has been affected. I’m hoping doors will open, and we’ll have to stay.”

Brown says the emphasis of this trip is to make sure money is being appropriated to children with cancer and their families through the Caroline Pryce Walker Conquer Childhood Cancer Act of 2008. According to the Web site curesearch.org, the act promises to significantly increase federal investment into childhood cancer research. The act is named in memory of Caroline Pryce Walker, who is the daughter of Congresswoman Deborah Pryce R-OH, who succumbed to neuroblastoma in 1999 at age 9. The bill authorizes $30 million annually over five years.

During their trip to D.C., the Brown’s will be delivering some letters that fifth- and sixth-graders from Green Springs Elementary wrote in support of research.

A 51-page progress report from the Ohio Department of Health, Sandusky County Health Department and Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, which was released Oct. 30, states, “However, it is possible that a cause may never be known for the higher-than-expected number of childhood cancer diagnoses in Eastern Sandusky County.”

State and local agencies will continue to work together, and additional information gathered in the investigation will be shared with the community as it becomes available.

Brown said representatives of the ODH and Ohio EPA met with the affected families to present the information in the report.

“I don’t expect concrete answers,” Brown said, noting he’s beyond frustration. “My biggest concern is money on the federal level (to be available for research).”

The report also gave a detailed history of Whirlpool Corp., Clyde Division and Vickery Environmental Inc., and the emissions they give off and the hazardous waste that has been generated. The report also detailed information on dumps and landfill areas around Clyde and Green Creek Township.

Dina Pierce, spokeswoman for the Ohio EPA, said the investigation now includes a portion of Ottawa and Erie Counties.

“We are continuing air monitoring until the end of the year, along with an analysis on water quality monitoring (from samples this past summer),” she said, noting hopefully by next spring the water monitoring will be finished.

“This is our top priority,” Pierce said, noting the bodies of water tested were the two Clyde reservoirs Raccoon and Beavercreek, along with Buck, South, Green, Pickerel and Strong creeks. But, if everything checks out at normal levels, there’s not much more the EPA can do, though they’ll still be involved.

Sandusky County Health Commissioner David Pollick said they’ve done radiation testing in area schools, which also included Fremont, and will be doing so in the homes of the children affected. However, in the schools, there were no significant findings, Pollick said.

Robert Jennings, spokesman of the Ohio Department of Health, said they also are continuing their research on reproductive outcomes, which includes low birth weights and mortality rates among other factors.read article online

Pollutants near Clyde not a factor, state says

By TOM HENRY
BLADE STAFF WRITER

State environmental and health officials acknowledged yesterday they are no closer to determining the cause of the childhood cancer cluster in the vicinity of Clyde, Ohio, and conceded in a new report it “is possible that a cause may never be known.”

The report, discussed privately Monday with families of area cancer victims who have been part of the ongoing study, listed trace amounts of pollutants that have been detected and provided an inventory of what has been gleaned from file reviews of major industries, such as the Whirlpool Corp. and Vickery Environmental Inc.

But it showed nothing out of kilter. Pollutants in water wells, public water supplies, air, and soil were found at levels within U.S. Environmental Protection Agency safety guidelines.

In fact, the Clyde area’s numbers for air pollutants so far in 2009 are below those in more industrialized areas such as Cleveland, East Toledo, and Cincinnati, said Dina Pierce, a spokesman for the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. “Most of our work is now concluded,” she said.

The report can be accessed at www.epa.ohio.gov/pic/clyde.aspx. A copy is available at the Clyde Public Library.

The Ohio EPA will continue taking air samples through the end of the year and will produce a report based on water sampling from area streams this year, she said.

The Ohio Department of Health, with assistance from the Sandusky County Health Department, has scoured health records, radiation sources, industry practices, spills, and other potential sources.

The two health agencies likewise have hit a roadblock.

“We may never find a smoking gun,” said Robert Jennings, the state health department’s public affairs director.

He said it is continuing with research into the area’s birth weights, infant mortality, and other reproductive outcomes.

Officials have ruled out many possible causes, which they said has some value.

But they remain baffled.

“They’re running out of places to look,” said Dave Hisey, whose son Tanner, 11, is among the area children being treated for cancer. The boy got his latest chemotherapy treatment injected through his spine yesterday at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center in Toledo.

“I’m hopeful, but I’m pretty frustrated. It tends to get to you,” said Mr. Hisey, manager of a Clyde grocery store.

Warren Brown, Sandusky County clerk of courts, said he and his wife, Wendy, will meet with U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D., Ohio) and U.S. Rep. Bob Latta (R., Bowling Green) in Washington next week.

The couple, who live in Clyde, will make presentations to key officials and aides involved with appropriations committees. The Browns want to get the federal government to release more money for childhood cancer research.

The couple lost their 11-year-old daughter, Alexa, to cancer in August.
“We have a whole bunch of [new] data. But they’re no closer to determining the cause,” Mr. Brown said of the new report.

He said he believes the agencies have done their best but “have an extremely difficult uphill battle.”

“Unfortunately, I just don’t feel there will ever be a smoking gun in this case,” Mr. Brown said.

Contact Tom Henry at:
thenry@theblade.com
or 419-724-6079.

read online

By JACOB LAMMERS | Saturday January 19 2008

By Ryan Justin Fox

Dayton Daily News (OH)

November 16, 2007

DAYTON – Environmental officials broke the news to close to a hundred

residents at Kiser Middle School Thursday that Chrysler Corporation

agreed to clean up only a portion of residences with contaminated

groundwater seeping up in their homes.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said that it will use available

taxpayer funds to cover the other 200 potentially-contaminated homes in

the eastern portion of the McCook Field neighborhood.

EPA officials found dangerously-high levels of trichloroethylene (TCE)

in homes and schools in the immediate vicinity of Behr Dayton Thermal

Products plant at 1600 Webster Street last year.

Environmental officials said that the chemical – which used to be used

as a degreaser and a cleaner – seeped into soil and groundwater after a

spill and is now vaporizing into harmful air in residences.

…

For the entire article, see

http://www.daytondailynews.com/n/content/oh/story/news/local/2007/11/16/ddn111607epaweb.html