McCullom Lake, Illinois – (April 19, 2010) This upstate village of slightly more than 1,000 residents will soon have a decision to make: how best to use hundreds of thousands of dollars that could be remaining at the end of the month in a cancer cluster, medical-monitoring settlement fund.

Philadelphia attorney Aaron J. Freiwald, Esq., who negotiated the 2008 class-action settlement with nearby Modine Manufacturing, Inc. on behalf of the residents, has been actively involved in discussions to ensure that the local citizens derive the most benefit from the funds. “There is understandably a great deal of interest in how these funds are applied to the betterment of the McCullom Lake community and its residents,” explained Freiwald. “The Federal judge supervising the case has made it clear that she wants whatever funds remain after April 30 to go toward a deserving, non-profit organization.” After receiving additional feedback from residents, elected officials and community leaders regarding prospects, he will make a recommendation in a formal petition to the Court.

Freiwald, a partner in the firm of Layser & Freiwald, P.C., is encouraging anyone with suggestions to present them to the independent settlement fund administrator at www.mccullomlakesettlement.com. Ideas may also be submitted to Layser & Freiwald, P.C. via the firm’s website, www.layserfreiwald.com.

The original settlement fund has been used to provide numerous vouchers for pre-paid medical testing to past and present village residents to screen for brain cancer and brain tumors. In fact, two of the cases were detected through MRI scans performed for residents using the settlement medical vouchers.
The first of more than two dozen cancer cluster cases against the non-settling defendants, including Rohm & Haas, a subsidiary of Dow Chemical (DOW: NYSE) is scheduled to begin trial in Philadelphia in early June.

Freiwald emphasizes that there is still time for eligible village residents to be screened under the settlement agreement. “If you lived there between January 1, 1968 and December 31, 2002, you are likely still qualified to obtain a voucher to have medical screening. But you must act before the end of April.”
The settlement agreement with Modine provides that any funds left over after a Court-imposed deadline will be directed to a non-profit organization for the benefit of McCullom Lake Village.

Children born with birth defects which resulted from the botched decontamination of a steelworks will receive compensation totalling millions of pounds after a council dropped its legal fight.

By Stephen Adams
Published: 9:00AM BST 17 Apr 2010

The hands of 10-year-old India Harrison, to whom Corby Borough Council has finally agreed to pay compensation, along with 18 other children and young people Photo: GETTY
Corby Borough Council agreed an out of court settlement almost a year after the High Court ruled it was negligent in the way it dismantled a steelworks and disposed of toxic waste.
That led to a “statistically significant” cluster of birth defects between 1989 and 1999, including clubbed feet, shortened arms and missing fingers, found Mr Justice Akenhead.

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Lawyers had argued that the mothers of 16 children had been left exposed to “an atmospheric soup of toxic materials” while pregnant, because of the council’s mistakes. They included the loads of trucks carrying away contaminated waste not being fastened shut.
Despite the High Court decision, at the time the council said it would fight the ruling.
But yesterday it agreed to drop its challenge.
In a joint statement with the families’ solicitors, the council announced it had reached a final, binding agreement with 19 youngsters, included three not originally included. Negotiations had gone on for weeks.
The contract forbids disclosure of the financial arrangement.
However, other compensation lawyers have estimated that each affected youngster could be in line for £100,000 to £500,000, depending on how badly they were affected.
Sarah Pearson, whose 15-year-old Lewis Waterfield was born with significant deformities to both hands, said after the announcement: “We are just so relieved our fight is finally at an end.
“On behalf of all the Corby children and their families, I would like to thank all those who have supported us during our long campaign.”
She added: “We would also like to give credit to the council for including three other children in this agreement, despite the court’s ruling last year.”
Louise Carley, 35, whose 11-year-old daughter Ashleigh Custance has problems with her right hand and arm, said: “This is closure, it means we can move on with our lives. We know what happened and we know why and we can get on with our future.”
She said of the council: “It’s the first time they have said sorry. That means more than anything. It’s the fact it’s not my fault any more.”
Chris Mallender, chief executive of Corby Borough Council, said in the statement: “The council recognises that it made mistakes in its clean-up of the former British Steel site years ago and extends its deepest sympathy to the children and their families.”
Although he said the money “cannot properly compensate” the young people, he said the council “sincerely hopes” the agreement would mean they could put the legal battle behind them.
Des Collins, solicitor for the families involved, paid tribute to “the immense determination and spirit of the Corby children and their families have shown”.
He said: “Today’s agreement recognises the many years of emotional and physical suffering the 19 families have endured and will continue to endure.
“It marks the end of an arduous 11-year legal challenge and removes the prospect of further litigation.”
Although the council has decided not to pursue the case, it has not accepted liability.
There are also thought to be about 60 more families considering coming forward to pursue claims against the council.

The poisoning of Corby is widely regarded as Britain’s biggest child poisoning case since the thalidomide scandal, unearthed in the 1970s.

In the late 1950s and 1960s, more than 10,000 babies were born with deformities as a result of what was considered a “wonder drug” to lessen morning sickness in pregnant women.

Telegraph

Elizabeth Grossman
Author of ‘Chasing Molecules’ and ‘High Tech Trash’

The Huffington Post

This is what we know happened. On March 31, 2010, Park Ji-Yeon, who worked at Samsung’s On-Yang semiconductor plant in South Korea, died of leukemia at age 23. According to Korean news accounts, Park began working at the Samsung plant in 2004 and was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2007.

And it was in 2007 that a 22 year-old woman named Yu-mi Hwang who had worked at Samsung’s Gijeung semiconductor plant since just before graduating from high school died – also of leukemia. A year later, another woman who worked in the same plant in South Korea and shared a work bay with Yu-mi died, also of leukemia, at age 30.

There are now accounts from Korean news media, from SHARPS – an organization advocating for South Korean electronics workers – and from an international coalition of occupational health, safety, and workers’ rights organizations – that there are now over 20 documented cases of Samsung workers at On-yang, Giheung, and other plants in South Korea suffering from leukemia, lymphoma, and other cancers. Nine have died of such diseases, including a 30 year-old man who died of leukemia in 2004.Additional Samsung workers are known to be suffering from skin disorders, neuropathy, fertility problems including miscarriages, and chronic nosebleeds.

At Samsung, Park inspected semiconductor circuits – a job that involved using chemicals, high heat, and an x-ray machine. Yu-mi and her colleague also worked in semiconductor production as have other stricken Samsung workers.

On April 2, family and friends held a funeral service to honor Park Ji-Yeon in Seoul where she had gone for medical treatment. Following the ceremony her supporters held a press conference at Samsung headquarters. As was captured on video, shortly after the press conference began it was broken up by police who arrested and jailed seven activists – including an occupational health physician. They were released two days later without charges.

Doris Lee, of the Asia Monitor Resource Center tells me that rules governing public assemblies in South Korea have become increasingly restrictive and complex. Previously, she says, “a press conference would not have been dispersed, but now they are frequently vulnerable to being dispersed as illegal assemblies. This has even happened with funeral processions.”

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Elizabeth Grossman
Author of ‘Chasing Molecules’ and ‘High Tech Trash’

The Huffington Post

This is what we know happened. On March 31, 2010, Park Ji-Yeon, who worked at Samsung’s On-Yang semiconductor plant in South Korea, died of leukemia at age 23. According to Korean news accounts, Park began working at the Samsung plant in 2004 and was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia in 2007.

And it was in 2007 that a 22 year-old woman named Yu-mi Hwang who had worked at Samsung’s Gijeung semiconductor plant since just before graduating from high school died – also of leukemia. A year later, another woman who worked in the same plant in South Korea and shared a work bay with Yu-mi died, also of leukemia, at age 30.

There are now accounts from Korean news media, from SHARPS – an organization advocating for South Korean electronics workers – and from an international coalition of occupational health, safety, and workers’ rights organizations – that there are now over 20 documented cases of Samsung workers at On-yang, Giheung, and other plants in South Korea suffering from leukemia, lymphoma, and other cancers. Nine have died of such diseases, including a 30 year-old man who died of leukemia in 2004.Additional Samsung workers are known to be suffering from skin disorders, neuropathy, fertility problems including miscarriages, and chronic nosebleeds.

At Samsung, Park inspected semiconductor circuits – a job that involved using chemicals, high heat, and an x-ray machine. Yu-mi and her colleague also worked in semiconductor production as have other stricken Samsung workers.

On April 2, family and friends held a funeral service to honor Park Ji-Yeon in Seoul where she had gone for medical treatment. Following the ceremony her supporters held a press conference at Samsung headquarters. As was captured on video, shortly after the press conference began it was broken up by police who arrested and jailed seven activists – including an occupational health physician. They were released two days later without charges.

Doris Lee, of the Asia Monitor Resource Center tells me that rules governing public assemblies in South Korea have become increasingly restrictive and complex. Previously, she says, “a press conference would not have been dispersed, but now they are frequently vulnerable to being dispersed as illegal assemblies. This has even happened with funeral processions.”

read full article online

Energy Matters blog by
Roger Witherspoon

For the past 20 years, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has used an epidemiologically invalid study to reassure the public that the continuous release of radioactive material from power plants into the surrounding regions did not contribute to increases in cancer.

To correct that unsubstantiated claim, the NRC has contracted with the National Academy of Sciences to conduct a two year study of both cancer incidence and mortality around former, current, and proposed nuclear reactor sites. The $5 million study, which is expected to take a year to design and two more years to complete, would be the first, comprehensive, government study of the health implications of the continuous release of radioactive into the air and water around nuclear facilities.

It would replace the 1990 study conducted for the NRC by the National Institutes of Health – National Cancer Institute titled “Cancer in Populations Living Near Nuclear Facilities.” That study concluded that the continuous release of radioactive gas, liquids, and particles – both intentionally and accidentally – did not contribute to the cancer mortality rates in the counties surrounding the 62 reactor sites housing 107 reactors. From an epidemiological standpoint, that study was flawed in its conception and implementation, and hampered by a dearth of data.

According to an NRC statement, the NIH-NCI study involved a review of more than 900,000 cancer deaths from 1950 – 1984 using mortality records from the counties surrounding nuclear sites. The study looked at just 16 types of cancers, evaluating changes on a county-wide basis. The problem with that methodology is that cancers triggered by long term exposure to radioactive particles takes years to develop – and the nation’s nuclear plants being studied came online in the late 1970s to 1982.

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By Sandra Jontz, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Saturday, March 27, 2010

A government decision to give disability benefits to a former Marine sickened by toxins at Camp Lejeune, N.C., could have far-reaching effects for thousands of other families who lived and worked at the military base over the years.

Paul Buckley, who was diagnosed with multiple myeloma four years ago, received a letter from the Department of Veterans Affairs earlier this month stating that “all reasonable doubt has been resolved in your favor.” Buckley’s incurable bone marrow cancer “was directly related to military service,” the letter continued.

“This is not the type of cancer you get from smoking or eating French fries,” said Buckley, 46, who now lives in Hanover, Mass. “I was too young to get this illness and I didn’t have any of the risk factors.”

But in the 1980s, Buckley was assigned to Camp Lejeune, where scientists found the presence of the degreaser trichloroethylene, or TCE, the dry-cleaning solvent tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, and the carcinogen benzene in the drinking water.

His doctors believe exposure to those chemicals was the likely cause of his cancer ? a claim the U.S. government repeatedly denied until he received his letter from the VA on March 8.

For Buckley, the sudden reversal means that he can start collecting VA benefits, which will extend to his wife when he dies.

The VA’s ruling could have much broader ramifications: By some estimates, up to 1 million people lived or worked at the base between 1957 and 1987.

“I think this has enormous national implications and is truly a breakthrough,” said U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass. “The government has acknowledged, at long last, that there is clearly a causal relationship between the contaminated water and the cancer that afflicts Mr. Buckley.”

The letter, Delahunt said, will establish a precedent.

“It’s highly significant,” for the thousands of others, according to Joseph Anderson, a Winston-Salem, N.C., lawyer representing a woman who lived at Camp Lejeune in the 1980s and suffers from non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. His client, Laura Jones, recently won a small battle in federal court when a judge ruled that her case against the Navy could go forward. The Navy had argued that the statute of limitations had expired.

“[The VA decision] can help us as we fight on behalf of families,” said Anderson, adding his office receives an average of 30 calls a day from military and civilians and families who once were stationed at Camp Lejeune.

Veterans Affairs spokeswoman Katie Roberts declined to address the department’s letter to Buckley or the reason for the reversal.

While not addressing the Camp Lejeune case specifically, Roberts stated that generally, the VA is working with the Defense Department on a number of exposure-related concerns, and the two departments have created a data-sharing agreement to let researchers cross-reference data and information.

She declined to speculate on whether the department’s decision would affect other veterans’ claims for benefits.

There are 2,044 pending legal claims by people who lived and worked at the Marine base, the Navy said Friday. In 2007, Stars and Stripes reported there were 853 claims pending.

For years, Marines have blamed their and their families’ ailments on the contaminated tap water.

The presence of TCE and PCE in the camp’s water sources was discovered in 1982. Yet some of the wells that supplied the water were not shut down until 1985. An environmental engineering company found benzene in a well near the base’s Hadnot Point Fuel Farm at levels of 380 parts per billion when water was sampled in July 1984; the EPA has established that levels more than 5 parts per billion in water is dangerous to human health.

As the health effects continue to be examined, the Marine Corps is trying to reach between 500,000 to 1 million people who lived and worked on the base during the three decades, according to Capt. Brian Block, a Corps spokesman. The Corps’ search for former base residents was spurred, in part, by health officials’ needs to conduct tests to determine whether exposure to the contaminated drinking water is causing ailments.

To date, 160,000 people have registered, which can be done online at https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater or by calling (877) 261-9782.

Buckley hopes the letter he received will lead to help for more Marines and their families who lived at the base.

“I’m hoping the VA will loosen up, and maybe, just maybe, this means I can help a million people or so,” he said. “Giving hope to somebody is a wonderful thing.”

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BY FRANK X. MULLEN JR. • Reno Gazette Journal

The metal tungsten remains an important clue in research related to the Fallon leukemia cluster, which sickened 17 children and killed three of them between 1997 and 2004, scientists said Thursday.

Presenters at the University of Nevada, Reno symposium described their research into cancer genetics, water contamination, electro-magnetic fields, mouse studies, and contaminants found in tree rings and on tree leaves. They are looking for possible environmental underpinnings of the cancer outbreak, whose odds of being random have been estimated at 1 in 232 million.

Researchers from the UNR; the University of Arizona and the University of California San Francisco presented final reports on three years work relating to the cluster. The research was funded by about $700,000 in federal grants obtained by Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., on behalf of the Fallon families affected by the outbreak.

The theory is that something in Fallon’s environment makes the area unique. For eight years, the metal tungsten, which is found in greater concentrations in the area’s water, air and people than in other parts of Nevada, has been an element of interest.

“We have been looking at linking environmental exposures unique to leukemia clusters to the development of leukemia,” said Cynthia D. Fastje, who exposed laboratory mice to tungsten and a virus at the University of Arizona.

Scientists have a two-hit theory of cancer cluster causes. The first “hit” is something from the environment that damages a child’s genes, perhaps while it is in the womb. The second “hit” could be an infection, a chemical or a virus that strikes the community but causes further damage to children’s genes already affected by the first hit.

In the experiments conducted by Fastje, Dr. Mark Witten and others, pregnant mice were given tungsten water at levels similar to those found in Fallon. The mouse pups were born and exposed to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which causes a common childhood illness.
Tungsten weakens immune response

Fastje said the tungsten appeared to weaken the animals’ immune response to the virus. About half the mice had enlarged spleens and 25 percent developed tumors in their jaws and necks. Some mice had symptoms consistent with leukemia.

She said more research into the effects of tungsten exposure is needed and noted that it’s a big leap between mice and humans.

Dr. Paul Sheppard of the University of Arizona said his research since 2002 has looked at tungsten and other metals as airborne contaminants in Fallon. His studies indicated spikes over time in the tungsten levels in tree rings and that tungsten found on tree leaves in 2008 was more concentrated on the trees closer to the center of Fallon, a finding consistent with previous studies of airborne metals.

Since the 1960s, the Fallon area has been home to a tungsten refinery and a tungsten plant in the center of town. That firm has consistently denied its operations can have anything to do with the cancer outbreak. It’s undetermined whether the tungsten found in the latest tree or leaf studies is the industrial or naturally-occurring form of the metal.

Dr. Joseph L. Wiemels, associate professor of cancer epidemiology, University of California, San Francisco, has looked at the genetic roots of cancer and studied leukemia cases in California and the Fallon cluster. He said because of Nevada privacy laws he was only able to look at the genetics of four of the 17 Fallon patients, but found nothing unusual in their DNA makeup.

Based on the disease registry information that has been made available, he said, “it appears to be clusters of other types of cancer in Churchill County at the time of the leukemia cluster.”
Overall, he said, children who have early exposure to viruses and thus develop immunities seem to be more protected against leukemia than those who have limited viral exposure, such as children without older siblings or those who don’t interact with other children at an early age.

A change in the environment
One question that scientists have been asking throughout their investigations: what sharply changed in Fallon’s environment in the mid-1990s that may account for the cancer outbreak between 1997 and 2004?

Dr. Chris Chris A. Pritsos, UNR professor of nutrition, and Dr, Ralph Seiler, a geologist, have been investigating Fallon’s groundwater. They looked at the concentrations of arsenic, tungsten, uranium and polonium-210 in the water and exposed lab mice to the Fallon water and water from other sources.
The studies indicated that exposure to groundwater high in tungsten, arsenic and polonium-210 induced “oxidative stress” in mice. Oxidative stress affects the body’s ability to repair itself at the cellular level and may be involved in the development of several diseases.

Although tungsten remains an element of interest, Sheppard cautioned that “we can’t link environmental findings to leukemia itself based on environmental data alone.” He noted that Nevada health authorities and the federal government have no interest in further probes of the Fallon cluster.
Future investigations are up to scientists outside the government labs, he said.

“We’ll keep on trying,” Sheppard said. “It’s important to carry on environmental monitoring in Fallon and I intend to do that.”

WASHINGTON – Today, EPA is releasing the Health and Environmental Research Online (HERO) database, a milestone in transparency. HERO provides access to the scientific studies used in making key regulatory decisions, including EPA’s periodic review of the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for six major pollutants.  It is part of the open government directive to conduct business with transparency, participation, and collaboration.

“The HERO database strengthens our science and our transparency — two pillars of our work at EPA. Giving the public easy access to the same information EPA uses will help open the lines of communication, increase knowledge and understanding, and open the doors of EPA,” said EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson. “Americans have a right to know the background of decisions that affect their lives and livelihoods. We’re taking a big step forward in opening government to the people.”

The publically accessible HERO database provides an easy way to review the scientific literature behind EPA science assessments, which are used to support agency decision-making.  The database includes more than 300,000 scientific articles including the authors, titles, dates, and abstracts.  In addition, through a simple keyword search, anyone can see information from the articles that were used to develop specific risk assessments.

HERO includes peer-reviewed literature used by EPA to develop its Integrated Science Assessments (ISA) that feed into the NAAQS review. It also includes references and data from the Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), a database that supports critical agency policymaking for chemical regulation.

More information on HERO database: http://www.epa.gov/hero

More information on IRIS: http://www.epa.gov/iris

By Paul Whaley and Dr John Newby, PhD; cross-posted from Health & Environment

To understand the importance of the new science of epigenetics for health, we have to visit cell development and the cellular processes which, if they go wrong, lead to cancer. Understanding these processes could help us better anticipate and prevent possible health hazards from environmental chemicals, develop better models for risk assessment, and even lead to novel treatments for cancer.

Epigenetics and development
One single fertilised cell, in order to become a human, has to differentiate itself into about 200 cell types. Every single cell, however, contains the same complete set of around 25,000 genes. This means different genes have to be turned on and off at certain times in order for a cell to develop into and function as, for example, a skin cell rather than a liver cell.

This regulation of when genes are turned on and off is governed by epigenetic processes. Rather than mutations, which are changes to the genetic code, epigenetic changes affect genes themselves, like software in relation to DNA hardware.

During development, epigenetic regulation is one factor responsible for determining the course of development of a cell, setting it on the path to becoming a skin cell rather than a liver cell, or a brain cell instead of a muscle cell.

Sometimes, however, external influences can result in genes being silenced or activated at the wrong times. In effect, this can confuse the developmental instructions being acted on by a cell, subtly taking it away from its natural developmental pathway and down an altered route, with a range of potential knock-on effects.

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On his March 9 episode Dr. Oz discussed cancer clusters and how people can work to keep themselves, their families and their communities safer:

One of the first questions people faced with a cancer diagnosis ask is, “What caused this?”, especially when it strikes young children who don’t typically get cancer. Sometimes you learn why; a DNA defect could foreshadow certain types of colon cancer for instance, or an unhealthy behavior such as smoking jacked up your risk. But it could also be something lurking in the environment, a carcinogen that has entered the water supply, soil or the air where we live, work, play or attend school.
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