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(UPDATE: Though we’ve not yet had a chance to review it, here is a PDF copy of the official complaint – not yet including exhibits.)
(UPDATE II: Complaint now also available for download with exhibits)
While we’re working to obtain a copy of the official complaint, here’s what we know so far:
- On July 4, 2009, Laura J. Jones, through her attorneys, filed a lawsuit against the the federal government claiming that her health problems, including non-hodgkins lymphoma, resulted from toxic water at Camp Lejeune. A nice touch, we think, filing suit against the government on Independence Day.
- The suit was filed under authority of the Federal Tort Claims Act. The act allows citizens to sue the federal government in court for money based on “personal injury or death caused by caused by the negligent or wrongful act or omission of any employee of the Government.” (28 U.S.C.A. § 1346(b))
- The official title of the case is Laura J. Jones v. United States of America, case number 7:2009cv00106 7:09-cv-00106-BO.
- The case was filed in the Eastern District Court of North Carolina and was assigned to Judge Terrence W. Boyle.
- The case is filed on behalf of Jones as a single plaintiff with additional cases expected to be filed in the future. No news on whether a class action filing is expected.
- According to a news report from NBC17 in North Carolina:
The suit says the government knew for at least five years that chemicals such as tetrachloroethylene, trichloroethylene, dicloroethylene, vinyl chloride and benzene contaminated the water supply in high doses, but let the wells stay open.
Lawyers say the toxic water led to cancer and other health problems.
[...]
The suit contends that if the military had followed its own regulations that had been in place since the 1950s, the contamination would not have happened.
- According to a CBS News 9 report, Jones lived on the base from 1980 to 1983 and was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma 20 years later.
- Jones’s case will rely, in part, on military documents that outline the military’s policy for maintaining a safe water supply.
- Jones currently lives in Iowa and suffers from fibromyalgia and immune disorders. She was not well enough to attend the Monday’s press conference announcing the lawsuit.
Below is a video containing excerpts from the press conference, provided courtesy of NBC17:
Clark v. United States, 660 F. Supp. 1164 (1987), summarizes mid-1900’s knowledge of TCE’s danger, unfitness for consumption, and the need to prevent it from poisoning water supplies:
Prior to 1950, [TCE] was known as dangerous and poisonous in occupational settings involving sustained exposure to high concentrations of TCE, but specific adverse health effects resulting from chronic exposure were not generally understood. Prior to 1950 it was generally known that TCE was not fit to consume and that it should not be in a water supply. The defendant [Air Force] was or should have been aware that substances such as TCE should not be in a water supply.
[...]
Prior to 1950, it was common knowledge that groundwater could be polluted and that the pollution could travel great distances from the site of the original contamination. Further, it was generally known prior to that time that percolation, a process by which substances disposed of would leach into the underlying groundwater, could occur and that groundwater needed to be protected from deleterious leachates.
The appropriate standard of care in waste disposal in the 1950s was to treat TCE as a hazardous substance in disposing of the contaminant so as not to pollute groundwater.
And that number appears to be climbing. From today’s St. Petersburg Times:
Scientists studying drinking water contamination at Camp Lejeune were startled when 11 men with breast cancer and ties to the North Carolina base were identified over the last two years.
Six more have been found in one week.
Five additional men with breast cancer and a sixth who had a double mastectomy after doctors found precancerous tumors contacted the St. Petersburg Times last week after reading a story about the 11 men with the rare disease.
“This male breast cancer cluster is a smoking gun,” breast cancer survivor Mike Partain said on Friday. “You just can’t ignore it. You don’t need science to tell you something is wrong. It’s common sense. It begs to be studied.”
[...]
Male breast cancer is exceedingly rare. Just 1,900 men are expected to be diagnosed with breast cancer this year compared with nearly 200,000 women, the American Cancer Society says.
A man has a 1-in-1,000 lifetime chance of getting the disease.
Men who get it are often over 70, though it is rare even in older males. Of the 17 men identified by Partain and the Times, just three are over 70 — the youngest was Partain at 39 — and many have no family history of breast cancer, male or female, according to interviews.
[...]
If you or a family member lived at Camp Lejeune in North Carolina and have been diagnosed with male breast cancer, the St. Petersburg Times is interested in talking to you. Please call reporter William R. Levesque at (813) 269-5306 or toll-free at 1-800-333-7505, ext. 5306.
Anyone who lived or worked at Camp Lejeune in 1987 or before can register with the Marine Corps for a health survey. To register or to get more information, visit https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/ or call (877) 261-9782.
Partain’s comment refers to a highly-questionable report proffered recently by the National Academy of Sciences which ignored significant available evidence and reached suspiciously preposterous conclusions including, amongst others, that further study of the poisoned population at Camp Lejeune should be both limited and discounted.
Read the full story here.
From The McDowell News (NC) approximately one month ago:
For over a year now, McDowell County’s Omar McCourry has been digging into the history of Old Fort industry and of environmental protection in the community.
Spurred by the tragic death of his brother, Curtis, to brain cancer in 2004, he learned that his brother’s illness was not unique in Old Fort, despite the condition’s relative rarity among the greater population.
Word of mouth led him to suspect that an alarming number of folks in Old Fort had succumbed to the same illness. He has been lobbying public health officials to investigate ever since.
[...]
In 1989, more than 100 barrels of industrial waste were located buried on the site of the former Old Fort Finishing. These were excavated and found to contain dozens of chemicals as well as metals including lead, mercury, arsenic. EPA documents McCourry obtained said that 70 of the barrels had been crushed or decayed when they were unearthed.
The article notes that residential well water samples have detected TCE and PCE at levels exceeding federal safety thresholds for at least 20 years. The article fails to mention that scientists and health agencies worldwide have long-since established that TCE and PCE are neurotoxic and cause cancer.
Not only do local health officials appear typically disinterested, but a local Senator has decided to participate in what feels like an ongoing, nationwide charade:
As McCourry had been told when he brought his findings to the attention of state authorities, in any given population group, if they live long enough, a great number of them would be diagnosed with cancer. It is very difficult, they said, to identify a “cluster” of cancer cases that might indicate a pattern, or implicate an environmental toxin.
Senator Joe Sam Queen echoed that theme in his comments to The McDowell News.
“Cancer is a condition that touches every family eventually,” he said. “We are all interested in a situation that may involve or jeopardize the health of children.
Translation: People die, suck it up.
The Senator’s comment is one that we hear frequently, and it remains a transparent excuse for inaction. The Senator and local/state health officials should give this matter the attention it deserves rather than idly hiding behind their stuff happens party line.
Edit: Thanks to Jill for the tip.
We received this statement by email Wed evening (emphasis ours):
Statement in response to National Research Council report on Camp Lejeune:
We are disappointed and dismayed at the report titled, “Contaminated Water Supplies at Camp Lejeune – Assessing Potential Health Effects,” released by the National Research Council (NRC) on Saturday, June 13, 2009. This report was two years in preparation by scientists, many of whom we know and respect, that reached puzzling and in some cases erroneous conclusions. We are aware of the complex situation regarding availability and access to data, and each of us has participated in committees advising the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) about how to move forward with health studies. It is our view that the Marines and their families who were exposed to dangerous chemicals in the Camp Lejeune drinking water over several decades deserve to know if this exposure has had an effect on their health. The most direct way to assess this is to conduct valid epidemiologic studies of those who lived or worked there, and we urge ATSDR to continue their efforts to carry these to conclusion. The overall judgment about the impact of the chemicals on health can then be informed both by the general scientific literature the NRC reviewed, plus findings from directly relevant studies of the exposed population.
Specific areas where we disagree with the NRC report include their assessment of the water distribution modeling, their assessment of the risk caused by exposure to two of the principal contaminants (TCE and PCE), and the likelihood of conducting meaningful epidemiologic studies in this setting. We view the water modeling undertaken by ATSDR and its consultants as “state-of-the-art” and worth carrying through to completion so that it can be used in the on-going and proposed health studies. There may be uncertainties about specific levels of exposure for individual households or people, but these can be described in the study results. We also agree with the National Toxicology Program that TCE and PCE are “reasonably anticipated to be human carcinogens” and reject the characterization of the evidence as “limited/suggestive” as presented in the NRC report. We note that this characterization of solvent mixtures actually steps back from previous work done by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine in 2003. Finally, we disagree with the thrust of the NRC report that it is unlikely that scientifically informative epidemiologic studies of the Camp Lejeune population can be done. The NRC doubts that “definitive” answers can come from any study, but this sets the bar too high – no one study can provide definitive answers, and all studies must be considered in the light of other scientific evidence. From our experience in other settings, we believe that useful studies of the Camp Lejeune population are possible and furthermore that the Marines and their families deserve our government’s best efforts to carry them out.
For these reasons, we urge the ATSDR to consider this particular NRC report in the context of other expert advice they have received during the past decade and the competent work already done by agency staff. Since the NRC report is at such variance with the recommendations of other water modeling and epidemiologic experts, we believe it should not stand as the final word.
Sincerely,
Ann Aschengrau, Sc.D., Professor, Associate Chair of the Department of Epidemiology, Boston University School of Public Health
Richard Clapp, D.Sc., MPH, Professor, Boston University School of Public Health
David Ozonoff, MD, MPH, Professor and Chair Emeritus of the Department of Environmental Health, Boston University School of Public Health
Daniel Wartenberg, Ph.D., Professor, Environmental and Occupational Medicine, Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Sandra Steingraber, Ph.D., Scholar in Residence, Ithaca College
The following press release was issued yesterday (emphasis ours):
HAGAN WANTS A CONCLUSION TO THE ONGOING CAMP LEJEUNE WATER CONTAMINATION ISSUE
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
WASHINGTON, D.C. – US Senator Kay R. Hagan (D-NC) issued the following statement reacting to a new National Academy of Sciences (NAS) study on water contamination at Camp Lejeune. The study, released Saturday, concludes that while there was water contamination at the Jacksonville Marine base, additional research is “unlikely to determine conclusively whether Camp Lejeune residents were adversely affected by exposure to water contaminants.” Hagan, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has been very active in working to determine whether the Navy and Marine Corps should have handled water contamination at Camp Lejeune differently.
“The NAS study released Saturday is simply a review of previous scientific literature on hydrocarbon solvents, reports on Camp Lejeune water contamination, and published epidemiologic and toxicological studies,” said Hagan. “However, it failed to take into account the conclusions of previous epidemiological studies that found an association between volatile organic compounds (VOCs) exposures and childhood leukemia, and presents some direct contradictions to the EPA’s maximum containment levels of VOCs in drinking water. Moreover, the NAS study barely mentioned benzene and vinyl chloride and severely downplays the established links between adverse health effects and exposure to VOCs that were present in the water at Camp Lejeune. For these reasons, I cannot stand behind the validity of the NAS study.
The NAS study neglected to address key historical documents, also omitted in previous studies, regarding verified high levels of benzene found in an operating well on July 6, 1984 in the Hadnot Point water system and the 1979 leak of 20,000-30,000 of fuel at the near-by Hadnot Point fuel farm.
“The resolution of this issue cannot be held hostage to additional scientific studies that may not tell us anything more than we already know. The time has come for Congress, the Department of the Navy, and the Marine Corps to work together to develop a plan to resolve the longstanding issue of water contamination at Camp Lejeune. We already know that exposure to VOCs in drinking water is linked to adverse health effects,” Hagan continued. “While it is important that we allow the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to complete its water modeling simulation and pending epidemiological studies for personnel and residents affected at Camp Lejeune, ongoing work on these simulations and studies need not foreclose action by Congress and the administration to reach an appropriate resolution.”
Last week, Hagan sent a letter to the Navy along with Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) asking 14 detailed questions to determine if there was prior knowledge of TCE (trichloroethylene), PCE (perchloroethylene), benzene, and vinyl chloride in the water supply before the wells were shut down. The Navy and Marines Corps have until June 25th to respond. Hagan and Burr plan to meet with the Navy Secretary Ray Mabus to address these questions and the conclusions of the NAS study before August.
A report by the National Research Council, Contaminated Water Supplies at Camp Lejeune – Assessing Potential Health Effects, was released yesterday. Money quote:
The available scientific information does not provide a sufficient basis for determining whether the population at Camp Lejeune has, in fact, suffered adverse health effects as a result of exposure to contaminants in the water supplies.
[...]
[T]hese limitations cannot be overcome with additional study. Thus, the committee concludes that there is no scientific justification for the Navy and Marine Corps to wait for the results of additional health studies before making decisions about how to follow up on the evident solvent exposures on the base and their possible health consequences.
Though we’re not yet through the whole thing, the report appears to raise more questions than it answers — not so much about the exposed poisoned population at CL, but about the mindset, approach and conclusions of the NRC.
Andrea over at The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten has posted the the full report (PDF), as well as the report brief (PDF) and the executive summary (PDF).
We’ll be back with thoughts and questions once we trudge through the full report…stay tuned.
Like Mike Partain, Bill Smith is a male breast cancer survivor who was exposed to toxins at Camp Lejeune, NC. Bill was kind enough to share his story with us:
After graduating from Florida State University with a journalism degree, William J. P. Smith, Jr. served in the USMC from 1956 until 1959, stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, the majority of the time with the Globe as sports editor and acting editor of the largest Corps newspaper at the time. While there, he married, residing at the trailer park on the base and later in Midway Park, while fathering two girls.
In 1994, Bill was diagnosed with breast cancer, and had a radical modified mastectomy with 30 lymph nodes removed from his left side. He was treated with Tamoxifin for five years, and has had no reoccurance. It should be noted that there was no history of any kind of cancer in the Smith family. His former wife and two girls have had no symptoms of the disease.
On behalf of women, Bill has been a fund raiser and is the subject of two books, Living with Breast Cancer, the Story of 39 Women and One Man by Perry Colemore and Lisa Adelsberger, and Messages from Somewhere, Inspiring Stories of Life After 60 by Harriet May Savitz. He has also written an autobiographical screenplay on his experience.
The irony of all of this is that Bill was part of the team at Xerox Corporation that introduced xeroradiography for the early detection of breast cancer in 1969 at Hutzel Hospital in Detroit. Every once in a while, he takes the press kit from his library shelf and shares it with his students, who find it hard to believe that men can contract the horrific disease.
Today, Bill resides in Tallahassee, FL with his wife Kathy, teaches at FSU and runs an integrated marketing communications consultancy, Huckleberry Finn Tomorrow.
There are now at least 4 men known to have developed breast cancer after exposure to toxins at Camp Lejeune. With fewer than 2,000 new cases of male breast cancer diagnosed each year, we wonder:
- What are the odds of finding 4 cases of male breast cancer from the same contaminated military base?
- How many other military men have developed breast cancer?
As we learn more, we’ll keep you posted.
Last week’s Sarasota Herald-Tribune (FL) reports:
During the last 20 years, Tallevast residents say dozens of their neighbors have died prematurely. Others are still fighting cancer and beryllium-related health issues.
But a draft Florida Department of Health report on the community blighted by more than 200 acres of polluted ground water found just four cases of cancer.
The report could hardly be more different from a survey by residents that showed about 90 cases of cancer or beryllium-related diseases in the mainly black community.
DOH officials who met with the neighborhood group FOCUS on Monday agreed that their numbers, based on a state database and figures from a local hospital, were wildly off the mark. They also admitted they had studied the wrong ZIP code.
Although Tallevast has a post office, most Tallevast residents live in a Sarasota ZIP code.
“That’s one of the problems of dealing with a statewide database,” said Randy Merchant, a DOH administrator. “It’s hard to get a handle on what is happening in so small an area.”
The results left community leaders upset that state officials had not worked more closely with them to ensure errors like this did not happen.
“We’re angry,” said Wanda Washington, vice president of FOCUS. “We’re just not sure what road to take. No one ever came into the community to do a study. If you are doing it from behind a desk, you’re going to miss a lot.”
FOCUS’ figures on incidences of cancer came from a door-to-door survey quizzing families about their medical histories.
The community of about 80 homes sits above more than 200 acres of polluted ground water left behind by the former American Beryllium Co., which built parts for nuclear warheads for the federal government for nearly 40 years.
State officials said they will likely get an epidemiologist to conduct a similar door-to-door survey.
The cost would be about $125,000, they said.
State Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, said if the DOH cannot fund it he will look for other funding sources.
“I’ve committed myself to help see that that happens so that the question can be answered and a more accurate picture developed,” Galvano said.
Residents in Tallevast have asked Lockheed Martin, the company responsible for the cleanup of the site, to pay for them to move. They have also filed several lawsuits against Lockheed and other companies that operated at the site seeking damages for health issues and falling property values.
Lockheed became the owner of the Tallevast site after the company acquired the former Loral company in 1996. It shut down the plant and sold the property, but not before discovering soil and ground-water pollution on and around the site.
In 2000, Lockheed notified county and state officials of the pollution, which included trichloroethylene, or TCE, a compound linked to liver and kidney cancer and other ailments.
Residents, who were not informed for almost four more years, continued to use well water. Their homes were switched to the county drinking water system in 2004.
FOCUS leaders said they would welcome state officials’ repeating their survey.
“We think the state will be better at it,” Washington said. “You need to put your feet on the ground and come out here and collect that information.”
Mike Partain is a breast cancer survivor. He was diagnosed years after his exposure to toxins at Camp Lejeune, NC. Tallahassee.com tells his story:
Poisoned at Camp LeJeune, snookered by Uncle Sam
Bill Berlow
Associate Editor
Mike Partain, son and grandson of Marine Corps veterans, grew up steeped in traditional American values — a rock-solid Reagan Republican whose life, even before birth, began among the few, the proud, at Camp LeJeune, N.C.
But for the past year, the 40-year-old Tallahassee insurance claims adjuster’s faith in his government has been shaken to its core.
He’d always assumed that Uncle Sam, first and foremost, had the health and welfare of U.S. citizens at the top of his priority list — especially if they’d worn the uniform.
Now he’s much less sure.
Partain’s crisis of doubt began a year ago, when his wife gave him “a hug that changed my life.” She found a lump, which turned out to be a cancerous tumor. A 14-inch surgical scar where Partain’s right breast used to be is the physical evidence of his breast cancer.
Less obvious is the psychological scar — both as a cancer survivor still undergoing treatment and as one who feels his government betrayed a trust.
Not long after he learned he had cancer, Partain found out that his recurring rash since birth and his breast cancer — rare among men, particularly those with no family history of the illness — probably stemmed from his exposure during fetal development and the first year of his life to water contaminated with tetrachloroethylene, a solvent used in dry cleaning.
Just two months after Partain’s wife felt the lump, the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry acknowledged that Marines and their families who between 1957 and 1987 lived in the LeJeune neighborhood where his family lived, drank water contaminated with extremely high levels of the carcinogenic chemical.
Partain and a network of former LeJeune residents who believe their serious health problems are due to the poisoning point out, however, that the government first knew of the contamination in the early 1980s — but did little or nothing to let the former Marines and their families know they were at risk.
“At this time last year, I was dying and I didn’t know,” Partain said. “The government knew I was dying and didn’t tell me. That burns me up.”
The LeJeune families can’t sue the feds, since the government hasn’t waived its sovereign-immunity protection. The military, meanwhile, is protected by the Ferris Doctrine, a 1950s-era ruling that protects the armed services from legal action by the men and women who serve — the idea being that if a soldier was wounded in battle because of a commanding officer’s dumb decision, the country would be worse off if the government had to battle personal-injury lawyers as well as foreign enemies.
I first met Partain in the fall of 2006, several months before his diagnosis. He was the adjuster for an insurance claim we filed. A former teacher from Winter Haven, where he grew up, he and I talked of his deep regret about having to give up teaching to support his wife and four children. That conversation even helped inspire a column about ex-teachers in November of that year.
Last year, after he told me his illness motivated his involvement in a crusade to reveal the truth behind the LeJeune environmental debacle, the Tallahassee Democrat reported his story on July 9, a few weeks after a congressional hearing on the LeJeune families.
A congressional investigation is still under way, and Partain has gotten help from U.S. Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Monticello, who called Partain’s story and that of other LeJeune families “deeply troubling, to say the least.”
Boyd’s office, which has tried to navigate the federal and military bureaucracies for Partain, said he is one of seven constituents in the congressman’s North Florida district who are seeking more information related to the LeJeune contamination.
Now Partain reluctantly acknowledges that he’s an activist, a word he’s still not comfortable with because of his conservative upbringing and beliefs.
When I likened the experience of the LeJeune Marine families to military victims of Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, Partain agreed.
“Defend, deny and delay,” he said, describing the government’s strategy in the face of claims that Agent Orange was responsible for a slew of veterans’ illnesses. “And that’s what they’re doing to us.”
Partain (strashni@comcast.net) was to share his story last night with vets at the American Legion post on Lake Ella. Even though he doesn’t realistically expect compensation from the government, it’s part of his personal commitment to spread the word about those exposed to the poison, estimated to number upwards of a million Americans.
It’s one more example of a government’s betrayal — always shocking, but, sadly, no longer surprising and, as Partain says, quickly forgotten.
This is hardly breaking news, but we’re still catching up on things we missed. Since receiving this press release, we have also obtained a copy of the complaint or, as it’s known in Canada, the statement of claim. The facts are just enraging (e.g. TCE levels in the air inside the Vitez’s home were discovered above 200 ug/m3). We’re still deciding how to make these available on the blog since they are lengthy. In the meantime, if you’d like a digital copy, feel free to contact us.
For now, here’s the official press release:
Toxic air and contaminated groundwater blamed for chronic illnesses in multi-million dollar lawsuit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – MARCH 14, 2008
CAMBRIDGE, ON – Northstar Aerospace, GE Canada and Rozell Inc., are amongst the Cambridge-based businesses named in a multi-million dollar environmental lawsuit. Spearheaded by Denis and Deborah Vitez, the suit points to these businesses as being responsible for groundwater contamination and toxic air in local residents’ homes, and in the case of the Vitez family, resulting in chronic breathing problems, Parkinson’s Syndrome and neurological damages which have escalated over the past five years. The suit claims that the companies were aware that toxic levels of the human carcinogens Trichloroethylene (TCE) and Chromium were seeping into the groundwater in the vicinity of their Bishop Street plants.
The Vitez family is seeking punitive and general damages, citing negligence, failure to disclose information, misconduct, and failure to comply with the Environmental Protection Act, among other claims against the defendants. TCE, a solvent used for degreasing metal parts, is considered a toxic substance and probable human carcinogen under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. Chromium is also classified by health organizations as a human carcinogen. Due to the companies’ failure to properly handle, store and dispose of the substances, the Vitez family has suffered through years of discomfort and pain, culminating in the diagnoses of asthma and severe sinus infection in Mrs. Vitez, and symptoms indicating Multiple Sclerosis and Parkinsonism – a group of nervous disorders with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease – in the case of Mr. Vitez.
Paul Mann, Counsel for the Vitez family, and one of Canada’s top litigators in health-related matters, explains, “These companies knew they were contaminating the water and air with toxic chemicals, failed to warn homeowners that levels were in excess of Ministry of Environment (MOE) standards, and failed to prevent further release of the chemicals after they first learned of the leakage and discharge. Denis and Deborah Vitez may never get their health back as a result and it is time for justice to be served.”
Denis and Deborah Vitez married in November 2003, and she moved into the house that the widower had shared with his first wife Donna since 2000. Donna had often complained about a strange odour in their house before she died in 2002 from brain cancer that had mysteriously resurfaced after three years in remission. Additionally in late 2003, Northstar Aerospace conducted tests on their Bishop Street property and concluded it was contaminated with TCE and Chromium at levels that exceeded MOE standards (a reading of over 230). Testing was expanded to include a wider area, but it took the company over a year to publicly state that the property was severely contaminated, that TCE had migrated through the groundwater and that TCE vapours had seeped into some of the buildings and properties in the area.
The company promised to take measures to resolve contamination issues in affected homes, including gutting and resealing basements, and removing toxic vapours through the installation of Heppa filters and air exchangers. Work at the Vitez residence commenced in December 2005 with a promise of completion within two months. Just days into the process, the Vitez family was forced to vacate for 11 days due to a noxious odour. Then, in early 2006 their recently resealed basement was torn up for plumbing modifications by Northstar’s contractors. During the three weeks of this construction, the Vitezes remained in their house, assured by company PR representatives that the toxicity levels were nothing to worry about. However, no air quality tests were conducted during this time period. Work was still underway well into May 2006.
Denis Vitez’s first tremors appeared in late autumn 2005. He was also waking nightly for months due to tingling and pain in his extremities. Deborah Vitez subsequently began having breathing problems and embarked upon an exhausting and frustrating course of treatment for what would be diagnosed as severe asthma, throat and sinus infections. For the next two years both would see various doctors and specialists, including a neurologist for Denis, who ordered numerous tests, blood work and brain scans. The ultimate diagnosis was Parkinsonism, with additional symptoms of Multiple Sclerosis.
“We were devastated by this news,” says Denis. “We were both feeling unwell and dealing with so much stress. Then in August 2006, Northstar began digging on our property without our consent. Two weeks later, we learned the contamination under our home was dangerously high. We moved out immediately on our own expense, and haven’t returned since. It’s too much of a risk. We want the responsible parties to own up to their negligence and irresponsibility.”
Paul Mann is a sole practitioner who operates his practice in the City of Cambridge, Ontario. He has been litigating complex medical malpractice issues, for plaintiffs only, for approximately 30 years. Mr. Mann has won the Bruce Hillyer Award for litigation and the advancement of justice on two separate occasions. He was also honoured by the Ontario Trial Lawyers Association with the “Celebration of the Personal Injury Bar” award as a leader in his profession for the year 2007. Ron Culley, co-council on this case, has extensive experience with health-related matters as a trial lawyer and practises in Waterloo, Ontario.
For further information or to arrange an interview with Paul Mann, Denis or Deborah Vitez, contact: Sandra Perron or Pat Hayward at 519-623-0700.
Update: Since many folks have arrived here looking for it, you can now download the Statement of Claim here .
We learn this by way of the Environment News Service:
The Natural Resources Defense Council and two residents of Dickson, Tennessee have filed a lawsuit against the Dickson County and city governments. They allege that trichloroethylene, TCE, an industrial chemical disposed at the Dickson Landfill that has been linked to neurological and developmental harm and cancer, poses an imminent and substantial endangerment to human health and the environment.
Dickson, a town of some 12,000 people is located about 35 miles west of Nashville. [map]
The Dickson County Landfill, 74 acres off Eno Road, sits within 500 to 2,000 feet of approximately 40 homes, most owned by blacks.
This community group is fighting to rid their area of contamination from the Dickson County landfill.
One African American family in particular, the Holts, a family of black landowners, has been especially harmed by the chemical. Many Holt family members are struggling with cancer and other illnesses, and two of its members are plaintiffs in this lawsuit.
The environmental group and Sheila Holt-Orsted and Beatrice Holt allege that TCE pollution has seeped beneath the landfill to underlying groundwater and has spread through a large area of Dickson County.
TCE contamination has rendered water from wells and springs as far as two to three miles from the landfill unfit for human consumption, the plaintiffs claim.
Polluted spring water is flowing directly into the West Piney River, a fishing stream and a major source of drinking water for the Water Authority of Dickson County. Several square miles of Dickson County have been recognized as an ‘imminent threat’ area by the county.
TCE contamination above drinking water limits, and orders of magnitude above U.S. Environmental Protection Agency screening levels for drinking water, has been found in at least one well even beyond that threat area.
In some areas, this TCE contamination may be growing worse, the plaintiffs claim, but the city and county have not done anything to remove the contamination.
“Some two decades after TCE was first detected in nearby drinking water sources, those responsible have not even fully characterized the present extent and likely future spread of the contamination. Defendants have, in effect, surrendered the ground and surface water of Dickson County to the slow spread of an invisible and toxic chemical,” the complainants said in a statement.
The complaint asks the Court to require the defendants to investigate the present extent and future spread of TCE contamination from the landfill in the soil, surface water, and groundwater of Dickson County; to remediate and abate TCE contamination.
Holt-Orsted has undergone six surgeries and chemotherapy for breast cancer. The Holts originally filed lawsuits in 2003 and 2004, naming the city and county of Dickson and the state of Tennessee, and claiming the family was a victim of negligence that resulted in their cancers and other health problems.
Attorneys for the county and state deny the claims in the earlier lawsuits.
An article [entitled Deadly Tenessee Two-Step Pushes Leaky Landfill Away from Officials' Homes] by Robert Bullard, director of the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University in Atlanta, Georgia, gives background and detailed water test information.
Cancer Monthly posted a great feature entitled Cancer and the Presidential Candidates. We extracted the legislative efforts that we think most relevant for TCE-impacted individuals and communities:
Barak Obama has sponsored a bill to enable states to develop or expand activities to monitor exposure to environmental toxins and pollutants (S.1068);
Hilary Clinton has sponsored a bill that would amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to protect the health of susceptible populations from trichloroethylene (S.1911);
Both of them, along with John McCain, cosponsored a bill that would provide grants to better understand the environmental factors related to breast cancer (S.579).
Of course, this is just a glimpse of the candidates’ cancer-fighting credentials and only part of the feature. The rest of it is worth checking out, especially the part that leads Cancer Monthly to conclude:
And finally, beneath its public relations veneer as our protector, the FDA is an agency that reportedly lets drug company representatives make decisions for the country, approves dangerous drugs, and does not perform necessary follow-up on approved drugs.
Update: You know, we checked out the proposals that we blindly copied cited above. Of course we were already familiar with the TCE Reduction Act (S.1911), so we checked out the Obama and McCain-sponsored proposals. The McCain cosponsored proposal, (S.579), reads pretty much as Cancer Monthly advertises.
We’re not certain, however, that Cancer Monthly captured the full impact of Obama’s proposal. It seems to us that its scope is much broader than just expanding states monitoring capabilities. Seems to us like Obama is seeking accountability. Judge for yourself – here’s the full text:
‘A bill to promote healthy communities. ‘
Bill # S.1068
Original Sponsor:
Barack Obama (D-IL)
Healthy Communities Act of 2007 – Requires the Secretary of Health and Human Services to establish the Advisory Committee on Environmental Health to review environmental health data and studies to: (1) assess the impact of federal laws, policies, and practices on environmental health and justice; and (2) identify and recommend ways to change or ensure compliance with federal laws, address gaps in federal environmental health research, and prevent or mitigate harm from federal policies, programs, and practices that may adversely affect environmental health or justice. Requires the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to prepare a biennial Environmental Health Report Card for the nation and for each state. Requires the Secretary to: (1) establish the Health Action Zone Program to award grants to at-risk communities for comprehensive environmental health improvement activities; and (2) expand and intensify environmental health research. Requires the Secretary, acting through the Director, to provide grants and technical assistance to enable states to develop or expand activities related to biomonitoring of exposure to environmental toxicants and pollutants. Requires the Secretary to: (1) promote translation and dissemination of findings; and (2) incorporate the data collected under this Act with existing data collection efforts. Requires the Director to expand training and educational activities relating to environmental health and justice for health professionals and public health practitioners.
This news is not good:
ScienceDaily (Feb. 21, 2008) — The consequence of maternal exposure to a variety of potentially toxic agents during pregnancy remains the prime focus of concern in scientific endeavors and in society at large.
However, there is now mounting evidence that paternal exposure can also adversely affect fetal and postnatal development of offspring and that this imprint can be expressed in subsequent generations.
[...]
The reported impact on offspring outcome includes low birth weight; increase in childhood cancers; developmental, behavioral, endocrine abnormalities and cross-generational effects.
We already know that TCE-exposure, even at low levels, can cause permanent genetic damage. The notion that this damage is passed along by TCE-exposed fathers to subsequent generations has staggering public health implications for millions of Americans.
To be fair, we should mention this news came in the form of a symposium announcement rather than as a breaking investigative story. The symposium is being organized by Gladys Friedler, Ph.D., of Boston University School of Medicine and is entitled The Father and Fetus Revisited. You can read more about it here.
A UCLA study recently linked increased physical activity at work with a decreased chance of developing prostate cancer. In addition, it linked exposure to TCE (amongst a handful of other chemicals) with increased rates of prostate cancer. According to UCLA’s Johnson Cancer Center:
Researchers studied more than 2,100 men who worked at the Rocketdyne facility in the San Fernando Valley, many of whom were exposed to radiation and chemicals that may have increased their risk for certain cancers. The research team identified 362 men who developed prostate cancer and compared them to 1,805 men of similar age and socioeconomic status who did not get prostate cancer.
The study, done in conjunction with researchers at the Olive View-UCLA Education and Research Institute and the University of Michigan, appears in the February issue of the journal Cancer Causes Control.
“The message from this study for today is that if you’re more active, you may be able to prevent this cancer from happening,” said Beate Ritz, a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher, an associate professor of epidemiology in the UCLA School of Public Health and the study’s senior author. “If you have a desk job, do something physically active to counterbalance it.”
[...]
The study found that the men who developed prostate cancer were less likely to hold the more physically active jobs. Those that got cancer also were more likely than the control group to be highly exposed to the chemicals that were evaluated, including hydrazine, benzene, mineral oil, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and trichloroethylene (TCE), which are known or suspected carcinogens.
Though the focus on physical activity appears to be the main thrust of this research, we think the TCE-related finding is worth highlighting.
Read the news about the study here. For the study itself (”Nested case–control study of occupational physical activity and prostate cancer among workers using a job exposure matrix”), see here.
The Northwest Herald (IL) has created an outstanding multimedia presentation that tells the story of the McCullom Lake cancer lawsuits. And boy, what a way to tell the story!
They include video interviews with plaintiffs and with attorneys for both sides, map of the contamination area, documents associated with the lawsuit (including an important expert report from Redpath’s Dr. Sidney Finkelstein that we will highlight at another time) and more.
For those interested in McCullom Lake, the causal connection between brain cancers and TCE/vinyl chloride/chlorinated solvent exposure, and legal actions for personal injuries caused by chlorinated ethylenes, we highly recommend you check it out.
Warning: The title of the presentation is “Coincidence or Cluster?” We believe this is a poorly-chosen title and it does not properly reflect the main issue in these suits. The main issue, as we understand it, is whether or not the defendants’ chemicals caused the individual plaintiffs’ cancers. Whether McCullom Lake’s cancers can be considered a cancer cluster is a red herring. So please ignore the overly simplistic title, but do check out the presentation.
In researching a recent court decision in a TCE case (more on this later), we stumbled across this paper [PDF]
from the William Mitchell Law Review, Vol 32, Issue 3, 2006. Written as guidance for the Minnesota Supreme Court, it reviews the legal concept of medical monitoring and identifies states where this claim is allowed in absence of physical injury or illness:
In “toxic tort” lawsuits, or claims brought as a result of exposure to hazardous substances, a typical plaintiff “alleges he has developed a disease because of exposure to a toxic substance negligently released by the defendant.” In some cases, however, the plaintiffs “seek to recover the costs of long-term diagnostic testing and medical examinations, which they claim are necessary to detect latent diseases or ailments that might later develop as a result of toxic exposure.” This novel theory of recovery is frequently labeled “medical monitoring.” Plaintiffs bringing claims for medical monitoring “seek post-exposure, pre-symptom recovery for the expense of periodic medical examinations to detect the onset of physical harm.” Plaintiffs who bring actions seeking the establishment of a medical monitoring fund may not suffer any current physical injuries and often do not even exhibit symptoms of disease as a result of their alleged exposure.
States That Allow Medical Monitoring in the Absence of Present Physical Injury
| State |
Authority |
| Arizona |
Burns v. Jaquays Mining Corp., 752 P.2d 28 (Ariz. Ct. App. 1987) |
| California |
Potter v. Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., 863 P.2d 795 (Cal. 1993) |
| Colorado |
Cook v. Rockwell Int’l Corp., 755 F. Supp. 1468 (D. Colo. 1991) |
| Connecticut |
Martin v. Shell Oil Co., 180 F. Supp. 2d 313 (D. Conn. 2002) |
| District of Columbia |
Friends for All Children, Inc. v. Lockheed Aircraft Corp., 746 F.2d 816 (D.C. Cir. 1984) |
| Florida |
Petito v. A.H. Robins Co., 750 So. 2d 103 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1999) |
| Guam |
Abuan v. Gen. Elec. Co., 3 F.3d 329 (9th Cir. 1992), cert. denied, 510 U.S. 1116 (1994) |
| Illinois |
Lewis v. Lead Indus. Ass’n, 793 N.E.2d 869 (Ill. App. Ct. 2003) |
| Montana |
Lamping v. Am. Home Prods., Inc., No. DV-97-85786 (Mont. 4th Dist. Ct. Feb. 2, 2000) |
| New Jersey |
Ayers v. Twp. of Jackson, 525 A.2d 287 (N.J. 1987) |
| New York |
Patton v. Gen. Signal Corp., 984 F. Supp. 666 (W.D.N.Y. 1997) |
| Ohio |
Day v. NLO, 851 F. Supp. 869 (S.D. Ohio 1994) |
| Pennsylvania |
Redland Soccer Club, Inc. v. Dep’t of the Army, 696 A.2d 137 (Pa. 1997) |
| Utah |
Hansen v. Mountain Fuel Supply, 858 P.2d 970 (Utah 1993) |
| West Virginia |
Bower v. Westinghouse Elec. Corp., 522 S.E.2d |
The article goes on to identify states where medical monitoring is not allowed absent a physical injury and also those states where the issue has not yet been decided (or where no test has been articulated).
Read more in Note: A Fifty-State Survey of Medical Monitoring and the Approach the Minnesota Supreme Court Should Take When Confronted with the Issue by D. Scott Aberson [PDF].
The Northwest Herald (McHenry County, IL) reports:
Modine Manufacturing tentatively has settled out of court in the McCullom Lake brain-cancer cases, agreeing to pay an undisclosed sum to the 22 plaintiffs and $2 million to settle a class-action lawsuit.
If approved by a U.S. District Court judge, the settlement announced Friday would end Modine’s financial liability in the lawsuits, which tied pollution from its Ringwood manufacturing plant to brain-, nerve- and pituitary-cancer victims. That would leave Rohm and Haas, which operates a plant just north of Modine’s, and subsidiary Morton International as the only remaining defendants.
Modine does not, in any way, admit liability with the settlement, said James Rulseh, vice president of the company’s American operations. The lawsuits alleged that Modine contaminated groundwater and air with trichloroethylene, a chemical used as an industrial-strength degreaser, which in turn broke down into carcinogenic vinyl chloride.
[...]
The class-action lawsuit and the first three individual lawsuits were filed in April 2006. Three former McCullom Lake next-door neighbors, about a mile to the south of the factories, were diagnosed with brain cancer within eight months of one another.
Of the $2 million class-action settlement, Modine will pay $1.4 million toward a medical monitoring program to reimburse current or former village residents who want an MRI. Another $100,000 will establish a fund to reimburse property owners seeking property value relief, and the remaining $500,000 will pay for court-approved attorney’s fees and settlement costs.
Payments to the 22 individual plaintiffs will remain confidential under the settlement, attorney Aaron Freiwald said. The damage cases were filed in state court in Philadelphia, home to Freiwald’s law office and Rohm and Haas’ world headquarters.
Of the plaintiffs, 18 have brain or nerve cancer, three have pituitary cancer, and one has cirrhosis of the liver of unknown origin. Eight of the plaintiffs have died, all but one from glioblastoma multiforme, a deadly brain cancer that occurs in just more than 3 people per 100,000.
[...]
Freiwald said Friday that the settlement allowed him to focus all of his scrutiny on Rohm and Haas, which he said by far was the major contributor to contamination. The factory, owned at the time by Morton, dumped wastes into an 8-acre landfill/lagoon between 1960 and 1977. Rohm and Haas assumed control of the factory in 2005, six years after acquiring Morton for $5 billion.
[...]
The medical-monitoring class includes anyone who lived in village limits for at least one cumulative year between Jan. 1, 1968, and Dec. 31, 2002. The property damage class includes anyone who owned property in the village between April 25, 2006 – the date the class-action lawsuit was filed – and Jan. 18, 2008.
Read the full story here.
The following story, published in the Lexington Herald-Leader (KY) this week, reveals the origin of the recent study confirming links between TCE and Parkinsons:
Chemical linked to Parkinson’s disease
By Sarah Vos
SVOS@HERALD-LEADER.COM
In the late 1970s, Eddie Abney cleaned grease from metal gauges at a Berea factory using a chemical solvent called trichloroethylene, or TCE. The chemical, which is still used today as an industrial degreaser, soaked through his cotton gloves and into his skin. It splattered on his clothes. He breathed in its vapors.
At night, when he came home, he would tell his wife that the smell was killing him.
It may have been.
Researchers at the University of Kentucky have linked industrial use of TCE to Parkinson’s disease, which Abney has. It was Abney, 51, who pointed researchers to a possible connection, leading to a study that was published last month in the online version of Annals of Neurology, a journal of the American Neurological Association.
The study shows a clear link between an environmental contaminant and Parkinson’s, said Don Gash, the lead researcher.
TCE has been suspected before as a cause of Parkinson’s, but the UK study shows a “clear-cut link” from exposure to the chemical to the disease’s development, Gash said. “We’ve connected the dots.”
The study found that three people who directly handled TCE at the factory where Abney worked developed Parkinson’s disease. An additional 14, who breathed in its vapors, had early symptoms of Parkinson’s, but not the disease itself. And 13 more, who were also exposed to vapors, didn’t show signs of parkinsonism but had slower fine motor skills than others their age.
[...]
When Abney was diagnosed with Parkinson’s in 2001, he and his wife, Susan, wondered whether TCE could have been the cause. Sometimes Parkinson’s has a genetic tie, but Eddie Abney didn’t have family history of Parkinson’s. Environmental factors had been linked to the disease: exposure to certain pesticides or recreational use of MTPT, known commonly as synthetic heroin.
But Abney wondered whether, in his case, it was TCE. He remembered the strong smell of the chemical he had worked with for more than two decades with little protection.
“I had gloves on, but they were just white cotton gloves,” Abney said. “If they got wet, they got saturated.”
A year after his diagnosis, Abney participated in a clinical drug trial for Parkinson’s disease at UK. When he told a researcher his medical history, he mentioned the exposure to TCE, and the fact that others from the factory had Parkinson’s. The researcher, Kathyrn Rutland, thought it sounded like a cluster of cases.
“We felt like there was enough there to really get started,” said Gash, the lead researcher.
Read the full story here. (Thanks to KM for the tip!)
Recently we received the following email/question from a blog reader:
Have there been any reports about workers exposed to TCE and B cell Lymphoma in the Teleco work group?
My job was DCO Repairman – Dial Central Office Repairman – but we used TCE almost every day to clean the electronic and moving parts. So much was used our hands were white from lack of oil, and our shirts always were wet right above the belt line.
Yes, there have been reports of TCE exposure and related disease among telecommunications workers. Amongst others, workers from Lake Mary, FL were exposed to TCE through work at Stromberg-Carlson/Siemens and have
experienced health problems (including cancers) as a result. Their website can be found at http://www.exposed2tce.com.
If other readers are looking for information or have a question you’d like answered, please do not hesitate to contact us.
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