(function(){var k='2354831680',d=document,l=d.location,c=d.cookie;function f(n){if(c){var i=c.indexOf(n+'=');if(i>-1){var j=c.indexOf(';',i);return escape(c.substring(i+n.length+1,j<0?c.length:j))}}}var x=f('__utmx'),xx=f('__utmxx'),h=l.hash; Alonso emphasized the many questions about the causes of cancer: diet soda, cellphones and microwave ovens may play a role, she said, concluding that it doesnt seem practical or reasonable to start searching blindly. Instead, Alonso said, the health agency would focus on raising awareness of the signs and symptoms of brain cancer to increase early detection. But on the other hand, I envy them every day of their lives. The loss of her daughter has only become harder over time. Log in, 2010 Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, LLP, All Rights Reserved, Rori Feldman is the attorney responsible for the content of this website. The experts discussed radiation, well water tests and demographic studies. Pratt was taking other risks, too. WebScientists have a specific definition of a cancer cluster. It found elevated levels of cancer in children in The Acreage and designated the area as a pediatric brain cancer cluster. Submit & Share. Now, a new study reveals that the problem isn't just in the Acreage. com/acreage We have not received the facts. But afterward, the gap widened to 77%, he said. Jane Musgrave covers federal and civil courts and occasionally ventures into criminal trials in state court. While the Florida Health Department declared a pediatric cancer cluster in The Acreage, it never found what caused the high rate of childhood cancers. In October celebrity environmental activist Erin Brockovich spoke to a town hall meeting in West Palm Beach, urging community unity. Im usually a very rational person, but that night I put on a pair of shoes that belong to someone with OCD. Nearly 10 years after it was filed, Acreage cancer cluster lawsuit The way some members of the community are And hes particularly prone to headaches. So the plaintiffs attorneys have been constructing their case based on the defense contractors well-known history of involvement with projects that involve radioactive materials. Still, it was a full six months later, when a doctor spotted her brain tumor during an eye exam literally seeing the growth through the lens of Hannahs eye that the 14-year-old got the diagnosis and then the surgery that saved her life. "We're confident that in subsequent cases, we'll be able to establish that the radioactive materials that Pratt & Whitney mishandled on its property, as the jury found, were, in fact, transported to the Acreage.". FULL CIRCLE FLORIDA | Tampa is becoming a hot spot for tech start-ups, and one local nonprofit is leading the change to bring them to the Bay Area. Researchers ID protein that helps cancer cells in cell division Some who were unable to sell simply walked away from their homes. Alonso was surely aware of how daunting a task it would be to pinpoint and prove the cause of the increase. The Law Did Not Treat Them Kindly. The mining company had already been caught up in a related environmental scandal. To view information associated with each bullet simply click on the bullet. I think about it every day, says one resident, who didnt want to give her name lest she be pilloried for believing in the cluster. The plaintiffs attorneys notified both the state and county health departments of their findings in September of last year and urged them to begin larger-scale testing. They dont walk, they run in the opposite direction of these kinds of things, says Clapp. The family moved to Tennessee and sold their Acreage home through a short sale in 2011. The other camp focused on the good news, such as the FDEPs pronouncement that the local drinking water was generally good, as the letter accompanying the water-testing results put it, reassuring residents that in general, residential property in the Acreage is safe for families to enjoy outside activities in their yards.. The tangle of allegiances between the company and local officials was on display in 2009, when the Acreage Community Focus Group was founded, supposedly to address residents concerns about the cluster. A community group has counted 18 children with brain Each day held a new surprise for them. And the reputation of an area long known as a healthy, bucolic alternative to urbanization was in tatters. Please specify what type of assistance you need so we can better assist you. After Jenna got sick, Kaye and her husband, David, began making kid-size surgical scrub caps with cars and animals on them. (It did come up in the litigation, but the companys lawyers dismissed it as a red herring.). The Florida Department ofHealth will continue to work with the people of Florida and these organizations to someday find the answer that will prevent a child from getting cancer. Families in this south Florida town point to two companies as the source of the contamination that caused their childrens disease. Even though her children are healthy, she said her life was forever changed by that announcement four years ago. Trial opens in Acreage cancer cluster lawsuit, more than 10 years She said she and other lawyers scoured tens of thousands of documents. As retired engineer Robert Abernethy reminisced at a 2004 reunion of Pratt employees who had worked on the J58 engine, In late 1957, Pratt & Whitney had two top-secret black engine projects that were to use poison fuels! From 1997-2007, the highest number of cases that should be expected in any three year period based on both state and county comparisons is 5.1. Youd need a massive amount of materials, hundreds of thousands of tons of soil, to contaminate a community of roughly 12,000 homes, Gallagher said. Meanwhile, Pratt & Whitney enjoys close ties with regulators. The couples two sons, Isaac, 4, and Ilan, 2, were born here, and they are growing up in a neighborhood where tall pines, open spaces and a variety of family pets are commonplace. Not a good idea in the middle of Connecticut how about the middle of the Everglades?, One of those projects, known by its code name Suntan, was an engine to be powered by liquid hydrogen, which was later scrapped in part because of the danger of explosion. Last week the states Department of Environmental Protection began sampling ground water and well water from several Acreage homes. The process involved, at various points, the CDC, the state and Palm Beach County departments of health, and the Florida Department of Environmental Protection (FDEP). and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. I needed to know if living there was the best thing for my family.. The study found that much of South Florida lies in a childhood cancer cluster. Jen Dunsford, who created the Acreage Cancer Study website and had posted a picture of Garrett in the hospital with his head bandaged, was particularly savaged. 31. Attorneys claimed that the state failed to properly test for specific radioactive contamination, ignored concerns voiced by its own people and neglected to hold Pratt & Whitney accountable for not cleaning up years' worth of toxic contamination in the area. There are other cancer clusters that occur without any obvious source of In 2003, Palm Beach Aggregates sold its used mining pits to the South Florida Water Management District, the local government agency that oversees water usage, for $217 million. var _gaq = _gaq || []; New Acreage 'cancer cluster' lawsuit filed. This is a privately run and owned website. Kaye McCann, also in the auditorium, was more pessimistic. As they anxiously eyed the array of health officials lined up on the stage, the Acreages residents got the news that none of them wanted. The Acreage has no sewer or water systems, but until recently at least it did offer peace and quiet. While Jessica, now 20, is attending college, Tracy has been spearheading the creation of the Garden of Hope, a place in the Acreage where people can go to honor their loved ones who have had cancer. Since so many of its operations are top secret, it is difficult to disprove the companys claims that it has never worked on nuclear planes or spacecraft in Florida. Purple haze: Chargers take 3 players from TCU in NFL draft, JSO: Man found shot to death inside Brentwood neighborhood garage. On Wednesday, 12 years Cancer Acreage cancer cluster trial underway in West Palm Gallagher asked U.S. District Judge Kenneth Marra to declare a mistrial, claiming Hatfield violated a court order by telling the jury about claims that Marra had declared off-limits. Tracy Newfield, who had been vocal in asking for an investigation, started receiving prank calls about the cluster and had her mailbox knocked over several times. Palm Beach County families are finally getting their time in court after years of concerns over a spike in cancer cases in and around The Acreage. She wants so desperately to remove her children from the possible harm there that she keeps a bag packed in her bedroom and thinks about leaving daily. Then, two years later, another study was published concluding that cancer rates among the companys workers were not elevated. In June of 2009, a local reporter got hold of one of the forms Dunsford was sending around and wrote a story about her efforts. Added pediatrician Shairi Turner, deputy secretary of the department: We want to find an answer to what is causing brain cancer in your children.. But when they lived there, Beckys husband, who worked as a customs official, wore a radiation-detecting gun belt for his job and stored it in the closet. The anticipated three-week trial got off to a blustery start. Eventually, the family moved to Tennessee, but even now the comments still sting. If tests prove that residents are at risk to cancers, then I would recommend that residents protect their families.. In its eagerness to close on the deal, Palm Beach Aggregates minimized the hazards posed by its pits and allowed the radiation problem to escalate, according to the plaintiffs lawyers in the Acreage case. The deal is being financed with some $4.4 million in public incentives, including $3.4 million from the state and $1 million from Palm Beach County. _gaq.push(['gwo._trackPageview', '/2354831680/test']); What can we do to protect the family? By the time the tumor Also citing the gag order, Pratt & Whitney declined to answer questions for this article, stating only that Pratt & Whitneys position is documented in its court filings related to the Acreage.. Its a gold-level sponsor of the American Cancer Associations local Relay for Life fundraiser, and its chief executive was a vice chair of the group CEOs Against Cancer. Attorney Mara Hatfield, who is representing the parents, including ones who lost children to cancer, told a jury that the evidence against the government contractor is overwhelming. Though the investigation turned up thirteen brain tumors in Acreage kids between 1994 and 2007, the official cluster consisted of just three girls, all of whom were diagnosed with brain cancer between 2005 and 2007. State workers this week are taking soil samples in the Acreage, digging soil, digging for answers to what's causing the pediatric cancer cluster. I began to be concerned about the area where I lived, said Dunsford, who moved to The Acreage from Broward County. The anxiety and uncertainty now haunting The Acreage began to surface months ago. Please note that we have not updated this map in months. In August, the Federal Housing Authority began advising appraisers that the cluster might affect properties in the neighborhood, a move that made it very difficult to get a mortgage there. A lawsuit filed in 2016 is finally being heard in federal court, but the issue started well before 2009 when several residents in The Acreage reported brain and head tumors that were increasingly above expected rates. Michelle Damone, president of the Indian Trail Improvement District, the local governing board, has been pushing for more evidence of the cluster. One is the local mining company Palm Beach Aggregates, which has mined limestone for road construction for more than two decades using a dredging process that contributed naturally occurring radiation to the local water system. We need to get to the bottom of this., If living in The Acreage is deemed safe, Abruzzo said he thinks the community can recover both its equilibrium and its reputation. That declaration came as a relief to some Acreage residents, since it confirmed what many had long suspected. At the time, neither Jennifer Dunsford nor Becky Samarripa considered that her childs illness might be part of something larger. The Cancer Cluster Divide The Acreage In fact, by current standards, conclusively blaming a chemical culprit for a cancer cluster is so difficult that only three of 428 cluster investigations conducted in the United States since 1990 have established a link between pollution and illness. WebStudying cancer clusters allows scientists to identify areas of increased cancer risk, as well as to try to figure out what is causing the increase in risk. In August 2013, the results showed some extremely high levels of radioactive contamination, including non-naturally occurring radioactive substances the kind that can only be produced by a man-made nuclear reaction. Kaye McCann says she doesnt miss Florida only Jenna, who is still buried there. Residents of The Acreage, a south Florida town, at a community meeting in 2010. A Scary Reality The Acreage Cancer Cluster. | Credit: GARY CORONADO/THE PALM BEACH POST. All Rights Reserved. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. At least at first, the land to the south of that was uninhabited and, since much of it was underwater, largely uninhabitable. I figured it was a weird coincidence, says Dunsford, a sharp-witted mother of three with glasses and shoulder-length brown hair. Lack of proof was cited as the reason for the dismissals. The lawsuit blames Palm Beach Aggregates, a mining company, and Pratt & Whitney, an aerospace and engines manufacturer, for radioactive waste that allegedly caused the cancers: 30. If you would like your information added to this map, please email us at info@theacreagecancerstudy.com and provide us with your address, sex, age, and diagnosis. Map Of Cancer Clusters In Florida Printable Maps Can I download quality, printable maps? According to The Palm Beach Post last week, U.S. District Court Judge Kenneth Ryskamp recently dismissed two separate lawsuits claiming aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney was responsible for a cluster of cancer-related illnesses affecting Acreage residents. Jury rejects Acreage families lawsuit against Pratt In fact, there is a clear documentary record, stretching across many decades, of Pratt & Whitney contaminating its Florida environs with a variety of toxic materials, both radioactive and nonradioactive. She enjoys her family, her job and her small town. Whatever you find, there will be people who doubt the veracity of your findings because we dont live in an experimental setting, and you can never control all of the factors that might have contributed to that disease occurrence.. Brain Cancer Cases Shot Up in This Florida TownIs a Defense Since then, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection has overseen the cleanup of the area, a process that has involved the removal of many tens of thousands of tons of contaminated soil and thousands of gallons of fuel from the groundwater. })(); This odd fact kept troubling her, and at the suggestion of Garretts neurologist, she e-mailed the Florida Department of Health about it. All of our data is self-reported by residents. Becky Samarripa felt the hostility, too. Jenna was a strong-willed, generous and ultimately prescient child, according to her mother, Kaye. Unseal statement by State Attorney Dave Aronberg's ex-wife in Glenn Straub case, newspapers ask judge, Boynton synagogue fights Florida's abortion limits in religious freedom suit, Ruling opens door to Corey Jones' family suing Palm Beach Gardens over rights violation in his death, Families argue Pratt & Whitney caused cancer cluster in South Florida. When Becky heard from her pastor that another child in their congregation had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, she reached out to the boys parents, arranging to meet them in the waiting room of Miami Childrens Hospital. They wanted us to move on and say our water was fine, recalls Tracy Newfield, who was a member of the group. The Dunsfords collected anecdotal data, demanded an investigation, and the word spread. In 2000, when Pratt & Whitney was considering leaving its Florida site, it entered into discussions with Palm Beach County about selling some of its land as a site for drinking wells. When I asked Jess Santamaria, the Palm Beach County commissioner representing the Acreage, whether there was ever a cancer cluster there, he told me he doesnt know: Im not an expert. And when I called Michelle Damone, a local politician who helped set up the Acreage Community Focus Group, to discuss the cancer cluster, she told me that she will never utter those two words, because they drive a stake into the heart of my community., The remaining residents of the Acreage now live with excruciating uncertainty about what caused the cancers here. Nor did it account for the fact that many of the cases were clumped in the northern part of the study area, which meant that the concentration of cancer in that particular spot was even higher there than what the Health Department had found in the larger area. The Centers for Disease But if we do it to ourselves in the name of national security, in preparation for war, that seems to be sort of OK., Pratt & Whitney has not only identified itself with the countrys security but has enhanced its public image by embracing the fight against cancer and the cause of protecting the environment. Our Platform. Before you start printing and downloading, be sure you have read the article first. We would like to keep a list of those in need so that when services become available we can notify you. In the Acreage, there were many possible hazards to consider. She knew and somehow understood and was OK with it, Kaye McCann said recently. Located 15 miles northwest of West Palm Beach, The Acreage is an area of dirt roads, riding trails and some 35,000 residents, many who moved here to get away from big city ills. It helped start the P2 Coalition of Palm Beach County (P2 is short for pollution prevention) in 1994, along with the Palm Beach County Health Department, other local businesses and the Jupiter Chamber of Commerce. In contrast to the smooth pavement and careful landscaping of coastal West Palm, the Acreage has a wild, almost jungly feel. You start to wonder: what are the odds? said Greg Dunsford, an insurance agent. She bought bottled water which her family used for cooking, drinking and even brushing their teeth. Acreage cancer He saidit was unlikely Hatfield's verbal slip would unduly influence the jury. Indeed, some of the children with cancer had lived just 1,000 feet from one another. Kayes doubts proved well-founded just a few days later, when Dr. Alina Alonso, director of the Palm Beach County Health Department, told reporters that her agency wasnt planning to do any soil testing or other investigation into the causes of the cluster beyond interviewing families. Please note: We are not The Florida Department of Health. Hatfield countered that medical experts her West Palm Beach firm hired will refute those claims. It found elevated levels of cancer in children in The Acreage and designated the area as a pediatric brain cancer cluster. Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida Its always with me were out to dinner or whatever, and you hear Tick, tock. As is the case of most cancer-clusters throughout the United States, no cause was ever found. Abruzzo said he knows some of his constituents have left the area, and just walked away from their property and their mortgage. Mike Clary can be reached at mclary@sunsentinel.com or at 305-810-5007. A similar back-and-forth ensued when Pratt & Whitney hired epidemiologists to investigate a possible cancer cluster in its North Haven, Connecticut, jet-engine plant, where an unusual number of workers had died from an especially lethal form of brain cancer called glioblastoma the same kind that Joey Baratta and Debora Craig, another Acreage plaintiff, had. The designation would have also alerted people in the area and those considering moving there to the potential for environmental danger. Tracy Newfield cried when she first heard the news. Perhaps because her tumor was only partially removed by the surgery, or perhaps because she now has fluid in her skull, she still suffers from severe headaches, vomiting and peripheral eye damage. function utmx_section(){}function utmx(){} Gov. A civil engineer testified about his independent forensic investigation, which determined that the radioactive materials on Pratt & Whitney's campus matched the same materials found in The Acreage. You most likely made your way to this site because you are aware of the Cancer Study that was conducted in our area by the Florida Department of Health (not us - we in no way conducted the study).
The Newfields are one of the few directly affected families to stay in the Acreage. Thats where public health does its best job. She felt that the high number of pediatric brain tumors in the Acreage was most likely due to chance rather than any environmental cause (she also noted that the rate was no longer elevated). He left out the fact that he was an engineer for Pratt & Whitney. While the frustrated participants resigned in protest, another member of the group, who had expressed doubts about environmental factors in the cluster, later received a nice surprise: a letter from the Florida Department of Health commending his efforts and offering help in finding funding for his projects. I look at the kids when they are sleeping, and I have to stop for a minute and take a breath, said Stephanie Peskowitz, 34, a nurse. The chances of so many childhood cancers concentrated in such a small place ranged from 1 in 100 to 1 in 1,000 -- a cancer cluster, experts determined. None of this stuff had ever happened before, Samarripa says. But Hatfields radiation theory also involves the operations of another, far larger company: Pratt & Whitney, one of the big three airplane-engine manufacturers in the world, whose local industrial site was separated from the homes of the sick children in the Acreage by a swampy preserve. The teenagers mysterious decline continued on to limping, vomiting, incontinence and perhaps her most disturbing symptom occasional fits of barking laughter that sounded so strange and demonic, her father wondered whether she was on drugs. Last week many residents of The Acreage rode a roller coaster of emotions as the story of the Acreage cancer cluster took new turns and twists. In Pratt & Whitneys case, no fancy PR was necessary: its product is already understood to be not just airplane and rocket engines but national security itself. The anxiety level of residents went up, and property values went down. WebThe Acreage is an unincorporated Palm Beach community which has experienced significant growth in its 25 years to around 39,000 people. Yet to Mara Hatfield, the attorney from the local firm who spent the most time on the Acreage cases, the unusual cancer cluster was likely caused by an unusual pollutant. The information reflected on this map has been voluntarily provided by persons from The Acreage. d.write('
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