Hell ask for something and say, I appreciate that you bought me that, but lets go snuggle. He values spending time with people.. _gaq.push(['_setAccount', 'UA-230305-2']); Pratt was taking other risks, too. Though nothing stood out as the obvious cause, they felt such findings should have prompted further testing. Pratt & Whitney had licenses to use at least a dozen radioactive substances, the average death rate from cancer among the companys employees had shot up from 13 per 100,000 workers to 122, This Week in Extremism: Far Right Extremism in 2023 and the January 6th Insurrection, Faulty Information About Immigrants Can Lead to Family Separation and Denied Asylum Claims, Hanfords Leaky Nuke Tanks and Sick Workers, A Never-Ending Saga. A mixture of chemicals that can cross the blood-brain barrier and cause cancer in mice, jet fuel was found at the Pratt & Whitney facility in Florida. 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. You start to wonder: what are the odds? said Greg Dunsford, an insurance agent. But on the other hand, I envy them every day of their lives. The loss of her daughter has only become harder over time. Every day since, Ive woken up with a pit in my stomach, worrying about my children. 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. Playing outside was prohibited. There are about 10,000 houses in the area. Study finds more cancer clusters in South Florida 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. A 2010 report from the Florida Department of Health confirmed her worst fears. And the reputation of an area long known as a healthy, bucolic alternative to urbanization was in tatters. Acreage cancer cluster trial underway in West Palm Beach, Tornado that tore through Palm Beach Gardens had winds of at least 100 mph, Trees toppled, homes damaged, cars overturned in tornado, Tornado tosses boat from cove onto lawn in North Palm Beach, Unofficial Boca Bash to draw thousands of boaters Sunday, Fort Lauderdale Air Show delayed until afternoon because of bad weather, Verhaeghe scores in OT as Panthers eliminate Bruins from playoffs, Cleanup underway after tornado rips through North Palm Beach neighborhood, Butler, Heat start semifinals with 108-101 win over Knicks, National Weather Service upgrades tornado to EF2 with peak winds of 130 mph. By the time the spring dance rolled around, Hannah didnt have the strength to paint her own toenails. At the opening of Pratt & Whitneys South Florida campus in 1958, the chairman of the county commission said that Pratt & Whitneys coming to this site is considered the largest single industrial accomplishment so far in Palm Beach County. Since then, Pratt and its parent company, United Technologies, have received tens of millions of dollars in tax breaks from the county and state to encourage it to keep its operations and jobs in Florida. At Miami Childrens Hospital, where their son was treated, the Dunsfords met the family of another brain cancer patient who lived just a mile away. How Cancer Came to the Acreage - Type Investigations The deal, which helped land two county commissioners in prison for fraud (a consultant advising the agency, it turned out, was being paid by the mining company), stipulated that Palm Beach Aggregates couldnt be held legally responsible for any contamination of water in the used pits. Thats why I am pushing for tests. The verdict said that the Because the Acreage is unincorporated, the city doesnt provide services even water. The Samarripas left the Acreage in 2010. While Marra warned Hatfield, he declined Gallagher's request. By May 2009, Jennifer Dunsford had developed a database documenting dozens of cancers in children and adults throughout the neighborhood. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. 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. They wanted us to move on and say our water was fine, recalls Tracy Newfield, who was a member of the group. She knew and somehow understood and was OK with it, Kaye McCann said recently. The information reflected on this map has been voluntarily provided by persons from The Acreage. The anxiety and uncertainty now haunting The Acreage began to surface months ago. 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). Michelle Damone, president of the Indian Trail Improvement District, the local governing board, has been pushing for more evidence of the cluster. 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. 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; clicky.init(190756); var _gaq = _gaq || []; WebMara And Acreage Cancer Cluster Map. The Cancer Cluster Divide The Acreage 2 killed, 4 wounded in Mississippi shooting; man arrested, 150 years later, Dixon bridge tragedy among nation's worst, Presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy says he wants to 'shut down the FBI' and replace it with something that sounds a lot like the FBI, Sanders: Biden could win in a landslide. Brain Cancer Cases Shot Up in This Florida TownIs a Defense Some left that three-hour meeting feeling more frustrated than when they arrived. They asked experts to conduct hundreds of soil and medical tests. But if the jury agrees that Pratt didn't properly dispose of radioactive materials, she could revive a class-action lawsuit, seeking compensation for the nearly 40,000 people who own property in the rural enclave. Soil tests are to follow. Abruzzo said he knows some of his constituents have left the area, and just walked away from their property and their mortgage. That problem was much in evidence last week at an emotion-packed community meeting at Seminole Ridge High School, where a standing-room-only crowd of about 1,000 residents heard from a panel of state and county experts. Though it was unclear whether probing for answers would ever solve the cancer mystery, there was no question that all the attention to the risks of living in the Acreage had carried a steep financial cost. Cancer Cluster WebThis month the county's Health Department confirmed that The Acreage is home to a cancer cluster, defined as an area with rates of brain tumors and brain cancers higher Your Photos. Charlie Crist and U.S. Sen. Bill Nelson, D-FL, have urged the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to get involved. DRAFTembARgoeD Congress clusters. Disease Clusters If Al Qaeda sent a team of sleeper cells to poison our groundwater and release toxic materials into the air, people would go nuts. A doctor will testify that he found evidence of radioactive material in the tissue of a teen who died. (It did come up in the litigation, but the companys lawyers dismissed it as a red herring.). Eventually, the family moved to Tennessee, but even now the comments still sting. Throughout the 1980s, the EPA was preparing to designate Pratt & Whitneys South Florida location as a federal Superfund site, which would have required detailed public disclosure of the contamination and the various steps that would be taken to remediate it. Thissite has been developed to help share information about a confirmed cancer cluster in The Acreage with those who live in or around The Acreage (which includes Loxahatchee, Unincorporated West Palm, and parts ofRoyal Palm Beach) in Florida. Acreage Cancer Cluster: Residents Can Join Class She cant see some colors and has difficulty with organization and telling time, according to her mother. 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. Before you start printing and downloading, be sure you have read the article first. Families in this south Florida town point to two companies as the source of the contamination that caused their childrens disease. _udn = "none"; By that time, home prices in the acreage had fallen to about half their peak in 2006. The one kind of contamination that distinguished the Acreage, according to Hatfield, was ionizing radiation, which was not just an established cause of brain cancer but the byproduct of local industry. By the time the tumor While much of the trial will focus on the trauma the families experienced and complex scientific information about the sources, causes and dangers of radiation, the jury wont be asked to determine if the parents should be compensated for their childrens illnesses and deaths. (function() { The anticipated three-week trial got off to a blustery start. 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. While Hannah was recovering from her brain surgery, and the boy a 5-year-old named Garrett Dunsford was undergoing his own, the parents started talking. Florida will appeal to the federal government for help investigating the cancer cluster in The Acreage, Gov. It is West of Palm Bch Gdns, North of Royal Palm Beach. CHINESE DRYWALL - CANCER CLUSTER - UNEXPLODED ORDINANCE Some of that drop was due to the nationwide crash that followed the housing bubble, but the news of the cancer cluster clearly played a role. South Florida's independent 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. Seven years after the Health Department declared a pediatric cancer cluster in The Acreage another lawsuit has According to a 1983 report, there were three plumes of jet fuel totaling some 53,000 gallons beneath the companys property, and a layer on top of the groundwater in certain places as well. We know youre fearful of what these results mean, said Sharon Watkins, an environmental epidemiologist with the Florida Department of Health. | Credit: GARY CORONADO/THE PALM BEACH POST. The Dunsfords collected anecdotal data, demanded an investigation, and the word spread. 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). We have learned whats truly important in life, and its definitely not a house, she says. The designation would have also alerted people in the area and those considering moving there to the potential for environmental danger. Palm Beach Aggregates did not respond to a request for comment for this article, and in court documents has vehemently denied causing any environmental harm. They Refused to Fight for Russia. Cancer Clusters Contact her at jmusgrave@pbpost.com. At some point you have to say, My credit is not worth it; were going,' said Stephanie Peskowitz, a founder of Voices of the Palm Beach Cancer Cluster, a citizens group. Instead, most homeowners rely on private wells. WebWhat is a cancer cluster? There are other cancer clusters that occur without any obvious source of On February 1, 2010 the Florida Department of Health declared the Acreage a "Pediatric Cancer Cluster". I feel a panic for my kids health. Based on the calculations in the report from the Florida Department of Health, a girls chance of getting a brain tumor in the Acreage was five and a half times what it was in the rest of Florida. Please note that we have not updated this map in months. Soon, Dunsford discovered that three other youngsters in the sprawling rural community in the western reaches of Palm Beach County had recently received similarly grim news. When Stephanie Peskowitz and her husband Ira bought a home in The Acreage five years ago, they figured they had found a woodsy paradise large enough for their dreams. The plaintiffs are parents and families from The Acreage who believe the aerospace giant is to blame for the cancer cluster that was reported more than a dozen years ago. 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. Instead, the Palm Beach County Health Department told Hatfield to direct further contacts to its lawyer. This study was requested when it was discovered that multiple children and adultssuffered or diedfrom brain tumors and live within a close radius of one another. 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. Its always with me were out to dinner or whatever, and you hear Tick, tock. She explains why she came: I wanted my children to play in the dirt and enjoy nature and breathe the fresh air. Tracy Newfield also liked the communitys spaciousness, which allowed ample storage for her familys boat and Jet Skis. This site has been developed to help share information about a confirmed cancer cluster in The Acreage with those who Workers dressed in protective gear sometimes sprayed pesticides in the citrus groves that abut Seminole Ridge High, even as teenagers practiced on nearby sports fields in shorts and T-shirts. _gaq.push(['_trackPageview']); A canal system was constructed to make The Acreage habitable. Dycus notes that its not uncommon for defense-related companies to resist providing information because of military sensitivity, as Pratt & Whitney has done in the Acreage case. Their family menagerie includes two horses, a pony, seven dogs, goats and a pig. Instead of taking dirt that had been soaked with jet fuel to a facility to be cleaned and recycled, Hatfield claims it was sold as fill to people who were building homes on low-lying, flood-prone lots in The Acreage. Sadly, she said, the investigation by the state agencies wasnt thorough. For many of the families whose children developed cancer, there was simply no question of staying. But for the Peskowitz family, and thousands of others in this western Palm Beach County community, the joy of living miles away from the urban clutter and noise has been supplanted by something louder and more insistent fear. I began to be concerned about the area where I lived, said Dunsford, who moved to The Acreage from Broward County. Without a clear culprit for the cancers, some residents began blaming the families of the sick for the crisis. Should I be gone?, Here Peskowitz paused. Gov. When the study came out, a Pratt & Whitney vice president called the universitys research full of crap, according to a report in The Palm Beach Post. Acerage Neighborhood Community Update - Florida This data does not reflect data collectedby the Florida Department of Health. 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.. Some in the room knew the long odds, having followed the pediatric brain-cancer scare in the neighboring town of Port St. Lucie a few years earlier. A cancer cluster is a high concentration of people diagnosed with cancer who all live or work within a close proximity of one another. Unseal statement by State Attorney Dave Aronberg's ex-wife in Glenn Straub case, newspapers ask judge, Abortion lawsuit: Boynton synagogue fights Florida's abortion limits in religious freedom suit, Corey Jones shooting: Ruling opens door to Corey Jones' family suing Palm Beach Gardens over rights violation in his death. 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. But, he said, state agencies found no evidence either the water or the soil was contaminated. The presence of technologically enhanced concentrations of NORM products (TE-NORMS) in water systems can be associated with the metal processing industry, particularly airplane engine and turbine manufacturing; however, high concentrations of these radionuclides in an environment are more readily associated with mining operations, including the type of shell rock mining conducted by the Aggregates. Acreage cancer Log in, 2010 Schechter, Shaffer & Harris, LLP, All Rights Reserved, Rori Feldman is the attorney responsible for the content of this website. As you can see on the map, we are tracking all health concerns that are reported to us. This odd fact kept troubling her, and at the suggestion of Garretts neurologist, she e-mailed the Florida Department of Health about it. Separate personal injury lawsuits have been filed against Pratt by many of the same parents. We are not simply tracking brain tumors and brain cancer. The company trumpeted the results of a ten-year investigation that found no statistically significant elevations in the overall cancer rates among the workforce throughout the state. Most cancer clusters reside in a gray area of uncomfortable non-resolution. Since Jennas death in 2006, Kaye had become less trusting. 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. "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.". Jury rejects Acreage families lawsuit against Pratt Acreage cancer cluster trial underway in West Palm Beach By Linnie Supall Published: Jul. At various points, contaminated water escaped the dredging pits and seeped into the canal and groundwater in the Acreage, according to the plaintiffs complaint. That night, she found herself wondering whether health officials would ever find out what had caused her daughters cancer or whether they would even try. If anything happened to them, she said, I could not live with myself. Who knew what had been in the water that might be coming back to haunt residents? He saidit was unlikely Hatfield's verbal slip would unduly influence the jury. Based on the self-reported data the pediatric cancer cluster declared by the State for the years 2004-2008 would be expanded to a general brain cancer cluster from 2004-2010.". We can't even have it called a cancer cluster.". And anybody with children is worried about that.. The lawsuit extends to "every current or former Acreage area landowner who owns or owned an Acreage property at any time since August 24, 2009." We ask that if you live in the area and have a brain tumor, some form of cancer, or another diagnosed medical problem, that you call the Palm Beach County Department of Health at 561-514-5300. Some online commenters went so far as to accuse the affected families of just plain lying. As one poster put it, Using your childs illness as a platform is repulsive.. The case in Toms River, New Jersey, documented in Dan Fagins Pulitzer Prizewinning book Toms River: A Story of Science and Salvation, took place over ten years and was similar to the Woburn case in both its underwhelming financial payoff and the monumental public and private effort that led to it. August 21, 2013 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. A judge on Friday heard from a Pratt & Whitney spokesperson who admitted that some of the radioactive material was disposed of in a nearby landfill but said it was inside a steel drum. 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. The Florida Department of Health and the Florida Department of Environmental Protectiondid investigate whether any contamination could have conceivably been the cause of cancer, and they found none, he said. _gaq.push(['gwo._trackPageview', '/2354831680/test']); When Jennifer Dunsford, her husband and three children moved into a new house in The Acreage in 2003, they expected it to be their forever home.. Nearly 10 years after it was filed, Acreage cancer cluster lawsuit 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. Even though her children are healthy, she said her life was forever changed by that announcement four years ago. 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. Jenna McCann, too, liked the outdoors. There are so many unknowns, and unknowns create hysteria and fear, she said. So Hatfield and Scarola took their test results to the media. A federal jury rejected claims Tuesday that Pratt & Whitney was responsible for a cancer cluster in The Acreage more than a decade ago.