Separate personal injury lawsuits have been filed against Pratt by many of the same parents. But the effect of confirming The Acreage as a cancer cluster was immediate. 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. 'https://ssl' : 'http://www') + '.google-analytics.com/ga.js'; 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. One, composed primarily of families of the children stricken with cancer, focused on the fact that the research had identified several contaminants above FDEP cleanup levels, including radium-226, benzene and a variety of other commonly occurring carcinogens. 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. Many parents of the children with cancer were angry and frustrated, but other residents felt relief. 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. A federal jury rejected claims Tuesday that Pratt & Whitney was responsible for a cancer cluster in The Acreage more than a decade ago. Hatfield and her boss, Jack Scarola, ordered further testing of the soil and water. 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.. In the meantime, after so much bitterness, the subject of the cancer cluster has become almost taboo in the Acreage. 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. A Florida man who says Pratt & Whitney created a pollution and cancer cluster told the 11th Circ. We have learned whats truly important in life, and its definitely not a house, she says. He was introduced to us as an engineer, Newfield says. That declaration came as a relief to some Acreage residents, since it confirmed what many had long suspected. But a few months later, Dunsford learned that another student in the local elementary school had been diagnosed with a brain tumor, which made four children with brain cancer that she knew about, all living within two miles of one another. This site has been developed to help share information about a confirmed cancer cluster in The Acreage with those who There are so many unknowns, and unknowns create hysteria and fear, she said. 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. In court filings, Pratt & Whitney has denied the use of poison fuel, calling charges that it contaminated the Acreage completely speculative. But while the companys attorneys dismissed their opponents theories, Pratt & Whitney hasnt offered much explanation of its operations: it resisted requests to do water and soil testing on its property and declined to answer several of the opposing lawyers questions on the grounds that they related to classified matters of national security. We have not received the facts. Members of Scarola's team said Wednesday that their fight isn't over yet. We are keeping track of this information because if an environmental hazard (a causal agent) is found in the Acreage, it is very possible it could cause multiple illnesses - not just brain tumors and brain cancer. When it comes to cancer, were more on the prevention side, she told me when I met with her in Palm Beach this past April. 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. The Newfields are one of the few directly affected families to stay in the Acreage. Cynthia Santiago was diagnosed with brain cancer in 2009 at the age of 13 while living in a South Florida community known as the Acreage. But many were outraged when state health officials said that instead of environmental tests to hunt for the cancer cause, they would mount an awareness campaign instead. Seminole Ridge High is a big school, and its ample, stucco-walled auditorium can hold hundreds of people, as it does for the pep rallies before Hawks games. com/acreage 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 Becky Samarripa chose not to get involved in any litigation, the radiation theory makes sense to her. 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. Even though her children are healthy, she said her life was forever changed by that announcement four years ago. _gaq.push(['_setAllowLinker', true]); Their press conference last August yielded a few local stories, and one unintended consequence: Judge Joseph Marx, who was presiding over Joey Barattas case, ordered the attorneys not to speak about the case with the press. The Samarripas moved to Alabama, where Hannah, now 20 and in college, is flourishing, according to her mother. 31. I figured it was a weird coincidence, says Dunsford, a sharp-witted mother of three with glasses and shoulder-length brown hair. Since there is no evidence that contaminated groundwater traveled a distance of 6 to 14 miles to the Acreage from Pratts 7,000-acre compound off the Beeline Highway, Hatfield and her legal team will argue that it was carried there by trucks. Only two personal-injury and wrongful-death lawsuits involving cancer clusters in the United States have yielded any financial reward for plaintiffs. 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. (function() { August 21, 2013 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. I think about it every time I open up the freezer and were out of store-bought ice.. She cant see some colors and has difficulty with organization and telling time, according to her mother. Hatfield and her colleagues at the law firm traced the radioactive contamination in the Acreage to two companies with operations in the area. And although the interviews did not enable investigators to pinpoint the cause of the disease, Health Department director Alina Alonso on Feb. 1 confirmed the existence of a cancer cluster. 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 entire story might have ended there, in 2010, if attorneys hadnt taken up where public-health officials left off. The agencies tested water from over seventy private wells and several of the canals that ran through the area, as well as soil samples from thirty-five homes, for more than 200 chemicals. 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. 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. If Al Qaeda sent a team of sleeper cells to poison our groundwater and release toxic materials into the air, people would go nuts. And anybody with children is worried about that.. While the Florida Health Department declared a pediatric cancer cluster in The Acreage, it never found what caused the high rate of childhood cancers. Had she known about Jessica Newfield, who was close to her daughters age and had been ill for many months before being diagnosed; Joey Baratta, who developed two tumors before dying at age 20; or little Jenna McCann, who got sick at age 3, perhaps shed have gotten Hannahs tumor diagnosed sooner. Though health officials confirmed a cluster of pediatric brain cancers, the lawsuit alleges that adults have been affected too: "According to self-reported data from the community, the 2008-2010 incidence of brain tumors for the entire Acreage population is above 30. 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.. And being part of the defense industry carries weight not just in the court of public opinion, but also in a court of law. Soil tests are to follow. 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. South Florida's independent 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. 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. To a lay audience, the scientific documents were indecipherable. She declared the backyard pool off-limits. Still, the crowd was standing-room-only on this night. _gaq.push(['gwo._trackPageview', '/2354831680/test']); Still, mixed in with an overwhelming sadness, Samarripa felt a sliver of hope that the Acreage was on its way to finding and eliminating whatever carcinogens were lurking in the environment. But the details of the process arent public. The smallest plots are more than an acre, and many are larger, so houses are a good distance from one another. 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. He saidit was unlikely Hatfield's verbal slip would unduly influence the jury. Interviews for this article with Hatfield and her firms plaintiffs were conducted before the gag order went into effect in September. 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. She enjoys her family, her job and her small town. In one sense, I would not go through what theyre going through every day of their lives, wondering if [regular testing for cancer] is going to come back positive, she says. Submit & Share. 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. You start to wonder: what are the odds? said Greg Dunsford, an insurance agent. This article will provide you with some guidelines on how you can obtain high-quality maps. Pratt & Whitney Named in First Lawsuit Filed Over The Acreage Cancer Cluster Some residents of The Acreage have filed a class action lawsuit against Pratt & Whitney. A Pratt & Whitney spokesperson released the following statement regarding the verdict: "The jury's verdict confirms our conviction thatPratt & Whitney did not cause any contamination in the Acreage and did not cause any cancers in the cancer cluster. Study Being Conducted in The Acreage Has Been Canceled. Shaggy cabbage-palm and cypress trees flank the neighborhoods sandy, unpaved roads. Disclaimer: This map is intended to be used as a visual tool ONLY. Like most other suspected clusters, that one had failed upon investigation to clear the statistical bar. In contrast to the smooth pavement and careful landscaping of coastal West Palm, the Acreage has a wild, almost jungly feel. They wanted us to move on and say our water was fine, recalls Tracy Newfield, who was a member of the group. Instead, most homeowners rely on private wells. Ditto the drinking water, which came from a well. Then they have to say, Well, we dont even know that this is cause and effect in which case, people feel like they got nothing.. Instead, jurors will be asked whether Pratt is responsible for depressing property values in the community. A 2010 report from the Florida Department of Health confirmed her worst fears. Submit & Share. We are keeping track of all diagnosed health issues that residents report to us. Make a one-time donation today for as little as $1. source of local news and culture, Deirdra Funcheon 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. Since then Palm Beach County Health Department officials interviewed 12 families diagnosed with either brain tumors or brain cancers from 2003 through 2008. (It did come up in the litigation, but the companys lawyers dismissed it as a red herring.). When Jenna was near death, she told her mother she wanted to take her caps to the hospital so the other kids could use them after she was gone. The Hollings researchers identified a protein called transforming acidic coiled-coil containing protein I feel a panic for my kids health. But it would take all of the afflicted families years to connect the dots among their tragedies. utmx_section("Legacy Footer"), WE ARE NO LONGER COLLECTING THIS DATA - IF YOU HAVE A BRAIN CANCER CASE TO REPORT PLEASE CONTACT THE PALM BEACH COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, SIGN THE PETITION: Clyde Cancer Cluster claims 6th victim, New Approach to Treating Young Brain Cancer Patients. 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). Once the lawyers get involved, then the lawyers have to talk, the countys Alina Alonso explained to me. The history of such litigation doesnt paint a hopeful picture for the plaintiffs, who include Jessica Newfield; Garretts parents, Jennifer and Greg Dunsford; and Joyce and Bill Featherston, the mother and stepfather of Joey Baratta. Consider Abernethys 2004 description of his work on the J58 engine: We built a huge swimming pool with a tall tower to centrifuge the poison out of the exhaust. (When recently deposed by attorneys in the Acreage case, Abernethy said he had trouble recalling any poison fuel.). WebThank you for visiting The Acreage Cancer Study website. 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. The lawsuit was filed in 2016, but the issue started well before in 2009 when several residents in the community reported brain and head tumors that were increasingly above expected rates. Join the New Times community and help support independent 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. The Acreage has no sewer or water systems, but until recently at least it did offer peace and quiet. 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. Yesterday, the law firm of Searcy, Denney, Scarola, Barnhart, and Shipley held a news conference about lawsuits related to a cluster of pediatric brain cancer in Should I be gone?, Here Peskowitz paused. 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. It found elevated levels of cancer in children in The Acreage and designated the area as a pediatric brain cancer cluster. They Refused to Fight for Russia. The study was requested in May of 2009. fl.us/southeast/acreage/www.pbcgov. But documents from the 1960s through the 90s show that Pratt & Whitney had licenses to use at least a dozen radioactive substances [PDF], including radium D and E, thoriated nickel and cesium-137, in Florida. We would like to keep a list of those in need so that when services become available we can notify you. The department responded by sending forms that she was encouraged to share with anyone she encountered in the area who had cancer, asking about the specifics of their diagnoses, their ages and their addresses. This allows the cancer cells to divide in half and survive. Hatfield, who had grown up in the area and had young children of her own, was familiar with the rumors of pollution and pesticides in the Acreage and throughout South Florida. However, though the study did not find an association with workplace exposures, it did confirm the elevated brain-cancer rate at the North Haven plant. If you have any questions, please send an email to: WE ARE NO LONGER COLLECTING THIS DATA - IF YOU HAVE A BRAIN CANCER CASE TO REPORT PLEASE CONTACT THE PALM BEACH COUNTY DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH (561) 514-5300. The anticipated three-week trial got off to a blustery start. Lack of proof was cited as the reason for the dismissals. After years of litigation, their attorney, Jan Schlictmann, was left temporarily bankrupt, homeless and personally devastated. Chicago attorney Sean Gallagher said state regulatory agencies not only cleared Pratt of wrong-doing but also declared that The Acreage is safe for families to enjoy outdoor activities in their yards.. Alonso argues that tracking down environmental causes of cancer is not her agencys forte. 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. WebThe Faces of The Acreage Cancer Cluster Name: Garrett D. Diagnosis: Brain Tumor Age of Diagnosis: 5 Status: Medical monitoring at St. Jude Childrens Hospital Biography: Garrett was five years old when he was diagnosed with an Astrocytoma brain tumor. For its part, Pratt & Whitney is staying, too. Your Photos. 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. She had also gotten together with the mothers of other sick children, including Tracy Newfield, Becky Samarripa and Kaye McCann, as well as a few concerned friends and relatives, to see how they might get to the bottom of what was going on in the Acreage. Pratt & Whitney designs and manufactures engines for airplanes, rockets and even the space shuttle. 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 began to be concerned about the area where I lived, said Dunsford, who moved to The Acreage from Broward County. They asked experts to conduct hundreds of soil and medical tests. With its engines for fighter planes such as the F-22 Raptor, Pratt & Whitneys products power air forces in twenty-two countries. Your Photos. 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. Today, Pratt & Whitney has more than $10 billion in defense contracts, and United Technologies is the sixth-biggest Pentagon contractor. And a local firm began representing several of the cases. Her mother, Becky Samarripa, did it for her, and then drove Hannah to school and waited outside, knowing shed be able to put in only a brief appearance. We were moms and wives and grandmothers on a mission, remembers Newfield, who describes herself as both this little housewife and as she would come to see herself over the years of struggle that followed someone who, if necessary, could become your worst enemy.. 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. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the National Cancer Institute (NCI) define a cancer cluster as a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occurs within a group of people in a defined geographic area over a specific period of time. 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.. Thats why I am pushing for tests. 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.". 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. Much of the information released by the Health Department during this period was open to interpretation. Though the FDEP says that Pratt & Whitney is in compliance, it also says there are still twenty-five hazardous-waste sites being remediated, and the cleanup which began in 1985 is today only 77 percent complete. According to a 1985 Department of Environmental Regulation update, the company had soil on its property that contained PCBs chemicals that have been linked to brain cancer at more than 200 times the maximum level now allowed even in fenced-off, nonresidential areas. Though the parcel was on the part of the companys property nearest the Acreage, this never came up during the cluster investigation. They didnt investigate Pratt because its 6 miles away from the nearest home in The Acreage and as much as 14 miles away from those at the southern end, near Lion Country Safari. It would be an act of war, Dycus notes. The Acreage suits which now include at least thirteen individual personal-injury and wrongful-death cases, and two class-action suits over the loss of real-estate value are no easy moneymakers. The McCanns left as well and are now living in the mountains of North Georgia with their two children. Definitively proving the cause of a cluster is so difficult because we live amid so many carcinogens. 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. This map reflects data that we have collected via personal emails & phone calls. 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. 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. The anxiety level of residents went up, and property values went down. Those radionuclides that have been detected in the Acreage at above natural background rates but may be termed naturally occurring include Uranium-234, Uranium-235 Uranium-236, and elevated levels of the decay products of Thorium, particularly Lead-214 and Bismuth-214 and Actinium-228. Most cancer clusters reside in a gray area of uncomfortable non-resolution. 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. 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. The plaintiffs' attorneys will appeal this week's decision and said there are other cases brought by residents that have not gone to trial. The company was seeking privacy because some of its projects were classified. The Dunsfords created all this fear, resident Michelle James told The Palm Beach Post. But if she successfully argues that Pratt contaminated The Acreage, she could ask him to reconsider. For example, studying clusters And the air was often filled with smoke, which came from both the burning of sugar cane and the fires on the banks of nearby Lake Okeechobee. The community was in Become a member to support the independent voice of South Florida But it could be something in the ground, pesticides, we dont know. On Wednesday, 12 years after Dunsford asked for the investigation, she told her story to a jury as the first witness in a long-delayed and much-anticipated trial that will determine whether jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney will be blamed for the cancer cluster. (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; In response, the company waged a fierce, years-long battle against the Superfund designation and, in 1985, it won that fight. Many of the young families in the Acreage were drawn there by its relative lack of development. Though nothing stood out as the obvious cause, they felt such findings should have prompted further testing. Thank you for visiting The Acreage Cancer Study website. He claimed that further press coverage could bias jury selection. By the time the tumor But she is also a musical girl who enjoys life and loves to sing. 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. Attorneys have 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.
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