Sludge Watch ==> Massacheusetts - ALS - contaminated soil?

[Maureen Reilly]

*Thanks, Helane

................................

http://neurotalk.psychcentral.com:80/showthread.php?t=46493

NEW BEDFORD, MASSACHUSETTS

Bad luck or bad dirt?
Bad luck or bad dirt?
Environmental activist stricken with mysterious disease

By CHARIS ANDERSON
Standard-Times staff writer
May 25, 2008 6:00 AM
NEW BEDFORD — Brian Woolley is sick.

His legs hurt all the time; he gets muscle cramps all over his body; his 
speech slurs if he talks too long. About four weeks ago, he was forced to 
start using a cane.

"Just walking with a cane now is killing me because back in December, I was 
doing really good and now it's just going downhill it seems very, very 
fast," said Mr. Woolley, a 51-year-old New Bedford resident.

Mr. Woolley's doctors think he may have ALS, a progressive neurodegenerative 
disease.

In the U.S., about 5,000 people are diagnosed each year with amyotrophic 
lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease, and about 20,000 
people have the disease at any given time, according to statistics from the 
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke.

The disease, which affects nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, has 
an average survival rate of three to five years.

Mr. Woolley, who lives on Summit Street with his wife, has lived near the 
site of a former city burn dump for more than 30 years.

New Bedford High School was built on the site, which is contaminated with 
polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and other toxic substances. In 2000, the 
city discovered contamination across Hathaway Boulevard at McCoy Field, on 
which the new, $70 million Keith Middle School was later built.

"I live next to which we now know is a toxic dump site," Mr. Woolley said. 
"That was just a field back then ... I've been playing in that all my early 
years and early teen years."

Coincidence? Or could Mr. Woolley's exposure to PCBs and other contaminants 
such as selenium, magnesium and lead have caused the symptoms he is now 
experiencing?

That is exactly what the Day Neuromuscular Laboratory at Massachusetts 
General Hospital is trying to find out.

"Basically there's no known cause of ALS," said Nicole Couture, a clinical 
research assistant at the lab. "We're looking at both genetic and 
environmental factors that might be causing it."

The lab is enrolling participants for an ALS gene study that is trying to 
pinpoint what triggers the disease.

"ALS runs in the family, meaning more than one person (in a family) has the 
disease about 10 percent of the time," Ms. Couture said.

But, she said, "In Brian's case, he has no family history. He's the only 
one."

In addition to doing research, the lab also offers treatment. Mr. Woolley is 
a patient at the lab's clinic, according to Ms. Couture.

When Mr. Woolley realized the lab was studying environmental risk factors, 
"that really flipped me out," he said.

As part of the study, he had to complete a detailed questionnaire about his 
exposure to different contaminants. As he went through the survey, 
contaminants that were found in his neighborhood cropped up again and again.

"I went down the list to see which ones that they're looking at is in McCoy 
Field," he said of the contaminated site. "All these are in here."

If anyone would know what contaminants were at McCoy Field, Mr. Woolley 
would: He formed a community environmental group called Wasted Away when he 
heard the city was planning to build a school on the contaminated site and 
took on the role of neighborhood watchdog. His activism started years before 
his recent illness.

Many of his initial concerns have been addressed, he said, and Keith Middle 
School is "one of the cleanest contaminated sites in the city."

"I'm glad about that, but I'm not glad about the situation I'm in now," said 
Mr. Woolley. "The doctors can't tell me if six months from now I'll be using 
a wheelchair, you know?"

"When I got this," Mr. Woolley said, tapping the brochure from the ALS gene 
study at the Day Neuromuscular Lab, "and when I saw environment, I was like, 
'Oh my God.'"



In Middleboro, a cluster of ALS cases has been found around two waste 
disposal sites. A preliminary study conducted by the state Department of 
Public Heath found a 72.7 percent greater risk of ALS incidence in 
Middleboro compared to the national rate.

There is no evidence of an ALS cluster in New Bedford.

The ALS study isn't the only study in which Mr. Woolley will participate. 
Starting June 4, the state's Department of Public Health will be conducting 
interviews with some members of the New Bedford community to assess the risk 
of exposure to PCBs.

People who have worked at New Bedford High School or Keith Middle School, or 
people who live in the neighborhood of the schools, will be eligible to 
participate, according to Suzanne Condon, director of the state's Bureau of 
Environmental Health.

Current and former students at the schools may also participate, but they 
are likely to have a much lower risk of exposure than people who have lived 
or worked in the neighborhood for years, according to the Department of 
Public Health.

"We want people to know what level of risk we think they may or may not 
have," Ms. Condon said. "We'll be involved, I think, for some time to come 
in trying to do the continued outreach."

After the initial interviews are completed, the 100 individuals who have the 
greatest risk of exposure will be offered the opportunity to have their 
blood tested for PCB levels.

The state Department of Public Health will also be analyzing the pattern of 
cancer occurrences in the neighborhoods surrounding New Bedford High and 
Keith Middle School.

The outcome of that analysis is likely to be of interest to Mr. Woolley, who 
was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 1976.

The age-adjusted incidence rate of Hodgkin's is 2.8 per 100,000 people, 
according to the National Cancer Institute, while the incidence rate of ALS 
is 1 to 2 per 100,000 people, according to the Day Neuromuscular Lab.

"Having both those diagnoses is very rare," Ms. Couture said.

When Mr. Woolley was diagnosed with Hodgkin's, he remembers sitting down 
with a team of doctors who asked him questions ranging from what foods he 
ate to if he painted or used lacquers, Mr. Woolley said.

"But they never asked me, like, 'Where did you play?'" he said, referring to 
the contaminated dump he played in growing up. "And now it feels like one 
big circle."

To cure his cancer, Mr. Woolley underwent a combination of radiation and 
chemotherapy that left him with permanent damage to his aorta, he said. He 
suffered a heart attack about eight years ago that was caused by the aortic 
damage, he said.

Doctors are also looking at radiation damage from those long-ago cancer 
treatments as a possible cause of the symptoms he's experiencing now, 
according to Mr. Woolley.

Diagnosing ALS is mostly a "rule-out" procedure, according to the Muscular 
Dystrophy Association Web site. All other possibilities must be ruled out 
before ALS is diagnosed.

"I'd just like an answer, 'Yes, you have this,'" he said. "I'm a fighter. 
I'm not going to sit down and say, 'Oh that's it.'"

Living with his symptoms has been really hard, Mr. Woolley said. He has had 
to cut back on his work as a truck driver, limiting himself to two or three 
days a week. And his body is failing him on even simple tasks: He struggles 
to hold a pen in his hand now.

Mr. Woolley has an older brother who has no health problems. If Mr. 
Woolley's symptoms were caused by his exposure to the contaminants, he's not 
sure why he is sick and his brother isn't.

He's always bitten his fingernails, Mr Wooley said; perhaps he ingested the 
contaminants that way, he hypothesized.

"My mother believes I got it all from (the contaminated site)," he said. "In 
a way, it don't matter. Let's just address the issue."

Contact Charis Anderson at canderson at s-t.com.
http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/...NEWS/805250316
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http://journals.aol.com/nsa1025/NationalSludgeAlianceFactSheets/entries/2005/07/22/the-death-of-a-nation/1028
SEWAGE SLUDGE AND ALS
* A series of Milwaukee Journal articles from January and February, 1987 
focused on the connection between three San Francisco 49ers playing on 
fields spread with Milorganite sludge fertilizer who contracted Lou Gehrig's 
disease and two MMSD milorganite plant employees who died of the disease. By 
February 10, 1987, 39 ALS patients had been found who had some exposure to 
milorganite. According to the articles, as many as 115 PEOPLE had died from 
ALS in the past eight years, the ALS death rate for Milwaukee County was 1.6 
%, one percent higher than the state average. Two out of the 155 documented 
MMSD employee deaths were caused by ALS, Whereas, the normal rate is about 2 
in 100,000. According to the son of one of the ALS victims, "The son said 
that the father knew of "four or five" ALS cases at the plant over the last 
25 to 30 years."

* According to the Milwaukee Journal article titled "EPA LAUNCHES  
MILORGANITE PROBE, dated February 12, 1987, the EPA planned a scientific 
investigation into a possible link between Lou Gehrig's disease (ALS) and 
the cadmium, chromium or other substances in MMSD's Milorganite fertilizer. 
, In the article Rubin "conceded that there were not many studies about the 
possible health hazards of sludge and sludge products." So where is the 
science that proves sludge issafe?

* While EPA claimed it would start a scientific investigation between the 
connection of Lou Gehrig's disease and milorganite in 1987, this did not 
happen. In fact, it later gave the WEF a public relations grant and EPA's 
John Walker found a writer WEF could hire to try to debunk the story . 
(Public Facts #101)

* In the same 1987 article Donald Lisk, Director of the toxic chemical 
laboratory at Cornell University , reported the results of his studies of 
sludge in Milwaukee and forty- nine other cities "in which he concluded that 
municipal sludge, which contains industrial pollutants, was too toxic to be 
used for agricultural purposes." "He said in one experiment, worms were 
raised in Milorganite and then fed to birds. He said the birds had high 
levels of cadmium, and industrial pollutants." "In other tests, Lisk fed 
animals on a variety of crops raised on sludge fertilizer soil. He said the 
cadmium levels were found to be 2 to 10 times higher than normal in kidney 
and liver tissues." According to Lisk, "We have found that there is no such 
thing as clean sludge." -LSI-