Subject: Cancer Concerns in Maryland Town (Raunio).
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 115712 -0500
From: Roy Beavers
To: guru
--------------------------------------------------
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............From EMF-L..........
It boarders on criminal negligence that this "study" did not look at the surrounding
EMF/EMR environment ... in the case of the leukemia cluster reported below.....!!!!!
Such could explain a neighborhood scenario (as apparently occurred below) ... while
a community study (which they conducted) would blur any EMF/EMR association
that might be present.......
I cannot believe that the people responsible for this study do not know about the
possibility of an EMF/EMR connection!!!!.... It truly suggests a deliberate attempt
to "not discover" the cause.......guru.......
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: Cancer Concerns in Maryland Town
Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2000 10:34:30 -0500
From: Darlene Raunio
To: guru@emfguru.com
>
>
> Washington Post - Metro Region
> http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63931-2000Oct12.html
>
> Cancer Concerns in Md. Town
>
> By Matthew Mosk
> Washington Post Staff Writer
> Friday, October 13, 2000; Page B01
> Tracy DiPietro was sitting by her son Justin's hospital bed five years ago when a
> neighbor phoned with terrible news. The woman's son, like DiPietro's, had been diagnosed
> with leukemia.
> The two mothers cried together, taking comfort in the prospect of sharing their trauma
> but never suspecting that their circle would widen. Within months, DiPietro heard from
> another neighbor whose son had cancer and then another.
> "We realized something was wrong," she said. "These boys all played together. And now,
> they were all getting sick."
> There are about 1,000 small children living in the rural community of London Towne, just
> south of Annapolis. At last count, five of them had contracted acute lymphocytic
> leukemia, and a sixth had been diagnosed with another form of lymphoma.
> The dark statistics led DiPietro, 34, and the others to an inevitable conclusion: Their
> bucolic, middle-class Maryland suburb was actually the heart of a cancer cluster. In
> recent months, after prodding from residents, state and local health officials resumed
> an intensive study of the neighborhood that they had worked on briefly in 1997.
> This week, the officials returned to the community with preliminary results: Five cases
> of this strain of leukemia within the 6,167 households in their Zip code is not a cancer
> cluster, but a statistical anomaly. And extensive testing of local well water, air
> quality and ground soil had yielded nothing that would explain why the children have
> become so sick.
> "The state did an in-depth analysis, and this [cancer] rate is quite a bit higher than
> what's expected, but it's not outside the statistical range," said Frances B. Phillips,
> Anne Arundel County's health officer. "It's frustrating, I know, but at this point we
> have to view it as just a terrible coincidence."
> Phillips and her colleagues delivered their findings this week to about 80 parents and
> other residents of the community, near Edgewater, at the neighborhood meeting hall.
> Several of the afflicted children played on scooters just outside the door.
> Along with Phillips were representatives of eight public agencies that monitor such
> concerns as water and air quality, pesticide usage and toxic dumping. The
> representatives set up tables with scientific and health literature in hopes of
> answering parental concerns about what might be behind the numbers.
> In part, their goal was to pass on information that the Centers for Disease Control and
> Prevention has been trying to impart for several years: Actual cancer clusters are far
> more rare than is commonly believed, and most groupings of the sort found in London
> Towne are as random an occurrence as a lightning strike.
> Some of the residents who turned out for the meeting accepted that conclusion
> reluctantly. But for others, the notion was both unsatisfying and unacceptable.
> When Clifton Kuhfahl, 40, arrived at the meeting, the lifelong London Towne resident
> placed a hand-painted sign on the windshield of his weathered, gray Chevy pickup, with
> his father's name, age and the date of his death scrawled in red paint. The cause:
> lymphocytic leukemia.
> "When my father died, the doctors told us this was a very rare type of leukemia,"
> Kuhfahl said. "It might be. But it's not rare here."
> Kuhfahl does not want to take attention from the parents whose children have suffered,
> but he said he wonders why health officials failed to include adults in their survey.
> And he is not alone. Wendy Cameron's son Oren, 8, is not the only one in her family with
> cancer. Cameron's mother has had the illness for two years and has had two relapses.
> "I want a credible expert to tell me these cases aren't connected," she said. "I can't
> believe that's true."
> Oren, a fourth-grader, is recovering well from three years of chemotherapy and other
> treatment. DiPietro's son, who is 9, is feeling better, as are the other four children
> who have struggled with the disease.
> But the parents remain angry, and they vowed not to quiet down until someone finds a
> logical link among all of the local cases--be it the well water they drink, or the air
> they breathe, or waste that may have been dumped by the barrel into nearby swamps.
> Public officials said that day may never come. They tested local wells for 116 potential
> contaminants and found none. Air quality tests bore no results. And to date, the
> Maryland Department of the Environment has found no evidence of dumping--legal or
> illegal.
> Katherine P. Farrell, deputy public health officer for Anne Arundel County, said a final
> report on the cancer problem will factor in adult cases; those numbers are still being
> gathered and crunched by state officials and public health experts at Johns Hopkins
> University. But she does not expect it to change the outcome.
> "The likelihood that we'll be able to explain these cases is remote," Farrell said.
> "It's not a satisfying answer, but it's the only answer we can offer right now."
> Anne Arundel health officials will release a final report in December and will forward
> their findings to the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health for an independent review.
> © 2000 The Washington Post Company
>
--------------6D89BE541212CDE28D343F0E
Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
............From EMF-L..........
It boarders on criminal negligence that this "study" did not
look at the surrounding
EMF/EMR environment ... in the case of the leukemia cluster reported
below.....!!!!!
Such could explain a neighborhood scenario (as apparently occurred
below) ... while
a community study (which they conducted) would blur any
EMF/EMR association
that might be present.......
I cannot believe that the people responsible for this study do not know
about the
possibility of an EMF/EMR connection!!!!.... It truly suggests
a deliberate attempt
to "not discover" the cause.......guru.......
-------- Original Message --------
| Subject: |
Fwd: Cancer Concerns in Maryland Town |
| Date: |
Fri, 13 Oct 2000 10:34:30 -0500 |
| From: |
Darlene Raunio <darvr@newnorth.net> |
| To: |
guru@emfguru.com |
Washington Post - Metro Region
http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A63931-2000Oct12.html
Cancer Concerns in Md.
Town
By Matthew Mosk
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 13, 2000; Page B01
Tracy DiPietro was sitting by her
son Justin's hospital bed five years ago when a neighbor phoned with terrible
news. The woman's son, like DiPietro's, had been diagnosed with leukemia.
The two mothers cried together, taking comfort in the prospect of sharing
their trauma but never suspecting that their circle would widen. Within
months, DiPietro heard from another neighbor whose son had cancer and then
another.
"We realized something was wrong," she said. "These boys all played
together. And now, they were all getting sick."
There are about 1,000 small children living in the rural community
of London Towne, just south of Annapolis. At last count, five of them had
contracted acute lymphocytic leukemia, and a sixth had been diagnosed with
another form of lymphoma.
The dark statistics led DiPietro, 34, and the others to an inevitable
conclusion: Their bucolic, middle-class Maryland suburb was actually the
heart of a cancer cluster. In recent months, after prodding from residents,
state and local health officials resumed an intensive study of the neighborhood
that they had worked on briefly in 1997.
This week, the officials returned to the community with preliminary
results: Five cases of this strain of leukemia within the 6,167 households
in their Zip code is not a cancer cluster, but a statistical anomaly. And
extensive testing of local well water, air quality and ground soil had
yielded nothing that would explain why the children have become so sick.
"The state did an in-depth analysis, and this [cancer] rate is quite
a bit higher than what's expected, but it's not outside the statistical
range," said Frances B. Phillips, Anne Arundel County's health officer.
"It's frustrating, I know, but at this point we have to view it as just
a terrible coincidence."
Phillips and her colleagues delivered their findings this week to about
80 parents and other residents of the community, near Edgewater, at the
neighborhood meeting hall. Several of the afflicted children played on
scooters just outside the door.
Along with Phillips were representatives of eight public agencies that
monitor such concerns as water and air quality, pesticide usage and toxic
dumping. The representatives set up tables with scientific and health literature
in hopes of answering parental concerns about what might be behind the
numbers.
In part, their goal was to pass on information that the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention has been trying to impart for several years:
Actual cancer clusters are far more rare than is commonly believed, and
most groupings of the sort found in London Towne are as random an occurrence
as a lightning strike.
Some of the residents who turned out for the meeting accepted that
conclusion reluctantly. But for others, the notion was both unsatisfying
and unacceptable.
When Clifton Kuhfahl, 40, arrived at the meeting, the lifelong London
Towne resident placed a hand-painted sign on the windshield of his weathered,
gray Chevy pickup, with his father's name, age and the date of his death
scrawled in red paint. The cause: lymphocytic leukemia.
"When my father died, the doctors told us this was a very rare type
of leukemia," Kuhfahl said. "It might be. But it's not rare here."
Kuhfahl does not want to take attention from the parents whose children
have suffered, but he said he wonders why health officials failed to include
adults in their survey.
And he is not alone. Wendy Cameron's son Oren, 8, is not the only one
in her family with cancer. Cameron's mother has had the illness for two
years and has had two relapses.
"I want a credible expert to tell me these cases aren't connected,"
she said. "I can't believe that's true."
Oren, a fourth-grader, is recovering well from three years of chemotherapy
and other treatment. DiPietro's son, who is 9, is feeling better, as are
the other four children who have struggled with the disease.
But the parents remain angry, and they vowed not to quiet down until
someone finds a logical link among all of the local cases--be it the well
water they drink, or the air they breathe, or waste that may have been
dumped by the barrel into nearby swamps.
Public officials said that day may never come. They tested local wells
for 116 potential contaminants and found none. Air quality tests bore no
results. And to date, the Maryland Department of the Environment has found
no evidence of dumping--legal or illegal.
Katherine P. Farrell, deputy public health officer for Anne Arundel
County, said a final report on the cancer problem will factor in adult
cases; those numbers are still being gathered and crunched by state officials
and public health experts at Johns Hopkins University. But she does not
expect it to change the outcome.
"The likelihood that we'll be able to explain these cases is remote,"
Farrell said. "It's not a satisfying answer, but it's the only answer we
can offer right now."
Anne Arundel health officials will release a final report in December
and will forward their findings to the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health
for an independent review.
© 2000 The Washington Post Company
--------------6D89BE541212CDE28D343F0E--
Archive provided courtesy of WaveGuide, http://www.wave-guide.org
Reprinted with permission of Roy Beavers, http://www.emfguru.com