Prior to the cancer cluster, homes in The Acreage consistently sold at about 92% of the value of Jupiter Farms homes. Where did I live? 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. Submit & Share. 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. "We were just really shocked that it came back not in their favor," Stephanie Ankiel West of the B.R.A.I.N Cancer Foundation of the Treasure Coast said. This odd fact kept troubling her, and at the suggestion of Garretts neurologist, she e-mailed the Florida Department of Health about it. In court filings, Pratt & Whitney denied having any contaminations beyond properly stored chemical compounds.. And hes particularly prone to headaches. 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. Trucking manifests and other documents will show that contaminated soil, most of which was shipped out on rail cars to hazardous disposal sitesin Michigan and South Carolina, was handled properly, he said. When Hannah got sick in 2007, her mother had no idea that, just a few blocks away in the Acreage their lush South Florida community other children had also suffered through the same awful symptoms. A canal system was constructed to make The Acreage habitable. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) defines a cancer cluster as a greater-than-expected number of cancer cases that occurs within a group of people in a geographic area over a period of time. Yet because elevated numbers of any disease can occur by chance, and because cancer is relatively rare and its incredibly difficult to determine if rare events occur by chance the vast majority of investigations into suspected clusters dont confirm them. How Cancer Came to the Acreage - Type Investigations 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. ", Jury rejects Acreage families lawsuit against Pratt & Whitney, 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. 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. This site has been developed to help share information about a confirmed cancer cluster in The Acreage with those who Map of the cancer cluster in the Acreage (Palm Beach Gardens, But the answer to that question is not available, the experts said, and the frustration of the audience often boiled over into angry outbursts. Pratt was taking other risks, too. 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. Jane Musgrave covers federal and civil courts and occasionally ventures into criminal trials in state court. Public record? In Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution, historian David Rosner describes how plastics and chemical manufacturers avoided regulation in part by making their own economic interests seem synonymous with those of the country. 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. In the meantime, after so much bitterness, the subject of the cancer cluster has become almost taboo in the Acreage. 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). P2 began as a friendly collaboration based on the good working relationship between the regulatory community and industry, as one internal document put it. Soil tests are to follow. Some who were unable to sell simply walked away from their homes. 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 the residential neighborhood Acreage, located in western Palm Beach County. and help keep the future of New Times, Use of this website constitutes acceptance of our. 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. New Acreage 'cancer cluster' lawsuit filed - WPTV var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; But the house is basically worthless, and where are you going to go in this job market?. Many parents of the children with cancer were angry and frustrated, but other residents felt relief. var ga = document.createElement('script'); ga.type = 'text/javascript'; ga.async = true; It found elevated levels of cancer in children in The Acreage and designated the area as a pediatric brain cancer cluster. Jonathan S. Harris, Matthew D. Shaffer & Arthur. 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. We would also like those who are in need of medical assistance to let us know. 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 Meanwhile, the governments investigation into the Acreage cancer cluster provided some evidence for the theory that radiation was behind it. She cant see some colors and has difficulty with organization and telling time, according to her mother. All of our data is self-reported by residents. A cancer The results of radon testing appeared as strings of letters and numbers, and the soil-testing report was essentially a 500-page compendium of test values and chemical names. Dunsford, along with other parents whose children were diagnosed with brain cancer, claim the aeronautics giant didnt properly dispose of radioactive waste that eventually contaminated their community. If Al Qaeda sent a team of sleeper cells to poison our groundwater and release toxic materials into the air, people would go nuts. Instead, the Palm Beach County Health Department told Hatfield to direct further contacts to its lawyer. 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.. 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.. })(); Alonso was surely aware of how daunting a task it would be to pinpoint and prove the cause of the increase. Most cancer clusters reside in a gray area of uncomfortable non-resolution. He claimed that further press coverage could bias jury selection. Im usually a very rational person, but that night I put on a pair of shoes that belong to someone with OCD. Meanwhile, Pratt & Whitney enjoys close ties with regulators. var _gaq = _gaq || []; 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. "If they can't get that verdict, it kind of dimmers where we're at here because what is it going to take here? WebThank you for visiting The Acreage Cancer Study website. Type Media Center document.write(new Date().getFullYear()). Their family menagerie includes two horses, a pony, seven dogs, goats and a pig. Among the first to urge officials to investigate reports of an unusually high incidence of pediatric cancers were Greg and Jennifer Dunsford, whose son Garrett, now 7, was treated for a benign brain tumor in 2008. During the next year, while Jenna was undergoing cancer treatment, both dogs developed tumors and died. Its always with me were out to dinner or whatever, and you hear Tick, tock. Newfields mistrust, and that of others in the group, grew when they realized that the groups chair who seemed particularly eager to put the questions of contamination to rest was a former Pratt & Whitney employee. The Newfields also recently installed a sophisticated water-filtration system for their well, though Tracy recently discovered that Jessica had bought and stashed away bottled water. 8:05AM. And both were so grueling that they left the victors unsure whether the effort had been worth it. 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." 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. But, Gallagher said, only 40 dump trucks were sent to a thermal remediation facility. Isolation was clearly part of the reason that Pratt originally chose its location in Florida. Residents of The Acreage, a south Florida town, at a community meeting in 2010. There are a lot of communities down here built on that, says Hatfield. Now 12, he has auditory processing problems, memory issues and dyslexia, which were all diagnosed after his cancer. Hatfield countered that medical experts her West Palm Beach firm hired will refute those claims. But when the low times do hit, each time it hits a little bit harder and lasts a little bit longer.. After a while, we realized it was going off when our water was regenerating from our well, says Samarripa, who worried over the fact that Hannahs bedroom was closest to the well. Cancer On February 1, 2010 the Florida Department of Health declared the Acreage a "Pediatric Cancer Cluster". Our Platform. (Naturally occurring means that the radioactive substances originated in the soil, water or other natural materials, but may have been concentrated by industrial activity.) Please specify what type of assistance you need so we can better assist you. 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. WebThe Acreage is an unincorporated Palm Beach community which has experienced significant growth in its 25 years to around 39,000 people. The concept of tranquility is right in our founding documents, said state Rep. Joseph Abruzzo, D- Wellington. (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material or NORM.) But on the other hand, I envy them every day of their lives. The loss of her daughter has only become harder over time. 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. Home - The Acreage Cancer Cluster But not a lot of communities with brain-tumor clusters.. 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. But it could be something in the ground, pesticides, we dont know. At the request of site members who just want to know how many brain tumorsand cysts are on the map, we have provided a breakdown below: By request, we have broken down the data we have collected by year: We are trying to update our Victim Database. 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. A 2010 report from the Florida Department of Health confirmed her worst fears. The anxiety and uncertainty now haunting The Acreage began to surface months ago. ', Much of the mudslinging took place online. 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. This article was reported in partnership with The Investigative Fund at The Nation Institute, now known as Type Investigations, with support from the Gertrude Blumenthal Kasbekar Fund. Then, in the summer before ninth grade, while her family was visiting a Civil War memorial on the coast of Alabama, Hannah collapsed. A community group has counted 18 children with brain 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. Ditto the drinking water, which came from a well. Abruzzo said he knows some of his constituents have left the area, and just walked away from their property and their mortgage. If you would like to print this map, you can use the print option off your web browser. Instead, jurors will be asked whether Pratt is responsible for depressing property values in the community. Cancer Clusters Fact Sheet - NCI - National Cancer Institute 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. The Samarripas moved to Alabama, where Hannah, now 20 and in college, is flourishing, according to her mother. Garrett Dunsford, too, is both thriving and living with the ongoing health effects of his cancer. 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. It takes everything in me some days not to fall apart. 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. We are seeking answers to a long list of questions and we are hoping that this websiteprovides usefulinformation to you. (function() { The plaintiffs were parents and families from The Acreage who claimed that Pratt & Whitney was to blame for the cancer cluster. They wanted us to move on and say our water was fine, recalls Tracy Newfield, who was a member of the group. But if she successfully argues that Pratt contaminated The Acreage, she could ask him to reconsider. She knew and somehow understood and was OK with it, Kaye McCann said recently. We are concerned residents just like you. He doesnt value things at all, is how Dunsford described Garrett recently, adding that hes become the family comforter. 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. 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. 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. In the Acreage, there were many possible hazards to consider. The suit over whether several companies had caused a cluster of leukemia cases in children in Woburn, Massachusetts, chronicled in the book (and later movie) A Civil Action, was incredibly lengthy, costly and labor-intensive, and the plaintiffs walked away with relatively small settlements. We have learned whats truly important in life, and its definitely not a house, she says. Acreage WebThe Florida Department of Environmental Protection designated a pediatric cancer cluster in 2010 in The Acreage after a spate of pediatric brain tumor cases. source of local news and culture, Deirdra Funcheon The experts discussed radiation, well water tests and demographic studies. 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. Instead, most homeowners rely on private wells. She bought bottled water which her family used for cooking, drinking and even brushing their teeth. 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. Given the expense and labor involved, health departments are often loath even to attempt to track down the causes of clusters. It will likely take years for the lawsuits against Pratt & Whitney to be resolved. The Law Did Not Treat Them Kindly. On Wednesday, 12 years 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. 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. Millions of dollars could be at stake. Periodically, the belt would start beeping in the middle of the night. Like most other suspected clusters, that one had failed upon investigation to clear the statistical bar. 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. Gov. 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. He was introduced to us as an engineer, Newfield says. A Scary Reality The Acreage Cancer Cluster. 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. This article will provide you with some guidelines on how you can obtain high-quality maps. 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. 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. The mining company had already been caught up in a related environmental scandal. 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. 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. 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. _gaq.push(['_setDomainName', 'none']); We really need leadership out of Tallahassee, a person designated by the governor to take charge an action plan. Less than twenty miles inland of West Palm Beach, the Acreage functions as that citys country cousin. 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. 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 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. 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. The verdict said that the aerospace giant did not release pollution or transport radioactive materials into the community from its facility located along Beeline Highway in western Palm Beach County. These include Cesium-137, Iridium-191, and Cadmium-109. 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. ga.src = ('https:' == document.location.protocol ? They asked experts to conduct hundreds of soil and medical tests. The Dunsfords created all this fear, resident Michelle James told The Palm Beach Post. Websites For Complete Report Infonnation www.pbchd.com/acreage www.dep. Families in this south Florida town point to two companies as the source of the contamination that caused their childrens disease. "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.". d.write('Brain Cancer Cases Shot Up in This Florida TownIs a Defense