Angiosarcoma Law Blog : Angiosarcoma Lawyer & Attorney : Burke & Eisner Law Firm : Vinyl Chloride

According to reports, a letter was recently sent by twenty-eight Congressmen to the Secretary of the Navy expressing their disappointment regarding the Navy’s failure to assist Camp Lejeune veterans. The letter also voices congress’ frustration that the dependants of these veterans have also not been given aid.  

The letter to the Navy is in regards to the vinyl chloride contamination of the base water wells at the camp that has affected so many. The Congressional representatives claim that the Navy has done little to nothing to develop a strategy in an attempt to address the health effects of vinyl chloride exposure and they question why no action has been taken.

Water at Camp Lejeune Contaminated with Vinyl Chloride

Between 1958 and 1987 it was discovered that the water at Camp Lejeune was contaminated with organic solvents and chemicals like vinyl chloride, which can lead to the development of angiosarcoma and other serious health complications.

Thousands of Marines, Sailors, and their families who resided at the base during this time drank the contaminated water and as a result many have been diagnosed with various types of cancer, including liver cancer, breast cancer, and leukemia. Some have also suffered from other health problems like delivering babies with birth defects, and being diagnosed with liver disease.  

Letter Urges Navy to Take Action

The Congressional letter to the U.S. Navy notes that they have failed to develop a proper strategy to “provide for those who have suffered from the effects of exposure to drinking” the contaminated water at the camp. The letter also reportedly asks the Secretary of the Navy to provide congress with answers to the following questions:

·        How many more studies does the Navy intend on conducting before addressing the health risks of exposure to toxins like vinyl chloride?

·        When will the Navy address the health effects to veterans, their families, and civilian employees?

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Many believe that a recent conversation between county officials and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) may have prompted an investigation of the McCullom Lake brain cancer cases. Many residents living in and around McCullom Lake have reportedly been exposed to vinyl chloride, a toxic substance known to cause angiosarcoma and other forms of cancer.

State Senator Pam Althoff and state Representative Jack Franks have announced that the IEPA is now open to investigating why at least two dozen people with connections to McCullom Lake and a neighboring McHenry subdivision have developed brain cancer.

Talk Gets Investigation Underway

The talk, which has reportedly led to a serious state investigation, comes nearly three and a half years after the initial brain cancer cases were publicly announced. The announcement was sparked by three former neighbors of the village who sued Ringwood manufacturers, Rohm and Haas, and Modine Manufacturing. According to reports, thirty lawsuits to date are blaming the brain and pituitary cancers that have developed in those living throughout the area on vinyl chloride exposure from the air and groundwater.

The representatives will reportedly meet again on officials on Thursday with the IEPA and the Illinois Department of Public Health to discuss bringing them on board. The agencies then plan to hold a town hall meeting in McCullom Lake to discuss the vinyl chloride exposure issues and cancer cases.

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Bob Ankenbauer, who has reportedly been working for the Pinellas County Sherriff's office for over seven years doing environmental detective work claims he has never seen anything as disturbing as the abandoned chemical lab littered with open jars of toxins in Bay Pines.

"I was worried about spillage from kids playing there. I was worried about them forming clouds in the building, worried about the building itself because these acids could eat through the steel," states Ankenbauer.

It was soon after he made this alarming discovery that he learned that work conducted at this plant included applying destructive chemicals like vinyl chloride and other cancerous materials to airplane parts in order to see if they'd hold up.
 
Lawsuit Filed 17 Years Later

It wasn't until seventeen years later that local attorney, Joseph Saunders, filed a class action lawsuit on behalf of the residents of Bay Pines in an attempts to protect them from the acids, poisons and toxic chemicals leaking from the plant. Chemicals like vinyl chloride, which has been known to cause angiosarcoma to those who are exposed, that been contaminating the groundwater and maybe even leaked into nearby homes all these years.

"We don't know how far the plume has spread and which direction," Saunders tells reports.
 
Local Resident Serves as Plaintiff in Suit
 
For more than eleven years, Lee Harris has called the piece of land just two blocks from the plant site, which was formerly owned by APF Industries, his home. However, Harris, who is now the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit, says he was oblivious to the pollution until health department workers recently came to his door asking to test his irrigation wells.

This is how Harris found out the ugly truth about the vinyl chloride and other pollutants that were discovered over a decade ago surrounding his home. 
 
Unfinished Business
 
According to reports, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has spent nearly $2 million to remove the chemicals leaking from the plant at the APF site. But they failed to  finish the job. In 1995, the Florida Department of Environmental Protection reportedly took control of the project and also failed to complete cleaning the area.
 
Meanwhile, no one from either agency ever told local residents anything about the chemicals or the risks they were potentially taking by continuing to live there. Now Ankenbauer, Saunders, and Harris have joined together to complete this job once and for all, hopefully seeing justice served and without any harm done to the community.

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A charity walk took place this past weekend in Florida's Central Park, to benefit those suffering from angiosarcoma. According to reports it was the Second Annual 5K Run/Walk for a Cure with all proceeds going to the Sarcoma Foundation of America. Among the participants were Paul and Allison Liotti, whose daughter, Kaitlyn, is living with sarcoma. Sarcoma is a rare cancer of the blood cells that often develops as the result of vinyl chloride exposure.

Little Girl Living with Sarcoma

Kaitlyn is only four years old daughter and has already endured two rounds of this deadly form of cancer known as sarcoma. Even though she is now in remission and has even entered preschool, her parents know first hand the suffering this disease can cause and are willing to continue supporting cancer research.

"My daughter is living proof that funding for these things can be beneficial for future children who are battling sarcoma,'' states Paul Liotti, who is a teacher and head baseball coach at South Plantation High School.

Kaitlyn was diagnosed with cancer in 2007. Since this time she has been undergoing intense chemotherapy and radiation therapy. However, her father says there has been a need for doctors to create their own road map for this type of chemotherapy to treat angiosarcoma and other types of blood cancers due to the general lack of research into the disease.

"There was no baseline for her treatment,'' said Mike Mandell, the Florida chapter leader, and national board member, of the Sarcoma Foundation of America. Mandell has also battled angiosarcoma.

Community Joins Together for a Good Cause

The Liotti's were among the 500 others who took part in the Central Park walk and organizers hoped to raise over $50,000.

``We hope the generosity of our supporters will allow us to fund two grants for next year,'' says Mandell.

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A defunct quarry in Lower Salford, PA, which has a long history of pollution problems, was recently added to the list of sites to be cleaned up under the federal Superfund program. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), claims that there have been pollution problems in the area for decades, and chemicals like vinyl chloride has been found in high levels. As a result of the pollution and discovery of toxic chemicals, over the years an estimated 113 homes wells have been identified as being polluted requiring emergency public water supplies to be installed into the homes.

The EPA has also announced that although short-term danger to human health is no longer a risk, there still remains a long-term danger to the health of local residents and the surrounding environment.
 
Site Contaminated with Vinyl Chloride

The site reportedly totals three-acres and was once used as a shale quarry in the 1900s. Research shows this quarry was used to get rid of waste and chemicals as far back as 1948. In 1963, the former American Olean Tile Co. of Lansdale, which is a subsidiary of the National Gypsum Co., is said to have purchased the site. Up until 1980 waste continued to be disposed at the site, including the disposal of waste tiles, sludge and other production wastes. In 1981, the owner of the company reportedly found two 10,000 gallon tanks containing fuel oil and boron, surrounded by other toxic chemicals.In 1982, the site officially closed.

It wasn't until six years later that American Olean was granted approval to conduct studies on the site; however, before studies could begin the company was purchased by National Gypsum. Until now, and since National Gypsum has gone bankrupt, the company had retained all the environmental liabilities and documents pertaining to the quarry site.

The frightening news? According to the EPA, an estimated 54,000 people use drinking water from public and private wells within just three miles of the site and have for years.  With the bankruptcy of the company legally responsible for the pollution, the "cleanup of this site is the responsibility of the federal government."

The EPA is now vigorously working to cleanup the site and prevent further exposure to these chemicals from affected surrounding communities as they have for so many years.

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Recent reports claim an area that once served as the dumping grounds for various chemicals including the hazardous vinyl chloride, which is known to cause angiosarcoma, is in the works to be built on. The plot of land in South Gifford, Florida, has long been known as a toxic area and now residents raise concern after hearing their are plans to build homes, gas stations, and post offices there.
 
The old landfill will need the approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) before construction begins to develop what is being referred to as "Brownfield."
 
“We could do a post office branch or a convenience store,” stated Freddie Woolfork, who serves as the current chairman of the unincorporated community’s Front Porch Florida board. “But I wouldn’t want anything that would put young kids playing outside (on the soil).”
 
This statement alone reassures the residents that building on top of an area where chemicals were once dumped isn't a safe idea. If officials worry for the children playing on the grass, how safe could this decision be?
 
Vinyl Chloride Discovered at Site
 
According to the area's documented history, vinyl chloride was found in this portion of South Gifford years ago. High levels of this dangerous substance were discovered, along with high levels of other carcinogens. As a result of these findings, the county's reportedly hired GeoSyntec Consultants of Titusville to look further into the issue. Consultants from GeoSyntec reportedly analyzed the area and ordered a cleanup to be done by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

Since this time, the county has paid an estimated $2.8 million for GeoSyntec to trace the contaminants and their causes in the water and air.Though tests haven't been done on the area since, which is why the approval from the EPA is so essential to the community and their assurance for safety.

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According to recent reports, a judge in Pennsylvania recently dealt two defeats to Rohm and Haas in the McCullom Lake brain cancer lawsuits. The ruling gives the community hope that the first case will see a trial sooner than later. The judge reportedly also denied Rohm Haas' motion to dismiss two of the plaintiff's witnesses who claimed there were in fact harmful chemicals like vinyl chloride contaminating the air and groundwater in the area. The plaintiffs in the ongoing suits are holding the company's Ringwood plant which sits just a mile south of McCullom Lake Village for the many cases of brain cancer and other illnesses that have sprouted from the community. There is hope that the first of the brain and pituitary cancer suits will go to trial early next year after lengthy troubles surrounding the suits and the issue as a whole. 
 
First Lawsuit Hoped to Path Way for Other Victims
 
The lawsuit the community is hopeful will be the first to enter a courtroom is that which was filed by a longtime McCullom Lake resident, Joanne Branham. Branham lost her husband, Franklin, to brain cancer in 2004. With the help of her two former neighbors, Joanne Branham filed lawsuit against Rohm and Haas claiming her husband was exposed to vinyl chloride and other toxic chemicals, which resulted in his unexpected illness and eventual death. The neighboring Modine Manufacturing was also named as a defendant in the suit, which was filed in April 2006.
 
The lawsuits claims that Franklin's exposure to the known carcinogen vinyl chloride resulted in his development of cancer. The companies reportedly  had been dumping the chemical near their home for decades. Not only was Franklin a victim of vinyl chloride exposure, but their three neighbors were also diagnosed with cancer within eight months of one another.

According to researchers who have done testing in the area in light of all the lawsuits, the number of brain cancer diagnosis that have been given within the village is well above average. Researchers have also solidified the fact for many that it is due to chemical exposure that this community has been plagued by cancers.

Twenty-one of the plaintiffs who have filed lawsuits from the village were diagnosed with brain cancer, six with pituitary cancer, and one, suffers from both types of cancer. Since the first lawsuit was filed, ten of the plaintiffs have passed away due to their illnesses.

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According to recent reports, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has made the decision to add 11 new hazardous waste sites that pose serious risks on the National Priorities List of Superfund sites. These waste sites have not only been accounted for due to the risk they pose to humans, but they are being added for the risk they pose to the environment around them as well.

The EPA Also, EPA is also in the works to add another 10 sites to this fast growing list. Superfund is a federal program that conducts research on and cleans up abandoned hazardous waste sites throughout the country. These sites are known to be uncontrolled and the most toxic, including chemicals like vinyl chloride.

Hazardous Toxins Found on Sites

At the sites added to the list the EPA found hazardous substances such as, antimony, arsenic, barium, trichloroethene (TCE), vinyl chloride, and zinc. At each site the EPA will reportedly thoroughly investigate the extent of the contamination before they begin the cleanup. As a result of the number of sites that are now due for a cleanup, officials worry it may be years before they receive proper funding to rid certain areas of the harmful chemicals.  

The site added to the list must meet the following requirements in order to require immediate attention and pose a public concern:

• If the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services recently issued a health advisory about the site with recommendations for a cleanup.
• If the EPA investigates the site and concludes that it poses a severe threat to the public’s health.
• If the EPA believes it to be more cost-effective to use its remedial authority rather than its emergency removal authority to take care of the site.

Among the sites that were added to the National Priorities list are the B.F. Goodrich site in Rialto, California, Curtis Specialty Paper, Inc. in Milford, New Jersey, and Amcast Industrial Corporation in Cedarburg, Wisconsin.  
 

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According to recent reports, everyday school supplies, children's car seats, vehicles and pet products were recently tested by nonprofit Ecology Center and lead, vinyl chloride and heavy metals were detected.

"The more we test, the more we find that the presence of toxic chemicals is widespread in everyday consumer products," explains Jeff Gearhart, who is currently the research director at the Ecology Center.

Testing Conducted to Determine Risks

The testing was reportedly done using a field-portable X-ray fluorescence analyzer. The products were being tested for chemicals based on their toxicity, persistence and their ability to harm people and their surrounding environment. The chemicals tested for, which included vinyl chloride, have been linked to reproductive problems, developmental and learning disabilities, liver toxicity and cancer.

Gearhart and his colleagues claim some chemicals found in vehicles were up to five to ten times higher than ones found in the home and work offices. The Ecology Center rated the top vehicles that were not as risky. The top three cars rated were the Pontiac G5, the Chevy Cobalt and the Toyota Corolla. Among the worst three car picks in terms of the amount of chemicals found in them were the Chevy Aveo, the Mitsubishi Eclipse convertible and the Hyundai Tuscon SUV.

Infant and child car seats were also found to contain chemicals that could potentially cause health problems in children. The other products tested included toys, bed, dog collars, and dog leashes. One-quarter of the pet products that were tested reportedly showed traces of excess lead.

Affects of Vinyl Chloride

Angiosarcoma has been shown to affect the vessel walls in the body. Research is still being done on the disease, which can be life-threatening, though a cure has yet to be found. Exposure to vinyl chloride, whether through inhalation or ingestion in large amounts, has been known to cause angiosarcoma.

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