Some Hometown-Area Residents to Get Health Survey
People living along Meadow Avenue in Hometown and Ben Titus Road in the Still Creek community will be receiving questionnaires today asking them about their health. The questionnaires are from a New York law firm, and they are the result of an effort by the Army for a Clean Environment to draw attention to environmental health-related problems in the area.
ACE Director Dante Picciano recently contacted the firm, which specializes in environmental litigation, for assistance. After learning about the serious health concerns of local residents, the firm's environmental investigators agreed to conduct a preliminary assessment of the area's health. Picciano says he's not sharing the firm's name with the media at this time in order to avoid the appearance of solicitation.
"I contacted them and said there was the potential here for health problems, and they agreed," Picciano says. "A primary responsibility of government is to protect the people from harm. Based on our numerous exposures to toxic chemicals and the increased levels of health problems in our area, we must conclude that the government's not doing their job."
The law firm will be distributing 100 questionnaires to residents along Meadow Avenue and Ben Titus Road. The two-page document asks for basic identifying information and whether the recipients or any immediate family members have been diagnosed with any illnesses, and it asks respondents to provide details. Respondents will be provided with a stamped, self-addressed envelope and asked to send their answers directly to the firm. There is no cost to participate in the study and no obligations. The firm will not contact residents; residents must contact the firm.
The firm has not filed a lawsuit and is not looking at filing one at this point, Picciano notes. Rather, the questionnaires will help determine whether there are unusual patterns of illness in the areas studied and could help determine what steps should be taken next. A lawsuit against polluters is one possibility.
"I understand that some people don't want to get involved, and that's fine," Picciano says. "But there are people who do want to get involved, and no one should stand in their way."
The unnamed law firm is at least the second to get involved with environmental health concerns in the Hometown area. Some local residents have been working with the Locks Law Firm of Philadelphia on a possible suit against parties responsible for local pollution. According to reports from some of those involved in the investigation, that firm's efforts have been focusing on pollution in the Still Creek drinking water reservoir from the nearby McAdoo Associates Superfund site and other sources.
ACE Director Dante Picciano recently contacted the firm, which specializes in environmental litigation, for assistance. After learning about the serious health concerns of local residents, the firm's environmental investigators agreed to conduct a preliminary assessment of the area's health. Picciano says he's not sharing the firm's name with the media at this time in order to avoid the appearance of solicitation.
"I contacted them and said there was the potential here for health problems, and they agreed," Picciano says. "A primary responsibility of government is to protect the people from harm. Based on our numerous exposures to toxic chemicals and the increased levels of health problems in our area, we must conclude that the government's not doing their job."
The law firm will be distributing 100 questionnaires to residents along Meadow Avenue and Ben Titus Road. The two-page document asks for basic identifying information and whether the recipients or any immediate family members have been diagnosed with any illnesses, and it asks respondents to provide details. Respondents will be provided with a stamped, self-addressed envelope and asked to send their answers directly to the firm. There is no cost to participate in the study and no obligations. The firm will not contact residents; residents must contact the firm.
The firm has not filed a lawsuit and is not looking at filing one at this point, Picciano notes. Rather, the questionnaires will help determine whether there are unusual patterns of illness in the areas studied and could help determine what steps should be taken next. A lawsuit against polluters is one possibility.
"I understand that some people don't want to get involved, and that's fine," Picciano says. "But there are people who do want to get involved, and no one should stand in their way."
The unnamed law firm is at least the second to get involved with environmental health concerns in the Hometown area. Some local residents have been working with the Locks Law Firm of Philadelphia on a possible suit against parties responsible for local pollution. According to reports from some of those involved in the investigation, that firm's efforts have been focusing on pollution in the Still Creek drinking water reservoir from the nearby McAdoo Associates Superfund site and other sources.
posted by Sue Sturgis at
2:10 PM
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