Document dD21gw4Ypj0BgZm98p07xQ5de

* M^iey.2ugutlf.'l9t4 TtfE WASHINGTON POST High In Little Elk Valley Leonard Madison, left, a former foreman at the Galax; plant, died of ctooer in earl? Auft&L Bp Bill Richards VubitiftAs ?c*t 8UI1 Writer PROVIDENCE. Md--No one is quite sure why, but for the past few years the people of the Little Elk Valley here have been dyin^ off 8t an alarming rate. Since 1967, 20 of the 120 people who have lived here for more than two years have died. According to a study of the Little Elk's popu lation by a local doctor. The ages of those who died range from 5 to 70. That figure puts the death rate for the valley about 2.2 times ahead of the rest of surrounding Cecil County, in the northern corner of the stale. More ominous. Dr. Pietro U. Capurro's tabu lation shows that at least eight of those deaths, and possibly more, have been from cancer, making.the cancer death rate here seven times ihe rest of the county's 53,000 residents. The county's cancer rate is above average for rural areas in the U S., according to statisticians from the National Cancer Institute. Suspicion concerning the valley's unusually high death and cancer levels Has been com pounded by several types of cancers identified here by Capnrro, a 49-year-old pathologist and director of the laboratory at Union Hospital in nearby EUcton. The cancers--lymphomas, leukemia and pan creas cancer--have all been linked in the past in various studies and by medical researchers to exposure to certain industrial chemicals. Exposure to certain industrial chemicals can lead to cancer that possibly may not appear for 10 or more years, according to National Can cer Institute specialists. All of the cancer victims described in Capurro'a report lived within a mile of the Little Elk Valley's only industrial plant--The Gal axy Chemical Company, whidi has been re processing chemicals here since 1961. Paul J. Mraz. the president of Galaxy, des cribed Capurro's findings as "unsubstantiated" and "nothing new" during a short telephone interview recently. Mraz declined to comment further on the doctor's report or allow a reporter to tour the plant and conduct a lengthier in-person inter view, "I can't make any further comment on the advice of my attorney," he said. During the last four years a number of resi dents including Capnrro, who lived in the valley for four years until 1972, complained that chemical fumes from the plant had made them ilL Samples of the air around the Galaxy plant, taken by investigators for the Maryland bureau of air quality control after complaints in 1970 and 1971, showed the presence of about 25 chemicals in the valley's air and water that were foreign to the area but that matched a libt of chemicals bandied by the plant, accord ing to Carl York, head of the bureau's com pliance section. One of the chemicals repeatedly identified in the samples, York said, was benzene, a substance that Mraz recently acknowledged his RSV 0006805 DR. PIETRO CAPUKRO ... tabulates death data Cancer, Death Rates Found High i nMd. Valley SOth Km and Peter Ntr- Bebecca Madison, who ger, haad of tbo Marisol Iso lives in the valley, said Cheoifttl-Company* a Mid* several weeks ago she dleMjt, MJ firm that sup- walked tv the plant with plios Galaxy with chemicals her 1-year-old son, John for rtprpeNitag, refused 1a PauL "We must have picked telapbOM OOBTOTMtlOlU to the wrong time because we disclose what chemicals tba got a good whiff of what plaAthss handled recently. KraybUl, of the National Cancer. Institute, who has not'studied either the valley ever It was they were doing in there," the said. "John Paul began throwing up tight on the spot" or Its inhabitants, said expo T want to get out of sure to carcinogenic cfaemi- here," she said. "I don't cals did not mean that eaneer would appear Immedi ately. Cancer cases after such exposure, he said, of ten do not appear until yean after exposure. The presence of the can- . cer types noted by Capurro,, and the Identification off chemicals found in past1 know what they're doing in that plant but I don't want my son to grow up breath ing that stuff." Her father, Leonard Madi son, 50, worked for Galaxy for 11 years until he devel- * oped what was diagnosed 14 ; months ago as throat cancer. He died in early August samplings of air "could pose Interviewed Just before a potential cancer problem his death, Madison said he which should be further studied by an epidemiologi cal investigator, Krayblll said. Galaxy's last problem with eomplainst concerning Its chemical emissions oc curred in 1972 when a Caro line County Judge awarded 10 residents of the valley, in was down from 175 pounds to 105. He was barely able to speak in a croaking rasp of a whisper and said he be lieved that a combination of cigarette smoking and inha lation of the fumes at the plant was responsible for his condition "No one wore masks," he cluding Capurro, a total of $3432 after they filed suit complaining they were made 111 by the plant's said. "The chemicals we'd breathe would bum our throats and make us sick fumes. but they kept telling us It Since then, residents near won't hurt you.' I believed the plant who were Inter them then and.now I know viewed recently by The better. But It's too late fur Washington Post said they me now." had not experienced any problem with fumes until this year. Several persons said they had been bothered by fumes this year In Jsnu- ary. March and July. Olive Feelhy, who runs a general store with her hus band Georgs about 190 yards west of tht plant, said the fumes had become par ticularly powerful in recent weeks. `Three weeks ago," abe said, "I noticed a bluish haze coming from the direc y Charles Dunlap, 22, a sec ond worker known to have developed cancer, died in 1971 after working for Gal axy at the plant lor 13 months. Capurro, who diag nosed the cancer with a nu clear scanning process, said he died of cancer of the pan creas. Mraz said the man had "stomach trouble" be fore he was hired, hut did not know if the man had cancer before be was hired. No outside agency has tion of the plant one morn conducted a medical Investi ing. When I went out to hang my waah It wsa so gation of the dozen or so workers now at the plant or Strong that 1 collapsed and on any of the plant's past had to crawl back Inside on my hands and knees." employees, state air quality official York said. Mraz re Nancy Cnadwlek, who fused to tell a reporter lives on the eart Ude of the whether his company has plant, said she too had undertaken medical checks smelled fumes recently. They blow Into the house on present or past employ ees. and my whole family Just starts coughing." she said. "Since they've started, we've been tired and dopey all the time." Madison, York and others who worked for Galaxy said turnover at the plant has been high. A number jf the workers there have been aent to Galaxy from the Maryland state employment office In Elkton. Stato offi cials said there is no re quirement that the employ ment office notify workers that they may be handling dangerous chemicals. Turnover in the valley also has been high in recent years. Capurro said that 60 per cent of the population living around the plant had either moved away or died since 1967. Capurro. identified eight of the dead as cancer vic tims, using hospital records, state and county informa tion, his own records and in terviews with the relatives of the dead persons. Two other deaths, he said, may have involved persons who had cancer but died of other causes. All of the cancer victims, who ranged in age from 5 years old to 70, lived less than a mile from the plant and bad been exposed to the valley's air for at least two years. Only one, a part-time painter, had any other expo sure to chemicals, the doc tor said. Last year, Capurro aent the results of his findings and the previous reports on chemicals In the valley to Dr. N. E. Day, a highly re garded biostatistician for the World Health Organiza tion's international Agency for Research on Cancer in Lyon,' France. Day wrote back in Febru ary of this vear that be noted an unusually high in cidence of lymphomas and pancreatic tumors in Copurro's findings and that these two types of tumors are in creasingly being found among chemists. "In a population of 120, over seven years, you would expect .068 lymphomas and .067 pancreas tumors," Day wrote. " 'The probability of ob serving two pancreas tumors by chance is about .006." Day continued, "and of ob serving the four lymphomas la less than .000001, i.c. very small." Dr. Sidney Cutler, a bios tatlstician sad chief of the biometry branch of the Na tional Cancer Institute, said during an Interview that he had no knowledge of the ac curacy of Capurro'a raw data. "But," he aaid, "if we're talking about a population as small as he (Capurro) re ports, and la such a limited number of years, theresdits certainly look unusual." Both York and Capurro said they have requested a study of the conditions in the valley and of its past and present residents by an outside federal agency. Such Investigations of plants where workers have been believed exposed to carcinogenic chemicals have usually been handled by the National Institute for Occu pational Safety and Health (NJOSH). a federal investi gative agency under the De partment of Health, Educa tion and Welfare. NIOSH sent Dr. Carey Young, one of Its investiga tors, to the Little Elk Valley in March. Young inter viewed Capurro and left af ter the Interview without checking the plant or the valley's residents and has not returned since. "It was a preliminary in terview," he said in a tele phone lnterivew from NIOSH headquarters In Cin cinnati. "Wc have other pri orities taking our manpower and time. We feel some as pects of the valley's situa tion are interesting, though, and we may consider some kind of contractual study for a full evaluation some time in the future." Such vague promises of attention have done little to ease the fears of people like Olive Feelhy, who counts off on her fingers the names of her neighbors who have died recently and repeats the details of each death for visitors to her store. "This used to be a place where people died of old age and you'd go years with out a funeral sometimes," she said. "Good Lord, nowa days I spend more time In the funeral parlor than I do in my own home." 000680?