Toxic Town: Birth Defects

I find this article very disturbing, to say the least. I grew up in Somerville, went to school in Somerville and even lived in Somerville for a while as a young adult. I do feel that the effects of this arsenic is catastrophic and just because you leave this 'dying' town does not mean you are immune to the poison that has been released into the community on a near-continuous basis for decades.

It’s High Noon in Somerville. Lines are being drawn and sides are being taken. Our hometown loyalty is being challenged. Ugly personal insults are being spewed. Knees are jerking.

This story is horrifying from either perspective:
1. There may be a highly toxic chemical presence in Somerville that is causing people to sicken and die, which has been deliberately (or at least carelessly) perpetrated and criminally covered up, or
2. A tiny town with little or no recourse to defend itself is being unfairly characterized as a toxic place to live on the basis of possibly lawyer-driven, greed-based and certainly incomplete investigations.

We who are from Somerville and may still have family living there, and who love our little home town, are shocked whichever way this thing slices.

But I don’t think it’s a “For Somerville” or “Against Somerville” issue.

Is it “against” Somerville to want the poisons and the cover-up, if there are such, exposed and remediated?

Is it “for” Somerville to refuse to accept even the possibility that there may be toxins in the environment, and perhaps continue to have our loved ones exposed to them? (I, for one, refuse to drink that gray water, and have ordered my mother to switch to bottled water immediately!)

The list of “victims” seems to be varied as to complaints, and some seem pretty far-fetched. Tilman Hein’s death, for instance, wasn’t caused by the tie plant (he died of acute necrotizing fasciitis) – but then again, he was very sick all his life and maybe that was because of the plant. And it doesn’t seem likely that chemicals could cause diabetes, or that a pregnant woman could get enough toxins eating vegetables to cause severe birth defects without seriously compromising her own health. On the other hand, exposure to creosote is known to cause skin and scrotum cancer, and high levels of fumes can cause respiratory problems and birth defects in animals. (http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/tfacts85.html#bookmark05)

It is true that most people in or from Somerville are about as healthy as anybody else. But just because there hasn’t been 100% morbidity doesn’t mean there is no danger. Maybe all these sick folks are just looking for someone to blame for their problems or want to take a ride on the class action gravy train. But. . .What if they’re right. . . ?

We need to reserve judgment – and take precautions -- until the results are in. Only a report independent of the attorneys involved in the lawsuits can provide a truly objective analysis of whatever chemicals the tie plant may have discharged over the years, their environmental levels and the relative toxicity still present, if any.

We’ll call Erin Brockovich if we need her.

Karen Sager Torres
SHS Class of 1968
1704 Falcon Dr
Corinth, TX 76210
214 769-4814
12/10/07

We are continuely amazed by these stories of cancer and birth defects in Somerville and what might have caused them. But, most are a "stretch" at best. Jessica Baade's Dad was a friend of mine. I knew him well and his Mom was the most caring, devoted woman anyone could ever know. Mrs. Baade spent almost our entire school years making us homemade buttermilk cupcakes, chicken salad sandwiches, and anything else she could possibly "home" make and bring to school. I really don't remember an occasion where Mrs. Baade wasn't contributing something and it was always food.

I'm sad and sorry for what happened to Jessica, but eating vegetables from Mrs. Baade's garden is a big huge stretch and I'm really sad that she is being put in the position of a victim because her "grandmother" wouldn't have wanted her harmed in any way.

Quite frankly, if there was anything in the food Mrs. Baade served that was harmful we'd all have died a very long time ago. This story about visiting Somerville while I was pregnant story is just crazy. There are just way too many of us who lived in Somerville while pregnant or visited often ... we ate the food and we drank the water, but every now and then genetics has a different plan.

I'm glad to see that Jessica is a beautiful girl today and I wish her husband a safe return.

Shirley Neutzler Lissner
SHS Class '66

I need the lawyers name & phone #, my sisters kid whent to this school last year & my sisters kids x-husbanda & mom & dad lives & works at the plant somerville, please call me quickly 281-804-9230 thanks!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This is absoultely horrific, in reading these articles it does not matter what the opinions are of those in favor of the industries and the politcal gains, what matters is LIFE.

These industries need to be held severely accountable for these gross injustices that have been done to the people of somerville.

There is no telling how many years that this has been kept from people who reside in somerville and for those who frequent somerville such as myself!

I worry about the health of all those who have frequently somerville for many years, I was not aware of this my mother gave me an article over the holidays for she knows I go to somerville alot (as I imagine many are not) my co-workers who fish and swim the lake were NOT aware of this, NEWS OF THIS MAGNITUDE NEEDS TO BE MADE AWARE MORE THAN IT HAS BEEN.

I just pray for these people who have hidden this from site from all of us over the years because in the end it is the maker that they will have to answer to!

DENNIS DAVIS IS A CLOSE PERSONAL FRIEND OF MINE AND ALLOF OUR PRAYERS ARE WIYH HIM & HIS FAMILY.