Toxic Town

My brother worked for Santa Fe and BNSF for more than 30 years and is healthy as a horse. He retired this year. So did my older brother, sister-in-law and me. Jack Stamps worked with creosote for all of those years. Go figure. One of the now-deceased former superintendents of the "tie plant" has his widow still alive; there's nothing wrong with her and she's pushing 100! They lived on the tie plant premises until the homes were moved to provide more space. I spent many, many hours at their home playing. My parents were best friends with them. My own mother passed in 2000. At the request of one person we trust, she and I went to her cancer doctor and had all tests run, ruling out any chemical causes. Gee...she was here for how long?

Sir, there are tons of stories out there. You need to find them and give the citizens who care a chance to be heard. In the love of Somerville and the truth...

Comment by Christine Campbell Mc

B.S.: The more I think about this article, the more I feel the need to call bullshit. When you review the cancer cases cited in this article, most are likely age-related or just chance occurrences. The only two that stand out to me are the two cases of bladder cancer, which is a fairly rare cancer and known to be linked with chemical exposure. I think a review of the histories of many of the rest will bring up other mitigating circumstances, i.e., smoking, drinking, drug use, family history, etc.

My dad died of gastric carcinoma, but at age 84. Most of the people who worked their entire lives at the tie plant died of natural causes at ripe old ages.

Comment by SHS Class '68

Chew the tar: I have a comment, because this article is just so stupid. These people are completely nutso! I come from a large family who lived in one of those plant houses, and we were always stomping in those water pits and chewing the tar from the barrels which were kept there on a storage dock, among a lot of other things in those woods around the plant. Our house was at most only 100 feet from the inner workings of the plant. None of us has any symptoms of cancer, nor has any one of us died from cancer. And we all are all up in age.

Comment by SHS Class '59

It Takes a Village, Not a Flower

Robb Walsh's review of El Jardin Mexican Restaurant, "The Times Does Tex-Mex" [November 29], contained an error. Houston Chronicle food critic Alison Cook imagined taking The New York Times's Joe Drape to Spanish Village, not Spanish Flower.

The Press regrets the error.