OTH man
07-15-2006, 02:39 AM
Okay so this is a huge issue down here, well concidering it has to do with my school district
anyways
BACKSTORY
Wheaton, Illinois has a school distric and Warrenville, Illinois wanted to join in so we let them join making it a Wheaton-Warrenville District anyways we have two middle schools, both in Wheaton because well, it was originally only for Wheaton. Warrenville got mad and wants their own middle school in warrenvile.. a lot of people in Wheaton were mad because it was our distric and they wanted to join, and we were nice and let them, now they want their own school? anyways people are still bitter about that but a nbewer issue has arisen-
The middle school is going to be placed right accross the street from a former BP-Campus were there have been multiple reports or workers having cancer- so it was closed down
now they want to put a school there???? well read this article...
WHEATON — Catherine Willey was a quiet person who didn't talk much about her illness.
That all changed for the wife of Elburn Mayor Jim Willey when Wheaton-Warrenville Community School District 200 announced plans to relocate Hubble Middle School from Wheaton to a site near BP's research center in Warrenville.
Willey wrote a letter detailing her battle with multiple myeloma and what she believes may have caused the cancer. She had planned on reading the letter at a news conference to convey her concerns about the school's proposed location.
However, on Saturday, she collapsed and died of a brain hemorrhage. Wheaton resident Michelle Senatore read the letter on her behalf during the school board's meeting Wednesday night.
"I came here this morning to tell you my story. It's not a happy story, because it doesn't have a happy ending," Senatore read from Willey's letter. "But it's an important story to tell. Especially for people seriously considering working, living, playing or building a school near a petrochemical facility."
Willey worked in Building 600 since 1979. There she analyzed petrochemical samples to determine their chemical composition. In 2000, at age 46, she had a stroke that left her with permanent damage. Her medical problems continued, and in 2002 doctors diagnosed her with a terminal blood cancer called multiple myeloma.
Within six months of her diagnosis, Willey learned two female co-workers in Building 600 had also received the same diagnosis. Although Willey's letter claims that BP wouldn't investigate the cases as a possible "cancer cluster" until a fourth person was diagnosed, BP said it has investigated the claims. Company spokesman Scott Dean said BP investigated six scientists in Building 503 who were diagnosed with brain cancer in the early 1990s. However, no conclusive link was found among the six, he said.
BP created a task force to investigate any further health concerns, Dean said, adding the company took Willey's concerns seriously and talked with all three women who were diagnosed with cancer.
"Although all three worked in the 600 building complex from 1989 to 1994, the task force found no commonalities among them in terms of specific work activities, chemical exposures or room assignments," Dean said. "There is no evidence to suggest that the multiple myeloma cases are in any way work-related."
Dean said he sympathizes with the Willey family.
"We are very, very sorry that she has passed away," Dean said. "It is very hard to lose a loved one to cancer and you want to know why, you want answers. This is why BP formed a task force in the early '90s to investigate a number of employees with brain tumors and we studied it. When we learned of the people with multiple myeloma we contacted them, but there is no scientific or statistical information to suggest in any way it was related to their work."
School plan
In May, District 200 announced the School District was entering into negotiations to buy 18 acres off Herrick Road between Warrenville and Galusha roads in Warrenville. The district wants to construct a new Hubble Middle School on the site to replace the 81-year-old structure at Main Street and Roosevelt Road in Wheaton.
On Wednesday, an overflow crowd of residents representing both sides of the controversial Hubble move attended the District 200 board meeting and pressed their respective points of view.
Wheaton resident Sue Cahalan supports the idea of building a new middle school on the Herrick Road property and questioned the motives of those opposed to it.
"There is a small group of district residents ... who are impeding your progress," Cahalan said, referring to Educate 200, a group of district residents opposed to the plan. "I support free speech ... but Educate 200 represents only a handful of people who live in Wheaton."
But protestors have collected more than 1,000 signatures of people who oppose the plan because of the site's proximity to BP's Naperville campus. Ed Paschke of Wheaton worked at BP Amoco for 30 years and battled a brain tumor.
"My doctors indicated that my tumor was growing for five to eight years before it was detected and my exposure to chemicals was three to five years prior to that," Paschke said. "There could be an eight- to 13-year window before evidence at the school is discovered. That is a risk I don't think the board should take."
Although Paschke claims to have no ill will toward BP, he is suing the company because he believes the company exposed him to conditions that contributed to his noncancerous tumor.
Senatore also opposes the school relocation plan. Her young son has a rare blood disease.
"Our family has a knowledge of cancer, and why put children in the situation where across the street they still haven't determined how the cancer occurred?" she said.
Tale of two cities?
However, some have questioned the protestors' motives, claiming the real reason for the outcry is because the school will be moved from Wheaton to Warrenville.
"The school board wanted to locate the school in another geographical location in the southwest portion of the district," Senatore said. "One community loses and another one gains. I am a Wheaton resident first and a resident of the district second. I think Hubble should stay as an anchor to the community."
Dean, who also attended the board meeting, emphasized there is no health hazard at BP or at the proposed school site.
"The main issue here is – is the site safe today?" he said. "There is no scientific or statistical data to suggest the BP Amoco campus in Naperville represents a health hazard to anyone on and/or off the campus."
Sun correspondent Hank Beckman contributed to this report.
____
BP cancer cases
In 1999, researchers concluded that a rare form of brain cancer that killed several former BP employees could be related to chemical exposure at Building 503 on the oil giant's Naperville campus, according to a study conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University.
At least six workers from the same area of the same building were diagnosed with glioma and have all since died. BP has since closed the area of Building 503 where the employees worked.
Nearly 20 lawsuits, several of which were settled, were filed by former employees or by relatives of people who had cancer or benign tumors.
Alexander Hantel, an oncologist and medical director of the Edward Hospital Cancer Center, said the glioma cases among the BP workers is one of the most notorious known cancer clusters.
"(A cancer cluster) is basically occurring at a frequency in a geographic area that is much higher than what you would normally see," Hantel said.
He was careful to note that in most cases, it is difficult to pinpoint the cause of a cancer cluster and a cluster could just be a coincidence.
While the study did link the cases and chemicals studied by the employees, it did not specify a cause.
"None of these independent experts found any conclusive link between the cancers and the work that took place on campus," BP spokesman Scott Dean said. "The investigators could not rule out that the unusual cluster of six brain cancers in one building could have been a statistical anomaly due to chance."
- – Ann Hanson, staff writer
07/13/06
SOURCE: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/sunpub/naper/top/6_1_NA13_SCHOOL_S10713.htm
anyways
BACKSTORY
Wheaton, Illinois has a school distric and Warrenville, Illinois wanted to join in so we let them join making it a Wheaton-Warrenville District anyways we have two middle schools, both in Wheaton because well, it was originally only for Wheaton. Warrenville got mad and wants their own middle school in warrenvile.. a lot of people in Wheaton were mad because it was our distric and they wanted to join, and we were nice and let them, now they want their own school? anyways people are still bitter about that but a nbewer issue has arisen-
The middle school is going to be placed right accross the street from a former BP-Campus were there have been multiple reports or workers having cancer- so it was closed down
now they want to put a school there???? well read this article...
WHEATON — Catherine Willey was a quiet person who didn't talk much about her illness.
That all changed for the wife of Elburn Mayor Jim Willey when Wheaton-Warrenville Community School District 200 announced plans to relocate Hubble Middle School from Wheaton to a site near BP's research center in Warrenville.
Willey wrote a letter detailing her battle with multiple myeloma and what she believes may have caused the cancer. She had planned on reading the letter at a news conference to convey her concerns about the school's proposed location.
However, on Saturday, she collapsed and died of a brain hemorrhage. Wheaton resident Michelle Senatore read the letter on her behalf during the school board's meeting Wednesday night.
"I came here this morning to tell you my story. It's not a happy story, because it doesn't have a happy ending," Senatore read from Willey's letter. "But it's an important story to tell. Especially for people seriously considering working, living, playing or building a school near a petrochemical facility."
Willey worked in Building 600 since 1979. There she analyzed petrochemical samples to determine their chemical composition. In 2000, at age 46, she had a stroke that left her with permanent damage. Her medical problems continued, and in 2002 doctors diagnosed her with a terminal blood cancer called multiple myeloma.
Within six months of her diagnosis, Willey learned two female co-workers in Building 600 had also received the same diagnosis. Although Willey's letter claims that BP wouldn't investigate the cases as a possible "cancer cluster" until a fourth person was diagnosed, BP said it has investigated the claims. Company spokesman Scott Dean said BP investigated six scientists in Building 503 who were diagnosed with brain cancer in the early 1990s. However, no conclusive link was found among the six, he said.
BP created a task force to investigate any further health concerns, Dean said, adding the company took Willey's concerns seriously and talked with all three women who were diagnosed with cancer.
"Although all three worked in the 600 building complex from 1989 to 1994, the task force found no commonalities among them in terms of specific work activities, chemical exposures or room assignments," Dean said. "There is no evidence to suggest that the multiple myeloma cases are in any way work-related."
Dean said he sympathizes with the Willey family.
"We are very, very sorry that she has passed away," Dean said. "It is very hard to lose a loved one to cancer and you want to know why, you want answers. This is why BP formed a task force in the early '90s to investigate a number of employees with brain tumors and we studied it. When we learned of the people with multiple myeloma we contacted them, but there is no scientific or statistical information to suggest in any way it was related to their work."
School plan
In May, District 200 announced the School District was entering into negotiations to buy 18 acres off Herrick Road between Warrenville and Galusha roads in Warrenville. The district wants to construct a new Hubble Middle School on the site to replace the 81-year-old structure at Main Street and Roosevelt Road in Wheaton.
On Wednesday, an overflow crowd of residents representing both sides of the controversial Hubble move attended the District 200 board meeting and pressed their respective points of view.
Wheaton resident Sue Cahalan supports the idea of building a new middle school on the Herrick Road property and questioned the motives of those opposed to it.
"There is a small group of district residents ... who are impeding your progress," Cahalan said, referring to Educate 200, a group of district residents opposed to the plan. "I support free speech ... but Educate 200 represents only a handful of people who live in Wheaton."
But protestors have collected more than 1,000 signatures of people who oppose the plan because of the site's proximity to BP's Naperville campus. Ed Paschke of Wheaton worked at BP Amoco for 30 years and battled a brain tumor.
"My doctors indicated that my tumor was growing for five to eight years before it was detected and my exposure to chemicals was three to five years prior to that," Paschke said. "There could be an eight- to 13-year window before evidence at the school is discovered. That is a risk I don't think the board should take."
Although Paschke claims to have no ill will toward BP, he is suing the company because he believes the company exposed him to conditions that contributed to his noncancerous tumor.
Senatore also opposes the school relocation plan. Her young son has a rare blood disease.
"Our family has a knowledge of cancer, and why put children in the situation where across the street they still haven't determined how the cancer occurred?" she said.
Tale of two cities?
However, some have questioned the protestors' motives, claiming the real reason for the outcry is because the school will be moved from Wheaton to Warrenville.
"The school board wanted to locate the school in another geographical location in the southwest portion of the district," Senatore said. "One community loses and another one gains. I am a Wheaton resident first and a resident of the district second. I think Hubble should stay as an anchor to the community."
Dean, who also attended the board meeting, emphasized there is no health hazard at BP or at the proposed school site.
"The main issue here is – is the site safe today?" he said. "There is no scientific or statistical data to suggest the BP Amoco campus in Naperville represents a health hazard to anyone on and/or off the campus."
Sun correspondent Hank Beckman contributed to this report.
____
BP cancer cases
In 1999, researchers concluded that a rare form of brain cancer that killed several former BP employees could be related to chemical exposure at Building 503 on the oil giant's Naperville campus, according to a study conducted by the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University.
At least six workers from the same area of the same building were diagnosed with glioma and have all since died. BP has since closed the area of Building 503 where the employees worked.
Nearly 20 lawsuits, several of which were settled, were filed by former employees or by relatives of people who had cancer or benign tumors.
Alexander Hantel, an oncologist and medical director of the Edward Hospital Cancer Center, said the glioma cases among the BP workers is one of the most notorious known cancer clusters.
"(A cancer cluster) is basically occurring at a frequency in a geographic area that is much higher than what you would normally see," Hantel said.
He was careful to note that in most cases, it is difficult to pinpoint the cause of a cancer cluster and a cluster could just be a coincidence.
While the study did link the cases and chemicals studied by the employees, it did not specify a cause.
"None of these independent experts found any conclusive link between the cancers and the work that took place on campus," BP spokesman Scott Dean said. "The investigators could not rule out that the unusual cluster of six brain cancers in one building could have been a statistical anomaly due to chance."
- – Ann Hanson, staff writer
07/13/06
SOURCE: http://www.suburbanchicagonews.com/sunpub/naper/top/6_1_NA13_SCHOOL_S10713.htm