News & Politics - Officials Test Soil Seeking Cause for Tumors

**sunnykerr** · 07-15-2008, 05:58 AM

Officials Seeking Cause For Tumors Test Soil - Kansas City News Story - KCTV Kansas City

CAMERON, Mo. -- State and federal officials investigating a rash of brain tumors in the Northwest Missouri town of Cameron gathered soil samples Monday from the former site of the Rockwool Insulation Plant to test for possible contamination.

More than a dozen people in the community have been diagnosed with brain tumors, including an 8-year-old girl.

Maycee Gardner has two tumors in the right front lobe of her brain, the part of the brain that controls memory and imagination. If they grow during the next three months, she'll have to have them removed.

Cyndee Gardner, Maycee's mother, knew something was wrong on Memorial Day when her daughter, who has epilepsy, had a strange seizure. Maycee had undergone an MRI a year earlier and was given a clean bill of health, but a new MRI showed that two tumors had grown within that year.

According to Missouri officials, Maycee is the 13th person from Cameron in the past year to develop a brain tumor. That's why officials from the Department of Natural Resources and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency were in Cameron Monday testing soil.

They'd already ruled out the drinking water, so they're testing the soil and groundwater. An anonymous tipster told officials that in the '90s, hazardous chemicals were buried at the plant site.

Maycee starts the third grade next month, but it could be a challenging year if she has surgery to get her brain tumors removed.

Officials plan to share their test results with residents within a few weeks, and in the meantime, many Cameron residents are having MRIs to make sure they don't have brain tumors.

Officially, I don't believe in "cancer clusters" myself. I believe that every type of cancer affects a given proportion of people and, sometimes, it affects more people in a given region so that, overall, the average is maintained. For instance, just because one in nine women get breast cancer doesn't mean that, literally, out of every nine women you know, one will get breast cancer.

Having said that, when companies exhibit callous disregard for the welfare of towns and ecosystems by getting rid of their toxic waste in such a blatantly polluting matter, then obviously that changes things.

This is appalling.

**vc318** · 07-15-2008, 09:27 PM

This is sad news, Sunny. And to think that this anonymous tipster waited till now to say something and for this plant not to post some type of warning. This really is sad.

**sunnykerr** · 07-16-2008, 07:47 PM

Well, maybe I've seen Erin Brokovich or The Insider once too many, but I can easily imagine people not saying anything out of sheer fear for their own safety and security.

Or, you know, out of just pure ignorance. I can't imagine this company advertised its illegal dumping.