Florida Known for Sandy Beaches, Sunshine and Cancer Clusters? on Feb11 2010

by Robert Paul Reyes | Print the article |

 

“State health officials have said a lot about The Acreage in the past week. 

They said they’ve found a cluster of childhood brain cancer in the community, a semi-rural swath filled with dirt roads and private wells.

They said they don’t see any apparent cause, and that they aren’t planning environmental tests to find one.

Then, after days of criticism, they said tests are on the way.” Read More

If health officials found a cluster of childhood brain cancer in Beverly Hills, the upscale community would be flooded with physicians, scientists and environmental specialists.

But Florida officials seem indifferent to the cancer cluster in The Acreage, a poor rural community. Residents are up-in-arms, and they are demanding that health officials investigate this peril to their community.

The media for the most part seems to be ignoring this story, thank goodness for local bloggers and activists who are keeping this issue alive.

Is it something in the water? Many residents in the Acreage have wells, but the cancer scare is motivating homeowners to demand that the government run county water lines into their community.

The cause of the high incident of cancer in the Acreage isn’t clear, but what is clear is that more money should be allocated to investigate this problem.

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The Author My name is Robert Paul Reyes and I attended Alameda Community College in California. I was born and raised in the liberal San Francisco Bay Area, but now I write a newspaper column, from a liberal perspective, for a small town in the Bible Belt. I also contribute to several online publications including TheSOP.org, Newsblaze.com, AmericanChronicle.Com, MensNewsDaily.Com and BleacherReport.Com. The tag line for one of my blogs is "Politics, Pop Culture and Pointless Pontificating" -- that sums up my writing interests. I enjoy visiting this site and I`m honored to be a part of this online community. Email this author | All posts by | Topic: Health and Fitness | Tags: , , , ,

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