The Truth about Rumors

Last week a friend sent me a forwarded e-mail telling about a connection between plastics and cancer. The e-mail sourced Dr. Edward Fujimoto, the Wellness Program Manager at Castle Hospital, as saying by either freezing water in plastic bottles, microwaving fatty food in plastic containers or microwaving food covered by saran wrap, dioxins within the plastics are released. These dioxins would then increase the risk of cancer, particularly breast cancer.

Now when I read this, I immediately became skeptical. I have been freezing water in plastic bottles and microwaving food in plastic containers ever since I have had a microwave, along with millions of Americans. If this story was true, then millions of Americans and people around the world would have cancer.

So I googled the good doctor – lo and behold, the story is a bust.

According to TruthorFiction.com, there is a Dr. Edward Fujimoto who is the manager of the Wellness and Lifestyle Medicine Department at Castle Medical Center in Hawaii. However, when I look on the hospital's web site, there is no Dr. Edward Fujimoto there.

He claimed he has researched and observed that dioxins are released when fatty foods are heated in a microwave in plastic containers. However, his research has never been published, according to the web site.

Fujimoto also said Japanese residents are aware of the dioxin danger and mostly cook with glass cookware.

Now Fujimoto never addressed the issue of frozen water bottles. This eRumor has been linked to singer Sheryl Crow (who had been diagnosed with breast cancer) talking with either Ellen DeGeneres or Oprah Winfrey. Again no truth can be found.

While dioxins are real and natural (practically everyone is exposed to a small amount of dioxins every day), the effect can be disastrous.

While most tech-savvy people usually discard these new-age chain letters as just trash, some people may actually take these rumors seriously.

If everyone believed these rumors, people would be afraid to breathe because the ozone layer could cause lung cancer or the dust from Fido or Fluffy could cause prostate cancer.

The oncology nurses at Kaiser South Sacramento have told me one in three people will contract cancer by age 70. There may be environmental factors that cause cancer, such as cigarettes or local factories.

But there are other factors to consider: genetics by heritage, freak genetic mutations (in my case) or what I like to call the luck of the draw. Some people are dealt good cards and others are dealt garbage. It just happens to be chance.

So should we avoid cooking food in microwaves? If that is all that you have available, then go ahead and cook with plastic.

Should we avoid tobacco products? This is a personal choice. Check your family background to see if lung cancer is a family factor. Then decide on your own if you wish to smoke or chew. My grandmother smoked for 40 years until the California public school system brainwashed me into believing that by smoking one cigarette, she was going to die.

However, the cancer only attacked her colon. Despite having asthma, living through the Mount St. Helens disaster and living in Sacramento pollution, she really did miss smoking. But by quitting, she probably lived an additional five years.

Am I regretful of living in a small town with a paper mill that may (not proven) have released dioxins into the ground and ground water?

No way. I love Fort Bragg and always will. Many happy memories were created there and that small town will always hold a special place in my heart.

What is my point? Do not be afraid of living the good life. Go travel, eat your favorite foods in either plastic or glass cookware and breathe the good air. Do not let the media scare you into living in a plastic bubble. We only have one life each and we should make the most of it.

• The American Plastics Society's take on the plastics rumors
• The U.S. FDA's take on plastics and microwaves
• The U.S. FDA's research on dioxins
  

Fort Bragg G-P mill update

As you all know, I'm from Fort Bragg, Calif., and was surprised to hear that the Georgia-Pacific mill was being searched for dioxin, a known cancer-causing chemical. I have stated in an earlier blog that perhaps this is leading to residents getting cancer (my grandmother, her second husband, a family friend and I all have the same type of cancer).
Well here is an update on the situation. I'm keeping an eye on this case and hopefully raising awareness in the town about getting screened for cancer.

What's up on the G-P mill site

By TONY REED

Article Last Updated: 07/24/2008 08:01:06 AM PDT

Click photo to enlarge

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Of the Advocate

Activity on the former Georgia Pacific mill site has definitely picked up this summer, since the city's Redevelopment Agency approved an interim remedial action plan that will allow bioremediation of petroleum contaminated soil. That sounds complicated, but it's not.

Essentially, by adding water and air to soil, Mother Nature has the ability to eat oil, grease and diesel fuel in dirt, releasing more microbes, water and carbon dioxide back into the soil and water.

Several people have asked me what has been taking place on the site in recent weeks, and I had the opportunity to tour the site and talk with Judy Nedoff, senior scientist with Arcadis, G-P's environmental consulting agency.

Those who worked at the mill likely remember the mobile equipment shop, fueling area and compressor house, where trucks and other equipment were repaired and refueled there. Over the years, a significant amount of petroleum products leaked or spilled from trucks, equipment and underground pipes and soaked into the surrounding dirt. According to Nedoff, the mobile equipment shop also featured a bay, like an in-ground swimming pool, that allowed mechanics to stand while working on the underside of trucks and equipment. That also leaked a lot of oil, grease and diesel fuel into the soil.

Subcontracted crews, overseen by Arcadis staff, removed the foundations of the building in June and began digging below. The level of diesel and oil in the soil was obvious to nearby businesses as wind carried the smell over the city. I could smell it myself in some areas, especially where excavated dirt was being prepared for bioremediation.

Nedoff said crews dug downward and outward from the building until they reached clean dirt. The process left a rather large "puddle" as groundwater flowed into the hole.

Landfarming made easy

The landfarm, as officials are calling the area being used for bioremediation, covers most of the paved area east of the planer building. Nedoff said that the bottom foot of the landfarm is sand, dredged from the Noyo Harbor, which prevents equipment from scraping the pavement as it tills the dirt.

I asked her if Arcadis had tested the sand for pollutants. She said Arcadis had not, but the sand came with a clean bill of health from the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. For the next four months, a large tiller will be turning the 18-inch-thick layer of dirt and adding water.

"Throughout the summer, the population of microbes will grow quite a bit, and breakdown the hydrocarbons," said Nedoff.

She said the soils will be tested repeatedly and it is expected that the process should fully clean the soil of petroleum pollutants by October. The dirt will then go back in the holes it came from.

The landfarm contains about half of the petroleum-impacted dirt on the site. The rest will be dug up and placed on the landfarm next year.

Air monitors

At almost all times when I was on the site, I could see a tanker truck spraying water on all roads used by the dump trucks and other equipment. Nedoff said that keeps the dust down. Tilling the soil also created some dust. Nedoff said moveable air monitoring stations are placed downwind of the work site. If the monitors pick up a certain level of dust, work is stopped. Work is resumed after additional dust control measures are taken and levels drop, she said later by phone.

Groundwater treatment

Biosparging is a scientific term for something that looks very similar to the bubbler in a fish aquarium. Since petroleum hydrocarbons soaked down far enough to reach groundwater, it was determined they needed to be removed as soon as possible.

She said it was necessary to clean those areas first, because petroleum contamination threatened to infect groundwater below the site. The most "upstream" underground water is being treated first, to cut off the spread of contamination as it slowly moves west toward the ocean. It also ensures that previously-treated areas won't be re-contaminated.

The process will not use purified oxygen or filtered air, but just the same coastal air we all breathe, pushed into the water with a compressor.

The bubbling will both add oxygen to the groundwater and mix added nutrients to allow microbes that are already there to thrive, said Nedoff. When soils are put back into the holes, an oxygen-releasing compound will be added, so that underground bioremediation will continue after the project is done.

According to Arcadis reports, the process should take about three months. Several groundwater wells have been placed between the excavation area and the ocean, and scientists will continue to test water samples to ensure the treatment is successful.

Nedoff said this type of bioremediation is a common way to treat petroleum-impacted areas and that petroleum levels have been "about what we expected."

"We're just taking advantage of what happens naturally," she said.

She said about four truckloads of dirt and hazardous metals were taken from the site's electrical shop to Kettleman Hills waste facility in Kings County in early June. Mixed with dirt were shavings of lead and copper, Nedoff said, which are considered hazardous and have to be disposed of at a licensed handling facility.

More information can be found on the state Department of Toxic Control Website by clicking the envirostor link on the left and entering Fort Bragg in the search field. More specific information about current projects can be found online at fortbraggmillsite.com and the City of Fort Bragg's Website also has a link to mill site-related information on its Website, ci.fort-bragg.com.ca.us/.

More photos of the site can be seen by clicking the DotPhoto link on our Website, www.advocate-news.com.

Colon cancer commercials

Last night, I saw a commercial with Diane Keaton talking about colon cancer and how people over the age of 50 should get screened. She was talking about the importance of colonoscopies and meeting with your doctors. Also of course, giving money for colon cancer research.
It made me think of how many people go undiagnosed until they have a problem. Take me for example. I was fine until January when I started to have some digestive issues. I thought it was my diet, so I just started taking some over-the-counter medications and was hoping for the best. It wasn't until that night when I started to bleed continuously that led me to the hospital where I found out I had cancer.
My point is, when my grandmother died of colorectal cancer in 2006, no doctor ever told me to get tested or screened. They acted like it wasn't a concern at all. But if they did show some concern and just wanted to make sure, they would have caught my cancer much earlier and my current diagnosis might be different. From what my doctors are telling me now, I had this cancer probably for the past two years.
Now I'm not saying for everyone to get tested for every single cancer in the world, but be aware. If there is even one case of cancer in your family, get tested for that particular kind of cancer.
In my case, we have actually caught the culprit who gave me cancer, and it wasn't my grandmother. Tony Reed of The Fort Bragg Advocate-News (my hometown) did an article on May 1, 2008 where the local Georgia-Pacific mill is being pushed by the city Redevelopment Agency to test the local ground and water for dioxin bioremediation studies. Dioxin is a known chemical to cause cancer.
Holy cow, there's a potential cluster in Fort Bragg! My friend's father had colon cancer, my uncles' father died from colon cancer at 56 years old, my grandmother died from colon cancer at 70 and now I have colon cancer. All of us lived either in the middle of town or in the outskirts. We're not sure if the dioxin got into the city or the well water systems; neither of my uncles can recall if our house on Happy Lane was on city water or if we had a working well.
To sort of confirm my family's theory, a man I talked with in the Oncology Treatment Room also lived in a town with a lumber mill in Louisiana. And guess which kind of cancer he was diagnosed with in his early 50s.
So don't wait until you're 50 to get screened for colon or any other type of cancer. If you're concerned about having a particular type, talk with your doctor. It may just save your life.
By the way, if you're wondering more about colon cancer symptoms, Yahoo! has a website dedicated to the second deadliest cancer.