Why are so many people getting rare cancers in this small Georgia town?

[TexasTowelie]

In Waycross, there’s a tale about a boy who got a surprise while playing outside one day. He was behind his home on Brunel Street. This was back in the middle of the 20th century in a working-class neighborhood on the southeast side of the railroad yard. He got ahold of some matches. The boy was near a canal. These manmade creeks run all over town and keep the boggy, low-lying land from flooding. The boy was curious, mischievous. He struck a match, lit a piece of newspaper, and tossed it into the water. But when the burning paper touched the surface, it didn’t go out. The water burst into flames.

SUMMER 2015

The girl is in such pain that her parents prop her up in bed so she won’t wince while eating her Chick-fil-A nuggets. It’s a Friday night at 14-year-old Lexi Crawford’s house. She lives on Brunel Street across the road from the 755-acre CSX Rice Yard, the largest railroad switching and maintenance facility in the Southeast. Over the last six weeks, Lexi, an otherwise healthy girl who is tall and slender with long hair of ever-changing colors, has gone nearly 10 times to the emergency room, complaining of back pain. Doctors have prescribed antibiotics, muscle relaxers, Tylenol. They’ve wondered if she’s faking it. Listen, her mother has told them, something’s going on. Lexi, an honor student on both the softball and riflery teams, has missed school repeatedly.

Lexi feels sick and rushes to the bathroom. Her parents, Cristy and Gary Rice, are in the living room watching TV when they hear a shriek. They find Lexi on the floor, her lips turning blue. She’s trembling.

Momma, please.

What is it, Alexis, what happened?

Lexi can hardly breathe. Her whole body seems to hurt. Gary picks her up and they race once again to the ER. This time, a doctor the family hasn’t met before is working. He orders a CT scan, her first ever. The scan shows that Lexi has cancer eating at her spine. The doctor isn’t sure what kind, so he directs them to Wolfson Children’s Hospital in Jacksonville, Florida, where the family learns it’s rhabdomyosarcoma, a cancer that forms in muscles along bone. There’s no cure and no proven cause. In the entire United States, only 350 people under the age of 19 are diagnosed with it every year, and only a dozen or so in all of Georgia. But incredibly, in and around Waycross, a spot with far less than one percent of the state’s population, Lexi was not alone. In a span of two months starting June 1, 2015, two other children were also diagnosed with RMS. A fourth family learned their daughter had Ewing sarcoma, an incurable cancer that forms in bone or soft tissue and also has no known cause. It’s diagnosed in fewer than 250 Americans under the age of 19 a year.

Read more: https://www.atlantamagazine.com/great-reads/why-are-rare-cancers-killing-so-many-people-in-a-small-georgia-town/

[cilla4progress]

1. Horrifying

And tragic.

[BootinUp]

2. Yeah, that can't be random. Nt

[spinbaby]

3. I live near a cancer cluster

There are multiple cases of Ewing sarcoma near Canonsburg, PA. Children are dying of a rare bone cancer and it’s being “investigated.”

[IndyOp]

4. I am so sorry to hear this -

The community must be very frightened. I hope your family and friends are well.

[rwsanders]

9. Well the problem with these "investigations" is that they compare the rates there to "baseline"

rates nationwide. And since we are all exposed to so many chemicals, I'm sure the baseline is climbing.
The other factor that is largely ignored is the various methods that chemicals can act, and the difficulties in finding the chemicals.
I learned about this largely through the work of Pierre Beland who studies the Belugas in the St. Lawrence Seaway. But there are promoters of cancer, inducers of cancer, immunosuppressants. Promoters (if I remember right) induce mutations. Inducers cause mutations to run amuck. Immunosuppressants block the bodies normal defenses.
I believe the reason we are also seeing more strange autoimmune, and infections have to do with these same processes. I read about a woman that almost died because her dog licked a scratch. Well people and dogs have been together for a long time. Either it was a superbug (also possible) or she may be immune-compromised.
Bottom line, beware the "investigation". I did a short stint with the ATSDR and wouldn't trust the results any further than I could throw one of their buildings.

[sheshe2]

5. I could only read half the article.

I am in tears. This is what we have done.

[IcyPeas]

6. not just Georgia.. The Chemistry of a Cover-up (W. Virginia vs Dupont Documentary)

(Watch this before it's pulled again by YouTube)

The Devil We Know is a 2018 investigative documentary film by director Stephanie Soechtig regarding allegations of health hazards from Teflon, and the DuPont corporation's potential responsibility.
It includes footage of public hearings, news reports and corporate ads, along with input from scientists and activists.
The film premiered at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival.

Citizens in West Virginia battle a powerful corporation after learning that it has consciously been dumping a toxic chemical into the local water supply.
Their investigation unearths that this chemical is actually found in the blood of 99.7% Americans.

[appalachiablue]

8. Thanks for posting, never heard about this film which is very

surprising.

[Delmette2.0]

12. I watched this on Netflex a few months back.

I don't know if it still listed.

[mr_lebowski]

7. Same ridiculous thinking going on with Climate Change Denial, just on a bigger scale ...

In the 1950's, 'nobody believed' that the 'smog' covering LA Basin was from all the cars and smokestacks?!? Why, how could us puny humans affect something so large-scale as the AIR over a giant region like LA?

In the 1960's 'nobody believed' that 'acid rain' could be caused by 100's of coal-fired power plants?!? How could such a large volume of atmosphere be polluted in this way?!?

In the 1970's 'nobody believed' CFC's could be depleting the Ozone Layer ... same reasoning.

EVERY TIME ... the stupid nay-sayers were proven DEAD WRONG.

Now we have the FCUKING THING going on with Climate Change, and a bunch of FCKING DIPSHITS making the same STUPID FCKING DENIALIST ARGUMENT.

My DOG the blindness of a certain % of the population GETS OLD. Esp. when ... their paychecks and stock dividends ... depend on their NOT SEEING.

Great work by this author, BTW. Thanks for sharing TT.

[rainin]

10. Speaking of environmental toxins, I see myself as a canary in the coal mine

as one of the few people with EMF sensitivity. Google it and read people openly calling people like me crazy.

My symptoms developed over a period of 2 years working 100 feet from a cell tower, using a wireless telephone all day, wifi next to my feet under my desk and a cell phone next to my head 24 hours/day (I put it next to my head to listen to podcasts to help me get to sleep).

I'm scared to death of 5G since I'm already severely limited functionally by this condition.

My symptoms are real. I can tell when someone in my house turns on a phone or uses a microwave. To me, it's like a very loud noise (except it's felt not heard) and it's very painful. The activity from my neighbors can trigger pain.

EMF pollution is a real environmental toxin and most people in the US don't know how dangerous is it. Hint: other countries are taking precautions.

[mountain grammy]

11. Thanks for posting.

Last Feb, we camped at a Laura S Walker State Park near Waycross. Beautiful park, lovely area.

Sad, sad story, happening in many places.