Bureau of Environmental Health

Well, as a result of my letter to the BEH on January 7th, I received a notice in the mail which stated that the Community Assessment Program (CAP) within the BEH will be handling my request, most likely within six months.

This organization typically assesses environmental health concerns and incidences of cancer. I felt Bedfords water quality, 1960-90 primarily, needed to be elevated to the awareness of this group, due to the number of cases I have become aware of and the water quality issues at that time.

Hopefully this will get Bedford on the map for long term water planning and remediation.

Comment Here...

I am inviting all to post their stories here to share what they are experiencing. Please hit the Comment section and feel free to post your story or your concerns, if you like.

In terms of taking action, you can certainly write your congressman or senator expressing your concern about incidences of cancer in Bedford, and/or you may write to the state's Bureau of Environmental Affairs, see the post entitled "Cancer Coincidence?" to request Bedford be added to the cluster study for the years in question.

What I have found to be an important consideration is that Dioxin was found in Bedford well water by chance in 1980, and the EPA determined that Dioxin is a highly aggressive cause of cancer in 1997. --That took 17 years for those results to emerge. In terms of disease, the latency period may be anywhere from 10-30 years, so this discussion is relevant, not from a place of apathy, but from a place of looking at what people are seemingly experiencing and what the facts are.

At a minimum, whatever work is accomplished here will effect the way you and others vote on public policy in the future. So, the primary focus is in sharing information, being helpful and supportive to others, and learning what can be done for public planning.

Your ideas are always welcome here.

Crazy Sexy Cancer

Crazy Sexy Cancer, the movie, is just a completely healing affirmation of wellness and life. Kris Carr does a great job in this documentary revealing the true nature of life, which in the beginning seems like preservation, but realizes itself in true purpose. It is a great movie to see, regardless of whether or not you have been affected by cancer in your life. She is such a fun personality and free spirit.

The movie also serves to explore the idea that ph balance in diet fosters cellular reconditioning for healing. I have found that green foods and occassional fasts can help clear out the system, and it can be said to offer a boost in immunity.

Cancer Coincidence?

Boston.com has an article published in 2004 on the state's cluster study.
Cancer coincidence? - The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/health_science/articles/2004/03/02/cancer_coincidence/

After reading the article, I went to the state's website: http://www.mass.gov/dph/environmental_health

and I could not find Bedford listed in the cancer-cluster study and so I contacted the BEH.

I was informed that the state has a cancer registry set up where you can look at the statistics from 2000-05 at www.mass.gov/dph/mcr. This is good for future cases, but I feel 1960-85 might have appeared prior to these dates.

To recommend Bedford for the cancer-cluster study, call or write the Bureau of Environment at:

Bureau of Environmental Health
250 Washington Street, 7th Floor
Boston, MA 02108

Suzanne K. Condon,
Associate Commissioner
Tel. (617) 624-5757
Fax (617) 624-5777
TTY (617) 624-5286

Or, write a letter expressing your concern to your local Congressman about future public policy:

Congressman John F Tierney
Sixth Congressional District (Bedford)
17 Peabody Square
Peabody, MA 01960

NOVA "The Water Crisis"

"The Water Crisis: Water, water everywhere...but just how useful is it? NOVA travels to the Adirondack Mountains where acid rain is killing many high elevation lakes; to the Mississippi River where chlorine has combined with natural and man-made organic chemicals to form cancer-causing toxic chemical substances; to California, where conservation recycling has had to become a way of life; and to Bedford, Massachusetts, where the town wells have been contaminated by industrial waste.

Original broadcast date: 11/25/80 Topic: environment/ecology"

The NOVA report mentions Dioxin, proven to be an aggressive cancer-causing agent in 1997, in the groundwater and town wells as a result of industrial waste from the BASF company on Crosby Rd in the late 1970's.

See: http://www.ejnet.org/dioxin/nas2006.pdf for the latest EPA Reassessment. From p. 76 "EPA concludes that dioxin is “carcinogenic to humans.”

Welcome!

Welcome to our website spawned from public interest on the topic Cancer in Bedford, MA on the Classmates.com message board.

Please be advised, this blog is not for defending positions for or against the effects of air or water quality on health. It presupposes that poor water and air quality impacts the health and well being of all residents, and asserts that it is essential to inform the public wherever possible for personal and public planning and remediation.

Based on the information gathered, citizens may lobby for upgrading infrastructure for handling overflows, rivers, and public areas, and/or request the state study the incidences of Cancer in Bedford as a benchmark for future generations. We feel the information gathered may serve to support and remediate what has passively gone by without proper recognition.

According to published studies, these items have been confirmed:

• Hanscom Air force base was a double superfund site. One of the sites contaminated a drinking well on Hartwell road, servicing a three mile radius, in 1983 and was closed in 1984, serving the community for 6 to 8 months.
• 2 of the 3 Shawsheen wells were closed due to contamination of the rivershed.
• BASF on Crosby Drive improperly disposed of chemical waste and infiltrated ground water, closing at least one of the town wells. Dioxin was found as one of the chemical agents infiltrating ground water, and Dioxin has been proven in 1997 to be an very aggressive known cause of cancer.

From http://www.worldwatercouncil.org/index.php?id=1&L=0target%3D_blank%22%20onfocus%20title%3D%20target%3D%20target%3D

"Growth in human populations, increasing consumption, infrastructure development, land conversion, poor land use and massive use of pollutants in water all threaten the ecosystem functions that produce our freshwater resources. Ecosystems evolve far too slow to adapt to quick and brutal changes, and cannot play their purifying and regulating role anymore.

Pollution: With urbanization and industrialization, the quality of rivers, lakes, and aquifers may deteriorate seriously. This phenomenon has accelerated since 1970’s, due to the increase of human and industrial waste. With current water treatment systems, eliminating some toxic particles is sometimes not possible anymore. Surface water as well as groundwater run the risk to be neither proper to human consumption, nor to ecosystems.

Water scarcity: Water resources depletion generates tensions among water users and sometimes between states or countries. Every country wants to maintain sovereignty on its resources and to maximize its storage and withdrawals. Water scarcity already affects one third of the total world population" (World Water Vision)