As Jarrett McElheney’s story shows, powerful petrochemical industrial interests have resisted every step towards recognition of a lethal problem
It was 29 December 1998, six years after Jill McElheney and her family had moved next to a cluster of 12 petroleum storage tanks. Jill was escorting her son Jarrett, then 4, to the doctor again. He had spent the day slumped in a stroller, looking so pale and fatigued that a stranger stopped her to ask if he was all right.
It was an encounter Jill couldn’t shake. For the previous three months, she had noticed her once-energetic preschooler deteriorating. He complained of pain in his knee, which grew excruciating. It migrated to his shoulder and then his leg. His shins swelled, as did his temples. At night, Jarrett awoke drenched in sweat, screaming from spasms. Jill took him to a pediatrician and an infectious-disease specialist. A rheumatologist diagnosed him with anemia.
It’s in the industry’s interests to refuse to acknowledge the relationship between benzene and childhood leukemia
It just seems to me that when you’ve got benzene in a well and a major source of it next door, you’d make the connection
Children aren’t another species. If benzene causes leukemia in adults, why wouldn’t it cause leukemia in children?
There was actually gasoline floating on the water. You can’t get higher concentrations of benzene … than free product