world
A
C
E
Action Alerts:
The Alliance For A Clean Environment
line


Printable Version


ACE Preliminary Household Health Survey


Dear Community Member:

Three pending pollution permits for the Pottstown Landfill threaten to increase health risks. In the area around the landfill the childhood cancer rate has been identified by PA Cancer Registry statistics to be continuously increasing and soaring above the national average.

Thousands of children attend 29 schools and day-cares around the Pottstown Landfill in five surrounding municipalities and the borough of Pottstown. These children are exposed to extremely toxic Pottstown Landfill gas 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Children who live around the Pottstown Landfill are continuously exposed to Pottstown Landfill’s potent carcinogenic air emissions such as radiation, dioxin, vinyl chloride, benzene, and others. These children are also continuously exposed to vast numbers of potent neurotoxins which are emitted with Pottstown Landfill gas. They breathe synergistic combinations of these harmful chemicals and are exposed through their skin, not only outdoors at athletic fields, playgrounds, parks, and their back yards, but also indoors, as this toxic air also contaminates their homes and schools.

Shocking childhood cancer statistics are now documented at 92.5% higher than the national average, according to most recent available PA Cancer Registry statistics from 1995 to 1999.

There is no longer any question that the harmful chemicals emitted into Greater Pottstown Area air by the Pottstown Landfill get into the bodies of those breathing the air. CDC’s Second National Report on Human Exposure to Environmental Chemicals verifies the fact that toxic chemicals and metals get into the bodies of people.

In March, 2003, EPA proposed new standards for certain cancer causing chemicals. Current standards are not protective. EPA now admits that children under two and fetuses are 10 times more vulnerable to cancer causing toxic endocrine chemicals, such as the potent ones emitted with Pottstown Landfill gas, and children from three to fifteen are 3 times more vulnerable than adults.

County wide learning disabilities have risen drastically from 1990 to 2000, more than doubling the state average at 94%. Dangerous neurotoxins are known to be emitted with Pottstown Landfill gas. Pottstown Landfill likely plays a major role in these statistics, as the county is in the general downwind direction from the landfill and Greater Pottstown Area children are logically those most impacted, as they are closest to the source.

Physicians for Social Responsibility have written a book called “In Harm’s Way: Toxic Threats To Child Development.” This book shows that exposures to chemicals and metals released continuously into the air can lead to lifelong disabilities. These include learning disabilities, reduced IQ, ADD/ADHD, and even poorly controlled aggression.

Links between pollution and children’s health are now undeniable. These toxic threats to children’s health are PREVENTABLE causes of harm to Greater Pottstown Area children. Documented cancer statistics have called for aggressive protective action on the part of our state and federal government officials. Yet we still face 3 Pottstown Landfill pollution permits. Those responsible to protect the rights of our children to breathe clean, safe air and live healthy lives, must start to value and protect the children of the Greater Pottstown Area, from AVOIDABLE threats to their health and quality of life. The Pottstown Landfill must be closed, not expanded.

Please fill out the ACE Health Survey to help us define patterns of illness. We hope to use it as a tool for PREVENTION of cancers and other environmentally related illnesses.



To print the survey, click the printable version link below and when the next page appears, select print from the file menu at the top of the page. Complete and mail to the address listed on the survey:

Printable Version




To fill in the survey and send in email:

1. click the email the survey link below,

2. click on 'open' when the pop-up box appears,

3. when the document opens onto your screen, fill in all the appropriate boxes by clicking on each one and typing your answers,

4. then click on 'save as' from the file menu at the top of the page (remember where it is),

5. send as an attachment in an email and send to ace@acereport.org.



Please do not copy and paste the document directly into an email
(it will be received as one long paragraph). Thank you.




Email the survey


(Note: copy and paste this Confidentiality Notice into your email when sending your completed survey, as an attachment, to ACE)

Confidentiality Notice: This e-mail message, including any attachments, is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure, forwarding or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply e-mail and destroy all copies of the original message.







ACE
P.O. Box 3063
Stowe, PA 19464
ace@acereport.org






disclaimer  |  privacy policy  |  home  |  back to top  |  feedback  |
|  donate online  |  contents  |  contact us  |  join  |  contact web master  |