by Melinda Pillsbury-Foster
It sounds like a horror movie but the
book by author Steve Lerner, is impeccably documented. Writing about
Marietta, Ohio and the struggle there for families to ensure their
children are not at risk of Manganese poisoning, Lerner said,
“Eramet (which uses manganese, cadmium, and lead, among other
feedstocks, to strengthen steel and purify chromium) releases tons of
heavy metal dust into the air. It is one of the county’s top
polluters.”
“We thought we had the American
dream,” says Lesley Kuhl, who since 2002 has lived with her husband
and two young children on a quiet, leafy street in Marietta, Ohio.
Mrs. Kuhl is a Republican, a licensed
attorney, who considered herself conservative, when the threat to her
children forced her into action along with both environmental
activists and others in her town, like Caroline Beidler, who could
no longer ignore the visible impact of pollutants on the health of
their families.
Caroline Beidler and her husband, Keith
Bailey, a carpenter, had built their “dream home,” in Marietta,
Ohio. At the time they were unaware that their little piece of
heaven was only four miles, as the crow flies, from the French-owned
ferroalloy plant of Eramet Marietta, Inc.
Their efforts transitioned from an
informal club which logged the ugly odors carried by the breeze from
the plant to increasingly organized efforts to stop the emissions.
These struggles began in 2002. They continue today to stop the flow
of toxic air into their homes.
In Ashtabula, Ohio, the reported levels
of Manganese releases are higher. The chief polluter is Saudi
Arabian.
The frightening reality is until
people locally organize and take action the EPA is content to collect
fines for violating emissions standards. The level of 'proof'
required to enforce standards which cause no harm are based not on
'clear and convincing evidence,' the standard for civil litigation,
but the far more stringent standard of “beyond a reasonable doubt,”
required in criminal cases.
The impact of Manganese is devastating,
mimicking conditions as Parkinson's Disease, not treatable by
therapies now in use.
Children and older people are the most
vulnerable, as activists in Marietta reported. If you know someone
who is experiencing, “mental confusion, impaired memory, loss of
appetite, mask-like facial expression and monotonous voice, spastic
gait, or neurological problems the cause may be Manganese poisoning.
Check out the symptoms. Get the facts. Doing so protects us here in
Ashtabula.
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