Topic: Do Cancer 'Clusters' exist in Pittsfield (or elsewhere in Berkshire County)?
Please post addresses of residential locations in Pittsfield (or elsewhere in Berkshire County) where people have lived who came down with Cancers or other medical conditions that could have resulted from exposure to PCB's or other toxic chemicals in the local environment. Also, please feel free to post whatever additional information (medical or otherwise) you think would be helpful to this compilation.
The purpose in compiling this public list is to aid folks in determining if 'clusters' of disease and illness exist in Pittsfield (or elsewhere in Berkshire County), to help determine exactly where those clusters might be, and to discover the nature of the maladies existent within those clusters.
Thank-you for your help in this necessary project.
Your Feedback:
The purpose in compiling this public list is to aid folks in determining if 'clusters' of disease and illness exist in Pittsfield (or elsewhere in Berkshire County), to help determine exactly where those clusters might be, and to discover the nature of the maladies existent within those clusters.
Thank-you for your help in this necessary project.
Your Feedback:
posted by G.M.Heller at Wednesday, January 25, 2006
15 Comments:
I was born in Pittsfield, Ma. I lived on Parker Street most of my childhood. I attended Crane Elementary and John Reed Middle School.
My mother, Barbara Louise Amerio (maiden namee) Barbara Sirignano (married name) died of ovarian cancer in 1986. In 1995 my doctor found a tumor on my thyroid which turned out not to be cancer. It was removed, but my thyriod function has not been normal since. As a child I was in and out of the hospital for asthma, from which I almost died.
My youngest sister Pam was diagnosed with Hodgkins which ate the 9th veribye in her spine. The cancer has now returned a second time after a stem cell transplant.
My grandfather, Jack Quinlan retired from GE. His wife developed stomach cancer in her 40's.
We lived around the plant for years and rode bikes around Silver Lake, but always knew not to go near the water.
I am sad about all of this and have not been able find any information about what proceedures are being taken to help the victoms in all this. My sister was given no hope last week at a doctor's appointment.
This whole situation is frustrating and wide spread. I have not lived in Pittsfield since 1976, but it is still home.
Constance
The scariest thing about PCBS is not what it can do to you, but what it will do to your children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and so on.
The problem with doing research about cancer clusters is that cancer and its treatments can cause so many other problems that ultimately are lethal. If chemo obliterates the immune system, a person might get pneumonia, or whatever. This is how General Electric doctors documented many cancer deaths of employees for so many years.
Diane Gordon
I lived in Pittsfield on Bishop Parkway for almost 10 years. During that time I was diagnosed with bladder cancer, and upon leaving Pittsfield, discovered a lump in my breast that turned out to be a non-hormonal type of environmental cancer, the most aggressive type with the lowest survival rate. I am ten years post breast cancer, and will never return to the Berkshires.
My ex-husband was also diagnosed with bladder cancer, also considered environmental. We lived in a house that was formerly owned by GE's manager of their transformer division. We had five gardens, and considering they used "fill" from GE, we were literally eating PCBs.
I also lost a dear coworker at the Eagle to cancer. She lived near the Tyler Street extension.
Yes, Pittsfield is a cancer cluster, but it seems no one is listening.
Indeed, nobody is listening. I know this thread is dead, but I thought I'd chime in.
I attended Allendale in the early 90's and I came down with asthma shortly after starting. It has subsided because I moved away and picked up a wind instrument to build my lungs, but I fear it has permanently impacted my physical endurance and has impaired my running/sports ability.
I'd heard tell of some people who sued GE for that very thing, but I was long out of state, though I wish I could have gotten in on that.
Find Red Crow News online, FB or Twitter. More real info on this topic. I want to add that since that post I have been diagnosed with a genetic disorder that prevents my body from healthy cell growth. Three more cancers, and Dana Farber tells me it may have all started when I moved to Pittsfield.
My husband was born in Pittsfield in 1958 and his brother was born there in 1962. My father-in-law was an engineer with GE in Pittsfield until the late 60s when his department moved to Pennsylvania. The family lived on Partridge Road and my husband attended first grade at Allendale Elementary. Both my husband and his brother were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at the age of 46 my husband died in 2005 and his brother died in 2009. My father-in-law has been treated for bladdar cancer twice in the last 20years but is still alive at 86. My in-laws lost both of their children thanks to GE.
Let's keep this blog open. The tourists don't care. They stay temporarily. But we know the truth. They should at least allow medical mj for immune support, as it restores healthy cell reproduction and is preventative. I have a 420 page list of clinical proof in PDF. It's called Granny's list. Aldo highly recommend Treatingyoursel,com. I live where it is not only legal, and comes with a caregiver who delivers and monitors use. All strictly organic; no chemicals. We crave what we need. Please support at least medical mj in Mass! Or, just move to Maine and see Dustin Sulak, D.O. If you're still living in the dump, you've got to get out. Greetings from Southern, Maine !
I lived on Bishop Parkway for ten years.
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Two close friends of mine, brothers, Tom Smith and Jack Smith have now died of cancer. They both grew up in the Allendale section of Pittsfield,and attended the Allendale school in the 1960's.
Tom was 55 and diagnosed with kidney cancer he died Oct. 1 2009. His younger brother Jack died Friday May 25, 2012, from colon cancer. I can't help but think their exposure to PCB's growing up have something to do with their cancer.
There is little doubt that PCBs do actually cause cancer. The only form of soil remediation that should be undertaken is hemp, which is harmless and nontoxic, but is illegal in Massachusetts. The focus needs to shift to cleaning up the toxic waste AND legalizing medical/preventative Cannabis. I am living proof that Cannabis restores healthy cell growth, and after surviving five primary cancers since 1991, a year after I moved to Pittsfield, it is the most effective method to save your life. According to Dana Farber, Cannabis is indeed a cancer preventing plant. Although many may be skeptical, I am alive to state that each time I stopped using cannabis, another primary cancer followed. I have been unofficially advised to continue my use on a regular basis (tinctures, inhalation, ingestion), and am fortunate to reside in Maine, where I am a legal MMJ patient. I am now a contributing writer for Treating Yourself magazine, and an advocate for both hemp and cannabis legalization on a global level. I will never return to Pittsfield. Massachusetts: Wise Up!
My Name is Jane Stanley Hatch. I lived on Fairfield Street for 17 years as well as First street for 5 years. I have developed Bladder Cancer which I understand is rare in non smoking women. My friends and I used to wade in the Housatonic river at the end of Fairfield street, I understand one of my former friends died of breast cancer. I have thought for years that GE was poisoning the people there. GE has never really come clean on what they did to pittsfield.
Why limit this to Pittsfield. There is a trickle down effect from North Adams right down thru Berkshire County. Thanks to the industry we were surrounded by. This area is laden with environmental pollutants. If statistics were compiled we would be shocked by the numbers. I am one of those statistics, diagnosed w stage 3 breast cancer that metastasized to my lymph nodes and liver at age 38 with no family history
I've heard that Middlefield, MA is a cancer prone area. I've heard of people who worked at GE who developed brain cancer. My mother in law worked at GE and died of Glioblastoma. Another friend who lived in Pittsfield and worked at GE died of Glioblastoma also. One friend who worked at GE died of pancreatic cancer in his early 60s, another has just been diagnosed several years after retiring from GE.
I worked for a time in Pittsfield where I avoided the drinking water. I don't live that far from Pittsfield, but I have lived here for more than 30 years. Really hope spouse (who worked for the general for 20+ years) and me are safe, but who knows?
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