Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Fort Detrick in Maryland, where the U.S. biological weapons program was based from the 1940s through the 1960s, is suspected of causing numerous cases of cancer and other serious health problems for those living near it.
Randy White, founder of the Kristen Renee Foundation, who has spearheaded a class action lawsuit against the government and pushed for testing of the area around Fort Detrick, lost one adult daughter to a brain tumor at the age of 30, and has another diagnosed with growths in her abdomen.
Another resident, Jennifer Peppe Hahn, has suffered from Hodgkin’s lymphoma, growths on her pancreas and thyroid, and breast cancer.
White has reportedly spent at least $1 million in his quest to prove the base has sickened many in the area. He’s hired experts to monitor the air, soil and water near Fort Detrick, and paid for lab tests to measure the toxins in neighbor’s blood.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency says anthrax was buried in one part of the base. The U.S. Army, however, says it wasn’t the type that can make people sick. However, the Department of Justice claims that the anthrax spores that were sent through the mail in 2001, killing five people, were produced at Fort Detrick by Army biodefense expert Bruce Ivins.
The Army also used or buried herbicides at Fort Detrick, including the active ingredients of Agent Orange, and it is the site of an infectious disease laboratory that includes collections of Ebola virus and botumlinum toxin
County and state health officials are now examining the cancer rate within a two-mile radius of the base.
-Noel Brinkerhoff
A Death from Cancer, and a Search for Answers (by Matthew Hay Brown and Timothy B. Wheeler, Baltimore Sun)
Federal Judge Orders CIA to Release Records on Secret Experiments on Soldiers (by David Wallechinsky and Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
Cancer Cluster Near Ft. Detrick in Maryland (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)
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