Finding The Cause: Frightening Disease Clusters in 13 States

It's hard to believe that Erin Brockovich was a real life phenomenon but in fact, it's all true. It's frightening that environmental contaminates in your community could be contributing to widespread instances of disease. When we eat right, exercise, and generally take care of ourselves, the idea that pollutants we have little control over could come in and make us sick is unfair, but according to a study reported in USA Today's Green House this is precisely what's going on in 13 states.

Study co-author Gina Solomon, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council had this to say:

Communities all around the country struggle with unexplained epidemics of cancers, birth defects and neurological diseases. The faster we can identify such clusters, and the sooner we can figure out the causes, the better we can protect residents living in the affected communities.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee has scheduled an oversight hearing to discuss the report which identifies disease clusters in Texas, California, Michigan, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Florida, Ohio, Delaware, Louisiana, Montana, Tennessee, Missouri, and Arkansas.

Here's an example of a disease cluster in California outlined in the story:

Birth defects in Kettleman City, California, including twenty babies born over less than two years with birth defects, and four children born with birth defects so severe that they have since died, in this town of only 1,500 people.

One cluster identified hexavalent as a disease cluster cause. This is scary considering that Rachel wrote that Hexavalent chromium, the "Erin Brockovich chemical" was found in the tap water of 31 of the 35 cities tested recently by Environmental Working Group. Yikes!

But that doesn't mean you should start drinking bottled water because for the most part, bottled water is less likely to be filtered for these chemicals. If you're nervous that your community may be compromised, consider reverse osmosis filtered water from your local health foods store. You provide your own reusable glass bottles to transport your water for the week.

Read about some of the other disease clusters.

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