Posted on 12/14/2010 9:26:20 AM PST by SeekAndFind
Hinkley, California, the town made famous in the Oscar-winning Julia Roberts movie Erin Brockovich, does not show any evidence of an increased rate of cancers.
Pacific Gas and Electric, which released a toxic plume of hexavalent chromium 6 from a Hinkley-based natural gas pipeline station, paid a record $333 million to settle a class-action suit in 1996. But the California Cancer Registry has now completed three studies that show cancer rates remained normal in from 1988 to 2008.
From a very strange story by the Los Angeles Times' Louis Sahagun, who starts out with the Registry's findings but then lists more anecdotes about residents (including an eight-year old dog) who claim PG&E-related ailments:
From 1996 to 2008, 196 cancers were identified among residents of the census tract that includes Hinkley — a slightly lower number than the 224 cancers that would have been expected given its demographic characteristics, said epidemiologist John Morgan, who conducted the California Cancer Registry survey.
The survey did not attempt to explain why any individual in Hinkley contracted cancer, nor did it diminish the importance of Pacific Gas & Electric Co. cleaning up a plume of groundwater with elevated levels of chromium 6, Morgan said.
"In this preliminary assessment we only looked at cancer outcomes, not specific types of cancer," Morgan said. "However, we did look at a dozen cancer types in earlier surveys of the same census tract for the years between 1988 and 1998. Overall, the results of those surveys were almost identical to the new findings, and none of the cancers represented a statistical excess."
The LAT calls the rate of cancers in Hinkley "fewer...than expected." That depends on who was doing the expectin'. Back in 2000, when the movie came out, Walter Olson wrote in Reason that the Hinkley cancer cluster did not seem to be materializing and gave a thumbs down to the performances of the actual (rather than the Hollywood) Brockovich and her boss, Thousand Oaks personal injury lawyer Edward Masry.
Coincidentally, Brockovich is now back in Hinkley, pursuing claims about a return of the chromium plume.
Also contra is that Brockovich more-or-less wrecked her own family in the process. She's far from a heroine.
But don't say that. "Everyone knows" different.
whoops!
Never cared for the looks of that gal.
I don’t supposed they’ll have the return the settlement money.
The real story is that the release of a toxic plume may be responsible for the evolution of a dog who can communicate his thought regarding his medical ailments.
Wearing clothes that are 3 sizes too small must affect the circulation to your brain (or something).
Oh, dear. I guess I must have missed seeing that movie.
The cleanup was something that the company should have been doing without prodding, however, the cancer claims and potential clustering of cases were contrived in the minds of the ambulance-chasing weasels.
All these actors come across as likeable, nice people but behind the scenes no doubt they're all back stabbers and would kill the competition if they try to take some of the "A" list action/paydays away.
It doesn’t matter. Being held accountable for their lies is never going to happen. The democratic party lied and minipulated the population for years through the scam of “Global Warming”. It is a lie and they used it purposefully to further their agenda. They are all guilty of fraud, they have no credibility on any issue and can only be trusted to lie at every opportunity.
Not a word about it.
“how can someone with a fish mouth be a sweetheart?”
Because she is a scum sucking bottom feeder?
Notice from the article that it was diluted in a solution of deadly dihydrogen monoxide (DHMO)! I think we should go after the real culprit: DHMO. Find out who was responsible for introducing DHMO into the hexavalent chromium 6.
I wonder if there is grounds for such a lawsuit against the original plaintiffs of this case.
That is one good retort! Today’s frontrunner.
There was a fairly decent film on the Baader-Meinhof Group that was done in the last few years. It is a german film, so you’ll have to either read subtitles or brush-up on your Deutsch.
I was just there in Oct while spending two months working on a software test at Fort Irwin. We stay in Lenwood which is about 5 miles from Hinkley. There were a bunch of well drillers at our motel drilling all around the remains of the town checking for the plume. There’s one ma & pa grocery store left in the town and most houses are gone. Those that remain have big water tanks in front for their water supply.
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