[CPEO-BIF] Katrina health problems

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Health problems abound months after Katrina roared ashore

By Seth Borenstein and Chris Adams
Knight Ridder Newspapers
Miami Herald
November 29, 2005

BILOXI, Miss. - Three months after Hurricane Katrina raked the Gulf 
Coast, a major health crisis is emerging as residents struggle with the 
fouled air, moldy houses and the numbing stress the killer storm left 
behind.

Across Mississippi and Louisiana, people are afflicted with coughs, 
infections, rashes and broken limbs and they are jittery, tired, 
depressed and prone to bizarre outbursts, health professionals said.

Burning storm debris, increased diesel exhaust, runaway mold and fumes 
from glue and plywood in new trailers are irritating people's lungs and 
nasal passages. Weary residents trying to clean up and repair their 
homes are falling off roofs and cutting themselves with chainsaws. And 
stress is fracturing the psyches of countless storm victims.

"It's a cumulative effect here," said Claire Gilbert, a New Orleans 
surgical technician who works in a Louisiana occupational medical 
practice and volunteered at the New Waveland Clinic, a tent shelter 
complex that just closed in Mississippi. "You get a little cough. You 
get a nose that runs. You get eye irritation. Then you get falls. And 
you've got the stress. It's not just little things. It's how they all 
add up."

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/13285938.htm

--
Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
http://www.cpeo.org

_______________________________________________
Brownfields mailing list
Brownfields@list.cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org/mailman/listinfo/brownfields