[CPEO-MEF] "Deadly Dependence" in the South

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Deadly Dependence

The South's economic reliance on military bases has left a toxic legacy 
throughout the region

BY BARRY YEOMAN
Creative Loafing Atlanta
August 25, 2004

On a summer day three years ago, Elijah Robinson was digging in the yard 
of his brand-new patio home in Columbia, S.C., when an unexpected 
sensation washed over him. Even though he was covered in protective 
clothing, including gloves and boots, the 58-year-old retired 
maintenance man felt as if his body had just been hurled into a fire. He 
raced into the one-story house through the garage door, passing his wife 
as he stripped off his clothes. "Darlene," he said, "I'm burning."

Robinson showered, but the feeling didn't subside. Nor did it leave the 
next day, or the next. He tried to hide the pain from his wife, but his 
appearance gave him away. His arms broke into runny sores. The side of 
his neck grew swollen. His face swelled up, too, to the point of 
appearing disfigured. Soon Darlene Robinson, a minister, was feeling 
burning sensations of her own. She developed blisters on her skin, which 
sometimes bled. Her brown skin grew darker and spotted.

That summer, the Robinsons' house, located in a Columbia neighborhood 
called The Summit, started smelling like geraniums. "It was so sweet, it 
would nauseate you," Darlene says. "It felt like the air in the house 
was taken from us." When they were home, both husband and wife had 
trouble breathing; they suffered relentless itching that scratching 
couldn't quell. Doctors advised them to open their windows, but that 
only made the symptoms worse. In the early mornings, Darlene says, "my 
lungs would wake me up trying to get air." The ailments afflicted 
others, too. Some neighbors reported that their children had developed 
skin rashes and breathing difficulties. After the Robinsons' twin 
grandsons visited, the boys likewise developed symptoms of their own. 
Then one of them, a sickly child who had been born premature, suddenly 
and unexpectedly died. JaSean Robinson was 10 months old.

…

for the entire article, see
http://www.atlanta.creativeloafing.com/2004-08-25/cover.html

--
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

_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@list.cpeo.org
http://www.cpeo.org/mailman/listinfo/military