From: Jenn
Sent: August 11, 2003
Subject: flatbush factory fire 2

the fire then reignited several days later on the weekend of the 9th/10th
and caused more smoke to be spewed over brooklyn, and another bad relapse.

From: Jenn
Sent: August 6, 2003
Subject: flatbush factory fire

apparently there was a fire at a flatbush factory today.
i don't know what kind of factory, or when.
i haven't heard any news, other than word of mouth.
there's been smoke around all since late afternoon, and an acrid smell.

so i'm under toxic attack and getting typical symptoms, medium to severe range.
including getting fuzzy and also not being able to sleep though exhausted.
i'm sending up the warning flag so others out there are aware of the situation, and that i'm going through this.

-----------------------------------

article below.
started smelling something funny around 9 pm, like plastic or rubber burning.
saw the smoke outside at about 10:30 pm.
had no idea of the cause, the news.

the smoke is leaving a burning, swelling sensation in throat, headache, can't sleep though exhausted, fuzzy, confused, losing functionality, etc. ... all the usual toxic exposure symptoms in a moderate to severe range.

feel like i'm about to go under again...sigh.
i'm holding on hard as i can to news & email right now to feel connected to someone and i'm afraid if i let go i won't be able to be back for a while.
i really hate this. farewell for a while.

Subject: 7online.com: Brooklyn Sewage Plant Fire Sends Chemicals Skyward, Burns for Hours

Fire and explosions shook a sewage treatment plant in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn Tuesday night. The blaze sent chemical fumes into the air and caused chaos for people in the Sheepshead Bay section of Brooklyn. Jim Dolan reports.
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/news/wabc_080503_sewage.html

From: Jenn
Sent: August 7, 2003
Subject: sewage plant fire

thanks for all your support.

i'm struggling very hard today. i'm exhausted & bleary, having trouble focusing, my joint pain has flared, my throat & lungs are sore and burning, lots of congestion. i had a lot of help finding this info, and it's taken all night and day, a few moments at a time. i'm fighting to focus on news/email, which for me is one way of distracting myself from the pain and disorientation i'm experiencing. i'm also trying to resist the loss and sliding away of my mind and thinking, which was and still is one of the most horrible experiences I've ever been through. i'm terrified of once again not being able to communicate at all, where i become cognitively frozen and can't express even huge, obvious needs and the serious problems i experience.

below are some results of my obsessive attempt to simply hang on today. i'm not looking for terrorists behind every bush, but greater awareness of these issues is probably a good thing. and regardless whether it was sabotage or accident, these materials are toxic to us all.

1) materials in fire
2) no media warning
3) terror targets include sewage plants
4) iraq pneumonia cases

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) A list of some substances known to be in the fire.
From a friend's phone call to the NYC Dept. of Health 8/6/03.

styrene - hydrocarbon, voc (volatile organic compound)
fiberglass
diesel - carcinogen, asthma
methane - hydrocarbon, voc (volatile organic compound)
btex (see below)
fire foam
fire truck exhaust

chlorine is used in the treatment process, but wasn't necessarily released directly
(the ventilation system was damaged, so it may be released during processing the next days and weeks)

"BTEX is the acronym for benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylenes. These compounds are found in petroleum products. Ethylbenzene is a gasoline and aviation fuel additive. They are also used extensively in manufacturing processes. Benzene is used in the production of synthetic materials and consumer products, such as synthetic rubber, plastics, nylon, insecticides and paints. Toluene is used as a solvent for paints, coatings, gums, oils, and resins. Ethylbenzene may be present in consumer products such as paints, inks, plastics, and pesticides. Xylenes are used as a solvent in printing, rubber, and leather industries. The term BTEX reflects that benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylenes are often found together at contaminated sites.

BTEX components have been associated with skin and sensory irritation, central nervous system depression, and effects on the respiratory system. Prolonged exposure to these compounds has similar effects, as well as the kidney, liver and blood systems. According to the U.S. EPA, there is sufficient evidence from both human and animal studies to believe that benzene is a human carcinogen. Workers exposed to high levels of benzene in occupational settings were found to have an increase incidence in leukemia."
http://www.envirotools.org/factsheets/btex.shtml

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

2) lack of news/warning

another ei (environmental injury) friend of mine is staying over. yesterday evening when we smelled the smoke here (acrid, burning rubber & plastic smelling--she thought a car was on fire), she left to find cleaner, safer air. i can't leave because of my fm joint pain, breathing problems, & food needs. when she lived in brooklyn she used to go down to the air at the beach to get some relief after 9/11. last night she was listening to the radio for news, i was listening to tv and web as much as i could. she heard on the street from someone it was a textile factory in flatbush.

so she went to sheepshead bay to the beach, and unknowingly walked right into the heart of the problem. nobody out in sheepshead was aware of anything going on. but she still couldn't get away from the smells, now including cleaning fluids and wet mulchy paper odors. later she went to brighton beach, which smelled like dry-cleaning. around midnight i found the first web report of the sewage plant incident, including the location in sheepshead bay. she didn't get that info until she returned at 6 in the morning. needless to say her condition is also really terrible today.

it seems odd to not have received a general warning from the media to keep away from the area of the fire. it seems odd to not have been given any basic information about the incident for hours. it seems odd to not be notified of the potential dangerous effects of the materials. the dept. of health and epa officials are saying everything is safe, there's no harm to human health. i know i'm in the group of people most likely to be susceptible, but i'm still human, and i am badly affected. and many of the materials listed do seem to be harmful. and this simply adds to the growing load or body burden that all new yorkers are exposed to.

those of us who have health reactions before the majority of people do especially need to have accurate and timely information so we can respond properly and make arrangements to care for ourselves. i imagine fully healthy people would also like to have a right to know what's going on in order to make decisions. i do understand that if there is an attack of some kind, the leaders and emergency personnel would rather keep the general population calm. that seems understandable and reasonable, but i question the part about achieving that goal by keeping us uninformed, which is what seems to be happening. i don't believe these needs are mutally exclusive.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

3) terror targets include sewage plants
PBS's NOW, March 21, 2003
http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript212_full.html

excerpts:
ZWERDLING: You might not figure that a sewage plant would be a target for terrorists. But U.S. officials say they found Al Qaeda computers in Afghanistan that contained maps of plants like this one. Marcotte says most water treatment plants around the country use millions of gallons of toxic chemicals, every single day. He used to do it.
MARCOTTE: Had about seven tank cars including about 550 tons combined of chlorine and sulfur dioxide, both very volatile, dangerous chemicals.
ZWERDLING: In fact, chlorine was used as a chemical weapon, back in World War I. Researchers have warned for years that if chlorine leaked from this plant, a poisonous cloud could blanket Washington DC, including the Capitol and the White House. Marcotte says nobody took the warnings seriously, but then came 9/11.
MARCOTTE: After a sleepless night on the 11th, I came in on the 12th and convened a number of my engineers and said, "I think we need to come up with a plan to get the chlorine out of here as quickly as possible."
ZWERDLING: Marcotte got rid of the chlorine and today, he's treating Washington's sewage with a much safer chemical instead. It's called sodium hypochlorite, basically strong household bleach.
ZWERDLING: So you're telling us that until you changed right after 9/11, a single terrorist with one bomb could theoretically have snuck in here and caused a disaster in all of Washington, DC.
MARCOTTE: Well, that's certainly one of the possibilities that kept me awake in September of 2001.
ZWERDLING: But now if a terrorist blew up this tank truck, what?
MARCOTTE: His clothes would get discolored.
ZWERDLING: And that's it?
MARCOTTE: That's about it.
ZWERDLING: So why hasn't every waste water treatment plant around the country done this?
MARCOTTE: Well, I think there are several reasons. Costs more money both in terms of the chemicals and in terms of the handling.
ZWERDLING: He says the new system costs almost a million dollars more, per year. So every Washingtonian's sewage bill has gone up, but not by much.
So, in other words, somebody like me living in this area, you're saying I'm paying about 50 cents more?
MARCOTTE: 25 to 50 cents, depending on…
ZWERDLING: Per year?
MARCOTTE: Per year.
ZWERDLING: To avoid having a chlorine disaster annihilating a big part of Washington, DC?
MARCOTTE: Correct. I think a pretty good bargain.

----------------------------------------------------
ZWERDLING: This is exactly the kind of change that Senator Corzine (NJ-D) and a lot of researchers want to encourage. They say, "look, every business can't get rid of its most dangerous chemicals." In some cases it might be too expensive, in other cases it might be technically impossible. But history shows that many executives won't even try unless the government pushes them to do it.
Corzine's chemical bill finally came up for a vote in a powerful Senate committee, the Committee on Environment and Public Works. And everybody was for it.
CORZINE: Got a vote in my committee, 19 to zero - 19 in favor, nobody opposed. ...

ZWERDLING: But industry flipped. Just about every trade group you can think of that has to do with chemicals - oil refiners, paint companies, fertilizer makers - they barraged Congress with angry letters and e-mails and full-page ads. Marty Durbin speaks for some of the biggest chemical companies in the nation. ...

ZWERDLING: Given all this, why did you, why did the petrochemical industry, work so hard to kill a bill that supporters say would've required all of those facilities to make themselves safer in the face of terrorists?
DURBIN: Well, there were several legislative proposals that came through last Congress and we tried to improve some of them, but frankly, we see that that's history now, and you know, again, we believe we are doing what needs to be necessary and looking forward.
ZWERDLING: But here's some of that history: the chemical companies and their allies fought practically every detail in Corzine's security bill. They said it would unleash a "jihad against the industry" by giving government too much power. One group called the bill "Stalinesque." Industry said the bill could end up helping terrorists. Executives said they don't need bureaucrats telling them how to run their business. ...

ZWERDLING: The industry's opposition paid off. Only a month and a half after the Senate committee unanimously passed the security bill, six Republican Senators changed their minds. One of them had hailed the chemical bill as "vitally important to the American people." Now he and his colleagues were telling Congress to oppose it.
We asked those Senators to explain why they changed their votes and none of them agreed to talk. But here are some possible clues. It turns out that five of those six Senators got more money from the chemical industry than almost anybody else in the last Senate election. It also turns out that the chemical industry's chief lobbyist was one of President Bush's top fundraisers. The chemical security bill was essentially dead.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

4) iraq pneumonia cases