News Reports on Book on St. Louis Health Study
On October 23, 2022, the local newspaper reported on JoAnne Scalf’s study of human health problems in St. Louis. This is a reminder to support local journalism! Here is the text of the story.
[Linda Gittleman, “At Last: First Health Report is out on the St. Louis Contamination,” Morning Sun, October 23, 2022.]
When three sisters who grew up in St. Louis were diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, a red flag should have been raised. When five people living in the same St. Louis home all developed a rare brain cancer, another flag should have been raised.
For decades however, not a flag was seen, even though those cases were but the tip of a disease ridden iceberg in St. Louis, home to the Michigan Chemical plant that was later bought by Velsicol. DDT and PBB were two of the more notorious chemicals manufactured there. Today they’re known as “forever chemicals” that can cause illness and disease and be transf erred through the generations.
JoAnne Scalf, now a Texas resident, grew up in St. Louis. She, like so many others, lost a brother, Wayne Hall, to a rare disease in 1985. His illness, like all the others, was suspected of having been caused by the chemical contamination but where was the proof?
Jane (Keon) Jelenek, a leader in the Pine River Task Force that has worked for decades to help get the river and the land cleaned up, said they had begged for an official government health study. But they were told, “You need 100,000 people,” she said. Gratiot County’s total population is a little more than 40,000. But Scalf wondered, “Why don’t we gather the information on our own? “My thought was to gather the information then hand it over to the infinitely more powerful and qualified professionals to analyze the data. “I pushed up my sleeves and did the work,” she said.
Seven years later, her forthcoming book, “The Legend of the Elephant Killer River” is scheduled to be published in May. The book will be complete with maps, showing where various illnesses were reported. An advanced readers copy is out now and it lists the illnesses reported by 520 St. Louis residents or those who lived there at one time and who filled out forms. Actually, Scalf said, more than 600 people responded to her request for information but she couldn’t confirm that data. And above all, she wanted to be accurate, she said.
So what did she learn? “The most shocking was the question I didn’t ask but they did: Infertility. This was both men and women,” she said of the large number of respondents who reported that they were unable to have children. Although her focus was on cancer, another shocker was to discover the considerable number of neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis and ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or Lou Gehrig’s disease.) A third was the number of suicides.
She indeed learned about the cancers too. The largest number was breast cancer, followed by gastrointestinal cancer, lung cancer, lymphomas and non Hodgkin’s lymphoma, as well as thyroid, uterine, skin cancer and many others. Total number of cancers reported to her was 262. “Observed individually the pattern of rare illnesses could be challenging to note, but seen together in one community of this size appears to be alarmingly high,” she said. She hopes now that with her beginning, professionals can provide the analysis.
According to Jelenek, the area will never be cleaned to pristine conditions but great strides have been made with the river clean up, along with clean ups of residential areas, and the athletic field. Lots of Environmental Protection Agency projects are coming up, including various cleaning “hot spots,” she said. And money is becoming available for health studies in rural areas through an organization called the “Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry,” Jelenek said. For her part Scalf said the point of her book is to raise the cultural awareness of the contamination so that residents connected to the area can be monitored for their health — something that hasn’t been happening.
And as for her upcoming book title — “The legend of the Elephant Killer River?” There was an elephant? Scalf explained that in the early 1970s, the circus came to town and two elephants got into the river. One, as soon as it was in the water, showed severe stress and suffering. Those who saw it struggling won’t forget that scene, Scalf said. The elephants were removed from the river and about a week later that struggling elephant died in the Saginaw area. Was the river responsible for the animal’s death? Who knows, but a legend was born.
Those who want to order a copy of Scalf’s book — $19.99 plus shipping — can email pineriversvhm@att. net to place an order.