Showing posts with label EPA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EPA. Show all posts

Friday, July 1, 2022

The Brook

 



The book down the street stank. Growing up I never heard the word "polluted," the pollution was the cause of the foul odor. It was not until many years later (EPA regulations later?) that I learned that a nearby chemical company used to dump their waste into the brook. 

My brothers brought home round toothpick size viles they found dumped in the woods. We called the trees growing alongside the brook, the woods. There was a path leading to the elevated railroad tracks at the end. I watched at least one brother and his friend use a rope to fly  across the shallow brook to the other side.

I was only allowed to go into the woods with older siblings. One time we wandered away from the path, to a somewhat cleared section. I marveled at the salt licks. Was not until many moons later that I learned a salt lick's purpose. There were some metal clothes hangers amid other debris; remnants of a small camp size fire. My sister, I think, said it was the bums' camp. The reason mom did not allow me to go into the woods was, the bums. 

Later, I thought they were homeless man. Today I imagine, they may have been tramps, vagrants or hobos who hopped trains traveling around looking for work or avoiding it. I never saw any men hanging out in or near the woods.

When we got older, my younger sister and I went to the end of the path, climbed the embankment, to cross to the other side. There were two sets of tracks. I told her it was safe to walk on the tracks (too narrow to walk alongside) because the trains did not use that track. Oops, I was wrong, but we made the walk to the otherside of the brook safely. There was no way I would use the rope to get to the otherside of the brook and I was curious to explore that side.

Today's world, one can not walk along the brook. For some years it was still accessible by shimming around a fence. Long ago, the woods gave way to a bowling alley with wide parking lot that ran along what was left of the narrow path. The other side was not accessible at all. Old factories torn down, it became a limited access park of some sort. The bowling alley became an egg factory and later a Charter school 

The wall in the Google map image is new. The last time I was there it was still the old crumbling stone wall that I used to stand behind, often throwing stones into the brook with delighted youngsters. The brook no longer smells putrid; it still floods the street corner after heavy rains. Often causing flooding in my mother's basement. 

The brook runs for miles, often underground. A brother took me ice skating in a different section of that brook. We had to skate around vehicle tires and other junk frozen in the ice. That section of the woods must have been covered over as it is no longer visible from along the cemetery.

I truly got sidetracked on this post about the polluted brook. The correct word for those tiny pointed vials of chemicals might be ampoules. Maybe more the width of a straw, but as long as a toothpick or slightly larger. I vaguely remember a brother breaking one of those in half and the smell was a pleasantly odd odor. Perhaps sweet and foul? I may have even broken one myself, imitating the brother. I suppose the liquid from inside the tubes just landed on the ground. 

Hopefully if the chemicals got on our hands, we were quick to wash them, but doubtful. Kids, ya know!



Emissions of ethylene oxide

Emissions of ethylene oxide have been linked to cancer. I considered joining a class action lawsuit targeting B.Braun plant in Allentown Pennsylvania as the gas has been known to cause lymphoma. 

Two years ago I was diagnosed (and treated) for Mantle Cell Lymphoma. The doctors do not know what caused it. I started having symptoms at least a year prior to being hospitalized with the terminal cancer. I lived in several Allentown locations after relocating to the East Coast several years ago. All being within 5 mile radius of that plant.

I did not inquire about my eligibility to join the lawsuit because I do not know how the lawyers can prove that my Lymphoma was caused by B. Braun e
missions of ethylene oxide.

I also did not want the hassle of gathering paperwork, and/or phone calls. 

And, I smoked cigarettes for most of my adult lifetime. Perhaps that caused the cancer? I think, maybe due to being forced to smoke outdoors everywhere, that I was deep breathing in the emissions of ethylene oxide, especially times when I walked many miles from DMV  to daughter's home or walk to/from other daughter's home to go to stores.

Several of my neighbors smoke outdoors daily, some more often than I did when I still smoked. To the best of my knowledge none of them have had cancer. Only one that I know of does much walking or being outdoors other than smoking. Several of them have cars and thus in and out of vehicles when shopping.  

Also, if I were to be awarded a substantial settlement in that lawsuit, I might have to move from my low-income senior housing unit. 

I have been told that B. Braun has cleaned up their emissions, but I wonder how Supreme Court mandated end to some EPA restrictions will prevent other companies from poisoning the air citizens breathe.


B Braun Cancer

https://www.klinespecter.com/braun-cancer-lawsuits?gclid=Cj0KCQjwtvqVBhCVARIsAFUxcRtq-JvQCAM8X6HkJcup9kWpUQforvxFS0jegdAl93uVgMcVvp1giMIaApoCEALw_wcB

Supreme Court vs. EPA

 I am not exactly clear about the Supreme Court decision to strike down an EPA law regarding industry greenhouse emissions. I do not remember polluted Hudson River, but I do recall New York City smog. Richard Nixon was instrumental in forming the Environmental Protection Agency. Presidential Administration continued to create laws to clear the air.

That is until #45 who grew up in that smog infested city was put in charge of the United States of America. Perhaps he was too busy chasing girls to notice the poor air quality during his formative years. And blaming the government for his losing his inheritance chasing one business failure after another. He could do no wrong in his own eyes, so it must have been due to government regulations. 

For instance how dare the government mandate that we rent to blacks ~ their presence in our apartment complex lowered real estate value. He did not like environmentally friendly toilets ~ cost mo' money. Among other things.

So he appoints three Supreme Court Justices who favored business profits over environmental safety. 

And our younger generations future.