A LITTLE KID DIED IN COSTA MESA--HAS ANYONE ASKED WHY?
Marco Anthony Perez, a fourth grader, died on Wednesday, January 24, 2007. Anthony had an inoperable brain tumor. Just a little kid full of life who didn't have a chance to live that life.
Anthony is not the only kid or the only person who has died with such tumors or various cancers in Costa Mesa.
Has anyone really asked why?
We live in a cause and effect universe. Cancers and inoperable brain tumors are effects. What are the causes? Things don't happen unless something causes them to happen. What caused Anthony's inoperable brain tumor? Did he live downwind of the vast industrial zone on the Westside as do most of us in this city? Is there a connection?
In a day when we're being warned of the dangers of dry cleaning fluid and the second hand smoke from a single cigarette that someone may have smoked in a room sometime before we even entered that room, we should be asking questions and looking for more than the fluff answers we've been given in the past.
When the CM PRESS brought up this issue of possible air pollution from the bluffs a few years ago, the City had the Fire Department (?) (if memory serves) study the matter. "Study" is too strong a term.
When the report was made public (again if memory serves), it started off by saying that the Fire Department had no real expertise in the field of pollution but, because the department had been asked to make a report, it had gathered statistics from various sources.
The report didn't find any problems. Of course not. The Fire Department had no expertise in the field. The department even admitted it. So, why was the Fire Department asked to make such a study in the first place? Good question. There is no good answer.
The Council at that time thanked the Fire Department for its report and filed it away.
Since that time, some people on the Westside have complained of frequent nose bleeds, sudden sensitivity to household soaps, and various other illnesses including Lupus. And, some other kids have died of brain cancers or brain tumors.
Jan Davidson, a long time improvement activist, even collected money for the family of another kid on the Westside who died a couple of years ago from brain cancer. He was about the same age as Anthony when he died.
Meanwhile, yesterday (1/25), the State of California enacted the nation's first statewide ban on perchloroethylene--the most commonly used dry cleaning chemical--because it has been determined that it is a possible carcinogen. And, this chemical is mild compared to many that are used in many industries including some that are on our Westside bluffs between you and your kids and the fan like ocean breezes.
A few years ago I wore an air mask to a City Council meeting to make the point about air pollution from the Westside bluffs. There were the usual chuckles and snickers from some present as though I had been wearing a tutu or a propeller beanie.
Anthony would have been about five years old when I wore that mask. From all reports he was a healthy kid with no cares in the world. It wasn't until October of 2006, that Anthony was diagnosed as having an inoperable brain tumor.
Anthony died Wednesday. He was nine-years-old.
# # #
Those are our opinions. Thanks for reading them.
