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Features 10
Nick, asleep still from a long night of taking it in the
ass
The original Elat crew, eating some good stuff at our
local Denny's.
THE TRUTH IS REVEALED!!!
Read Below... Toxic School?
A CBS 2 Special Assignment Investigation
Feb 10, 2003
11:08 pm US/Pacific
(KCBS)
If your child goes to Beverly Hills High School, you should
pay specific attention to this story, because there is growing evidence that
going to school, sitting in classrooms and especially exercising on the play
fields could have your child breathing toxic fumes.
The results of months of testing are being disputed by preliminary tests
from the Southern California Air Quality Management District, but tonight
the school is already taking action against what could be the source of
toxic pollution on school grounds.
CBS 2 Investigative Reporter Drew Griffin has the story.
These are the results of months of testing, samples taken in the air
surrounding Beverly Hills High returning abnormally high levels of benzene,
methane and n-hexane -- all by-products of the oil industry that UCLA
Toxicologist Dr. James Dahlgren says would be high even at an oil refinery.
"If you were working in a refinery and you had n-hexane at 38 parts per
million, you’d be concerned about the workers breathing that level of that
particular material because n-hexane is a very potent neurotoxin," Dr. James
Dahlgren said.
And there is Benzene, that can lead to cancer. And that is exactly where
this story begins.
"We actually became sick around the same time," Lori Moss, a former Beverly
Hills High School student, said.
They didn’t know each other when they attended Beverly Hills High.
Lori Moss was a little younger, Dana Goodman was a little intimidated, she
says, by the in-crowd at this famous school.
They would become friends later, five years or so after they graduated, and
both met in the same doctor's office where they were both battling the same
cancer: Hodgkins Disease.
"Chemotherapy, radiation, lots of scans, and lots of scares," Moss said.
"I lost all my hair, lost a lot of weight, I was yellow," Goodman said.
They are both now in remission, but last year Lori was dealt another blow,
and this time she questioned why.
Lori Moss: "After I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer I said 'OK,
something’s wrong here,' because people I started speaking to had thyroid
cancer."
Suddenly Lori and Dana were learning that many of their fellow classmates
were sick, fighting cancer -- one even died.
And they decided then and there to find out what was causing it. The person
they called was Erin Brockovich.
"We got a phone call from one person with cancer, then there are two, three
four and five with similar cancers," Brockovich said.
Brockovich was intrigued, and began her now famous style of investigating,
going straight to city hall to search for any record of anything that would
make people sick. What she found was oil.
"You got a public high school right next to an oil refinery. You can't see
it so no one knows it's there," Brockovich said.
Beverly Hills was founded by oil. At the turn of the century, this home to
the rich and famous looked more like a Texas oil field than California.
When the wells went dry, the glamour moved in, and the high school went up.
Life moved on, but the oil never really went away.
"In the late 70s and early 80s they realized there was an abundance of oil
again and I was stunned (that) underneath the high school there is an oil
play form that they are operating today and operating for many years and
there are 18 well heads under that school," Brockovich said.
The fact that there's oil here isn't hidden. The large flower-painted oil
derrick has been a symbol of the oil rich ground for years, but what's not
known, says Brockovich, is the danger that comes with it.
The actual working plant underneath the ballfields, she believes, are
emitting toxic fumes.
In fact, when the oil works re-opened in 1984, the Beverly Hills oil company
even admitted there could be danger. In a environmental checklist, the
company was asked if air emissions would deteriorate air quality; if there
could be potential health hazards.
The company’s response to all the questions of health risk was "maybe." And
according to Brockovich and Attorney Ed Masry, that is where it was left.
For 19 years no one bothered to find out what "maybe" meant.
"We can't find any testing of any kind at Beverly Hills High School," Ed
Masry said.
With the absence of any publicly documented air test, Brockovich and Masry
sent their environmental specialist Jim Drury to the high school to find out
what was in the air.
We tagged along as Drury slipped onto school property, set up his air
canisters outside on the ballfields and waited.
The samples sent to a certified lab in Simi Valley showed results that at
first even the people who ordered them didn't trust.
"When they came back I said I can't believe this. So went four times, five
times, six times. And each time we were getting the same results,"
Brockovich said.
UCLA’s Dr. James Dahlgren reviewed the results and had the same reaction.
"I would be very, very concerned about a school where there is this much
exposure," Dr. Dahlgren said.
We took the results to the Southern California Air Quality Management
District, and we were told such high levels of toxins just could not
possibly be accurate.
But the AQMD decided to send its own team to the school to conduct its own
air test.
The school district would not allow our cameras on campus, refused to let us
see the testing, and continues to offer no comment through its hired
attorney, David Orbach.
The AQMD tells us they conducted two one-minute tests, and one 30-minute
test, and found the air last Thursday was normal -- except for a high level
of tuolene, which the AQMD cannot explain.
Masry and Brockovich are now preparing a lawsuit on behalf of 20 former
students who have Hogdkins, non-Hodgkins and Thyroid cancer.
Masry says their results, done 8 hours at a time, over a 5-month period, may
be shocking, but they are accurate.
"We are going to have everybody who is affiliated with the permission of
this oil company coming back saying we are alarmist, we don’t know what
we’re doing. We do know what we are doing," Masry said.
"There is a problem your governmental entities are not supervising, you
better start supervising this. That’s our message."
The Beverly Hills School District has already begun reacting to this report.
Thursday night, oil operations underneath the school property were shut
down.
Parents were notified Friday. And the school has asked Ed Masry and Erin
Brockovich to turn over any information they have gathered that poses an
immediate health hazard to the students of Beverly Hills High.
So, all you
supporters of Elat Farming out there... The TRUTH has been revealed as to
why our crops failed to grow on school property. Should Elat sue against the
Beverly Hills School District for damages?
