Home Found to be Saturated with Chlordane and Heptachlor

6 Months of Constant Poisoning Tragically Injures Family of 8

[ Read Sarah and Gracie's story.  The story their parents are not allowed to tell ]

The Scarbrough Family consists of 8 members. These are their current ages as of 5/14/01.

Dad age: 52 Mom age: 40 and 6 children: Sarah age: 19 Grace age: 14 Angel age: 11 Faith age: 8 Hannah age: 6 Cecil age: 3 They were all minors at the time, living at home. The contamination began in 1998.

In March 1998 they were exposed to extremely high levels of chlordane and heptachlor for very brief periods of time in the process of negotiating land settlements.

(Symptoms begin)

In July of 1998 after purchasing this house some members of the families exposure increased to daily as they worked on cleaning up the house and property getting it ready for the entire family to move in. Labor Day weekend of 1998 the entire family moved in.

September 1998 through March? 1999 the family was there at home with the children being schooled at home with the father working from home. In November 1998 the father went to work outside the home during the day. 

The Mom and children left the house in March of 1999. With the mom and 5 of the children coming back to visit until the third week of April 1999. The dad moves out of the house the first of May 1999. Then off the property in September of 1999 after test confirmed huge contamination problem.

Note: Attached is some information on the Scarbrough farm. One file is a summary of the testing conducted by three different labs on the residence. You will notice both sets of testing by the state do show high levels of Chlordane and Heptachlor present in the home. However a highly reputable private lab that specializes in the DC area conducted the most intensive testing. This private lab was able to significantly quantify the contamination in the house so that an accurate assessment of the danger to human health can be made. Most importantly the private lab tests include air sampling. EPA Region 7 stated that the levels of Heptachlor in the air were 600 times the goal they try to bring the readings down to through mediation of a contaminated residence. To be specific their goal is 0.0015-micrograms/cubic meter. The test results from inside the Master Bedroom were .9 micrograms/cubic meter and the children's bedroom was even worse at 1.34 micrograms/cubic meter.

Note also that Heptachlor is more toxic than the original Chlordane and that these test were taken after the house had been vacated for over four months) allowing airborne particles to settle. This private lab also stated that this house is one of the ten most contaminated houses they have ever tested. Dr. Simon, the lab toxicologist, also stated that anyone who stayed more than two nights in the little girl's bedroom would have acute chlordane poisoning. Dr. Wagner from the EPA also stated, these levels made them some of the most contaminated people in the US that they have come across.

Along with the brief summary is the updated information on carpet samples and paneling samples analyzed later, from the children¹s bedroom. These are significant because, unlike airborne particles filtered through your body, these are surfaces the children are touching daily, thereby absorbing the poison through the skin and mouth contaminating them even more so.  Also included are the air conditioning filter test results. These showed that not only were they exposed to high levels of Heptachlor and Chlordane there was also a chemical cocktail containing Aldrin, Parathion, Dieldrin, Malathion, Chlorpyrifos and DDT degradation products.

The family¹s health conditions:

Cecil R. DAD 52 In the house suffered colds, chronic fatigue, cracked bleeding hands, eyes would constantly burn, water, real red and had discharge. Ears were always watery and itching, became grouchy and forgetful, during one three week period lost 20 pounds had severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea, chills, fever, and profuse sweating. He had skin rashes covering his chest, back, legs, face and ears would flush bright red. Pictures show he appears red face and haggard. Five months after buying house he became diabetic. CURRENTLY he is diabetic. His physician is concerned about possible tumor in his kidney. Hands still crack and bleed and may have a hearing problem. He has an infection, which will not clear up. Also diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy and toxic encephalopathy secondary to pesticide contamination.

BETH MOM 40, When first exposed was 7 months pregnant. Second exposure was 8 months pregnant several hours after exposure developed stomach cramps, diarrhea, throwing up, chills, and profuse sweating. Baby was born 2 days after exposure a month early.

While living in house had chronic diarrhea, stomach cramps, daily headaches, constant dizziness sometimes severe, feeling spacey, blurred vision, at times double vision, poor memory, poor coordination, tremors, widespread muscle twitching, nose bleeds, frequent coughing, congestion with mucus, periodic coughing up blood, chest tightness, pressure and pain. When she would walk barefoot across living room floor feet would tingle and go numb. Before they moved into house she was hypothyroid when moved out was hyperthyroid.

CURRENTLY Diagnosed toxic encephalopathy CT of the brain without contrast showed subtle asymmetry within the cerebral hemispheres. The skull markings are deeper and more prominent on the left side than on the right. This may represent early atrophic changes within the left cerebral hemisphere. Diagnosed with peripheral neuropathy, reactive airway disease involving the upper and lower airways. Cholecystitis with Cholelithiasis Acalculus, Biliary Colic, last emergency room visit was told she needed to see PC Physician.

SARAH 19, daughter while living in the house Sarah experienced nausea, vomiting, stomach cramps, diarrhea, weakness, exhaustion, widespread body aching, severe migraine-like headaches, reduced coordination, dizziness, disorientation, blurry vision, tightness and pressure in chest, nosebleeds. She would awake during the night with tremors, extremely pale, feeling like she was going to pass out, throw up, and die all at the same time. She had upper respiratory infections, rashes, reddening of the face and ears, huge decline in memory. She quit publicly singing because she could not remember words to songs she had known for years.

CURRENTLY Sarah has been diagnosed with liver damage, anemia, toxic encephalopathy, peripheral neuropathy, and reactive airway disease involving the upper and lower airways. She also has chronic fatigue, reacts to many things in her environment, and a widespread inflammatory process manifested by widespread aching and tenderness on palpation.

GRACIE 14, daughter while living in the house experienced Stomach cramps, diarrhea, nausea, vomiting, upper respiratory infections, nose bleeds, reddening of the face and ears, feeling like ants were biting all over, rashes and hives especially after showering, hands and wrist turning red, cracking and bleeding. Lips also would dry crack and bleed. Severe acne rash on face, back, chest, and shoulders. Lips and nose swell. Jaw would go numb. Upon waking every morning horrible stomachaches, legs ached terribly, started wetting bed in sleep. Tiny wart like growths all over the knuckle part of her hands.

CURRENTLY, diagnosed with toxic encephalopathy, her hands turn still red, crack, bleed and dry out, at times she has rashes up to her elbows. Whenever she exercises, she breaks out in a severe acne rash on face, chest, back and shoulders. Upon awakening every morning, she is very nauseated, and has aching in her tibia area, she also has frequent fatigue, episodes of feeling spacey when she is not able to think as clearly and has poor memory.

RECENTLY, has jerky, startling-like motion, from her waist up, lasting just seconds. This motion comes on unexpectedly and last 2 seconds. She can have up to 15 a day and then go some days without any.

ANGEL 11, daughter while living in the house experienced unexplained nose bleeds, bones aching, bad stomach aches, headaches, ear infections, high fevers, excessive vomiting, chills, diarrhea, dizziness, unbalance, fatigue, muscle aches, weakness, joint stiffness, heartburn, dried and cracked skin. Rashes after showering. Upon awakening every morning, she had horrible stomach aches, nauseated, had aching in her tibia area, she also was extremely fatigued. She started wetting bed in sleep.

CURRENTLY, diagnosed with toxic encephalopathy, reactive airway disease and significant shortness of breath. Her blood sugar has been high lately. Has trouble understanding instructions and memory problems. Her blood pressure has been high. Complains about feeling spacey and dizziness, hot flashes, excessive thirst, and face flushing, and extreme fatigue. She has chronic urinary tract infections

FAITH 8, daughter, while living in the house experienced stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, excessive nose bleeds, face flushing, episode of excessive vomiting 17 times in 1 day with eyes rolling back. Upon awakening every morning she would have a terrible stomachache, complain of her legs aching, and started wetting the bed in her sleep. Whenever she would go out to play she would complain about being very hot, her face would swell and flush bright red along with her ears, and she felt like pins where pricking her all over her skin. She would get terrible headaches, eye infections, ear infections, upper respiratory infections, muscle twitching, trouble breathing, unexplained rashes, lips dry out, crack and bleed constantly. She developed warts over her entire body, she had 30 on her hands alone. She also had several epidermal skin tags protruding form her chin and mouth area.

CURRENTLY, she has difficulty breathing, blood sugar problems, recurring urinary track infections, face swells, an episode of high blood pressure 140/90 with throat and tongue swelling. When she becomes nervous she starts shaking. Smells in her environment make her sick with headaches, stomach cramps and aches, and complains she can't breathe. She has lost the ability to follow stories as she reads them. Her concentration, comprehension, and memory seem to be greatly reduced.

HANNAH 6, daughter, while living in the house experienced stomach cramps, diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, nose bleeds, and complained of her head hurting almost on a daily basis. She had warts, rashes, lips dry out, crack, and bleed constantly and she didn¹t like going out in the sun, flush bright red along with her ears, and she felt like ants where biting her all over. She had a poor appetite. Every morning she would complain her stomach hurt and her legs ached. She started wetting the bed every night. She had gum infections, chills, high fevers, indigestion and heart burn.

CURRENTLY, she cries almost every night with her legs and feet hurting. She is tired and has a poor attention span. She has urinary track infections. Her face still flushes off and on and complains about being hot a lot.

Note: It is interesting that the four little girls who shared the same bedroom all experienced basically the same symptoms with a few individual differences: Upon awakening every morning they would have terrible stomach aches, complain of their legs aching, and all started wetting the bed in their sleep. After leaving the contaminated house they all stopped wetting the bed. According to test, their bedroom turned out to be the most contaminated room in the house.

CECIL LEE 3, son, was born a month early weighing 4lb. 2 oz., within two days of a significant exposure and illness exacerbation suffered by his mother. The baby came so fast he was still encased in the empty bag of water sac and with the placenta still attached to the cord. By two months old he was rolling over and gained weight rapidly. He appeared to be extremely healthy. When Cecil was between four to five months old (he was going back and forth to house with mother), he developed abdominal pain pulling his legs up to his abdomen and screaming. When they moved into the house he developed frequent congestion of the nose, running matted eyes, vomiting diarrhea, high fevers, frequent body rashes, excessive sleeping, lethargy and hives. He also had anemia. He went from having normal developmental milestones to extremely delayed development. Before being in the house he was a very alert baby but while living in the house he could not even sit up without being propped up. Even when they moved out of the contaminated house at thirteen months of age, at times, he was still having trouble sitting up alone.

Since the mother continued to breast fed, Cecil continued to have trouble picking up his head off the floor. He significantly improved developmentally within a month, after they were told to get rid of all contaminated belongings and the mother was told to quit breast-feeding. He began crawling at fourteen months of age. At about sixteen months of age he began walking but at first his gait was extremely abnormal with severe stumbling, great difficulty in placing each foot. Even at eighteen months his gait was very wobbly. While living in the house he also experienced seizures and again shortly after moving out.

CURRENTLY he has days of lethargy, episodes of shaking, and intermittent impaired coordination. Appetite is poor, bruises easily, wounds heal very slowly, dark circles under eyes, very anemic. His urine often has a very strong order and a lot of times his skin is very dry. He seems to respond negatively to things in his environment, for example; when he is bathed in chlorinated water from city tap he developed a very significant rash. He developed lethargy and deep circles under his eyes when his arm was in a fiberglass cast, but when the fiberglass was removed he became much more alert, less lethargic and a reduction of the dark circles under his eyes.

When he had gone into a house that had a past history of pesticides but not chlordane application, to the mother's knowledge, he developed severe diarrhea, a poor appetite, extreme irritability, very abnormal gait and poor coordination. Just Recently, he woke from a sound sleep with tremors while crawling, when his sister picked him up, he was trance-like and making strange noises. His mother removed him from his sister¹s arms and he became rigid, then began wildly shaking with one side of his body, his arm and leg flailing. At some point during this episode he lost control of his bladder. Then he became completely lethargic. When the paramedics arrived his oxygen level was at ninety, after approximately twenty minutes on oxygen he seemed to improve a great deal. According to those present, his seizure lasted at around five minutes.

Note: Their new non-toxic home built in March 2000. After several warnings and threats to quit perusing this matter. Their new non-toxic home recently became mysteriously contaminated with 33 nanograms of Chlordane in the master bedroom, and 15 nanograms in the children¹s bedroom, 15 nanograms in their new 1997 van and surprising no contamination found in the air outside the front and back of home. Their inside 5-month-old puppy became poisoned with 11.1 ng/nl of oxychlordane. The upstairs air filter of the heating and cooling system was found to contain 12000 ppb of Dieldrin. 

All of this new contamination was confirmed by testing done in the end of January and beginning of February of 2001. Once again leaving them homeless and very sick!

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

6/24/2001

We are looking for a pediatric hematologist who is familiar with Chlordane and Heptachlor poisoning in children, who is also open to natural methods.

We have a 3yr. old son who appears to have a serious problem with his blood due to being contaminated with high levels of technical Chlordane and Heptachlor. I will try to give you the numbers that are out of normal range in his blood work.

Under CBC WITH DIFF 
HGB was 12.7 GM/DL 
HCT 39.3% SEGS 33% (this number keeps getting lower Approx. 3 months ago it was 36%)
On the other hand his LYMPHS keep going higher they are now 56% EOS 5%. His iron profile is normal. 
Under COMPREHENSIVE METABOLIC PROFILE 
CO2 CONT 20 MMOL/L 
CREATININE 0.4 MG/DL

ALKALINE PHOSPHATASE 258 U/L

We would very much appreciate any help and/or leads you could give us.

Sincerely,
Cecil & Beth Scarbrough
We may be reached at:
(228) 822- 9692
(228) 697-1027
(228) 864-7854

**********************

Responses to Request for Help:

Have these people to write to:

pace@mcdowell.main.nc.us  Elizabeth O'Nan. She is in North Carolina and is just about the best versed person on heptachlor.

Maggie Maeve
MMacraven@aol.com '''

Sandy
sandy@templehouse.ie
http://www.templehouse.ie/

**********************

Dear Mr and Mrs Scarbrough,

I would like to focus your attention to the website www.chronicneurotoxins.com.
This website recommends the use of cholestyramine to remove such fat-soluble neurotoxins as chlordane and heptachlor from the body. Cholestyramine is necessary because without it, the pesticides are repeatedly excreted in the bile and then reabsorbed in the intestines. In particular, order the book  "Desperation Medicine" by Ritchie C. Shoemaker on this website. I believe this approach offers great hope over the long run for your child.

Sincerely,
Lawrence A. Plumlee, M.D.,
National Coalition for the Chemically Injured

**********************

Here they are:

CANADA
Dr. John Molot...Ottawa.....1-613-521-2390
Dr. Jennifer Armstrong....Ottawa.....1-877-274-0991
Dr. Josef Krop...Toronto....1-905-816-9657
Dr. Roy Fox....Fall River..N.S 1-902-860-0057

USA

AAEM - American Academy of Environmental Medicine
7701 East Kellogg, Suite 625
Wichita, Kansas 67207
Tel (316) 684-5500
Fax (316) 684-5709
E-mail adminstrator@aaem.com
This organization will give you a list of doctors or clinics close to you who practice environmental medicine. Please note that this is no indication that the doctor is good or not.

Peter Radetsky
radetsk@earthlink.net
Science Communications Program at U of California, Santa Cruz
Author...Allergic to the Twentieth Century
He could help you with doctors as he has written a book and interviewed the best doctors and knows of the best clinics in environmental medicine

Dr. Claudia Miller....Texas Health Center San Antonio, Texas
Asst Professor, Allergy and Immunology.. co-author of books on MCS, chemical exposures etc

Dr. Nicholas Ashford... Asst Professor of technology and policy...MIT,
Boston , Mass
tel: 617 253 1664
Author of books on MCS, served on EPA board

Dr. Garth Nicholson
Inst. for Molecular medicine, Huntington Beach , Colorado

Dr. Sherry Rogers...Syracuse, New York...clinic located there do not know name.
Author of many books on MCS

Reading books to educate yourself is good, including installing a safe sauna to detoxify along with all that the other stuff that is important in the detox process.
This is what we did. It is long, hard, expensive and lonely.
Please let me know if you need names of books or other information.

I have been and am still going through what you are going through. My family's poisoning was from Lindane and God knows what else.

Take care
Rohini Peris

**********************

Enclosed, please find our latest study in this area. It is in press in 'Leukemia and Lymphoma'.
Yours sincerely,
Lennart Hardell, MD, PhD
Professor
Department of Oncology, Örebro Medical Centre, S-701 85 Örebro, SWEDEN

Case-control study on concentrations of organohalogen compounds and titers of antibodies to Epstein-Barr virus antigens in the etiology of non-Hodgkin lymphoma  

********************

Could you please provide the normal range(s) as a basis for comparison.

Will provide the following information which we hope will be helpful.

My dad used CHLORDANE/HEPTACLOR prior to its being banned.

The final ban on this ORGANOCHLORATE INSECTICIDE occurred in 1988.

Please check on oxygen therapy for chlordane poisoning. A pediatric hematologist or clinical toxicologist or medical physician could help you to Please find a phlebotomist who will help you determine the oxygen levels in the blood reaching cells and work with your doctor. Venous not arterial readings. The arterial readings will be normal.

Is the CREATININE pathway compromised as in Phase II liver detoxification pathway?

The following is not meant to alarm but inform so that you know what signs and symptoms to be on the alert for now and in the future:

Chlordane/heptaclor has been linked to

pernicious forms of anemia,
leukemia and other cancer links

Check with your local regional EPA
Department of Environmental Conservation or whatever on a full, complete
listing.

There's more...

Mindy Sperling
geoimage@erols.com or msperling@erols.com
Contact Tele.: 301-776-1044

********************

I am a consultant for attorneys on medical matters, and searches of medical
experts. This is the only pedi-hematologist in my data base.

BERT LUBIN PEDIATRICS HEMATOLOGY 2900 FORREST AV BERKELEY
CA 94705 428-3502

You are welcome to call him and use my name.

Jerry A. Green, JD

Medical Decisionmaking Institute
Post Office Box 72
Graton, CA 95444
(707) 824-4344
jerry@medagree.com
http://medagree.com

**********************

Steve, thanks for including me in the message. Re the mom in MISS. Was she banned from ALL communication about her situation, or was she banned from certain types of communication? Since her family had health effects, is her health insurer -- which may be bearing some extraordinary, unexpected costs-- also interested? There may be other avenues for her as well as for your proposal. ACLU?

Claire

Claire L. Barnett, MBA, Executive Director
Healthy Schools Network, Inc.
773 Madison Avenue
Albany, NY 12208
518-462-0632
www.healthyschools.org
...environmentally healthy schools for students, for personnel, and for
communities, through research, information, education, and advocacy...

 

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