CBS to cover McCullom Lake cancers
By KEVIN P. CRAVER – kcraver@nwherald.com
The rash of brain cancer cases tied to McCullom Lake will be featured tonight on CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, according to the network.
The CBS story will focus on brain cancer cases blamed on chemical company Rohm and Haas’ plant in Ringwood, and its Spring House Technical Center outside of its Philadelphia world headquarters. Both were featured in a six-part Northwest Herald investigative series, “Coincidence or Cluster?”, last December.
The broadcast starts at 5:30 p.m. local time, but the story could be pushed back because of other news events.
Three former next-door neighbors in McCullom Lake were diagnosed within two months of one another with brain cancer, and in April 2006 they sued Rohm and Haas and Modine Manufacturing Co. A class-action lawsuit and 23 individual lawsuits as of today blame decades of vinyl chloride pollution from the companies’ Ringwood plants for the cancers and other illnesses.
Rohm and Haas is fighting the lawsuits in court, but Modine settled earlier this year, denying culpability but paying $2 million toward medical monitoring and property value relief.
Fifteen cases of brain cancer have been diagnosed among workers at Spring House. The same attorney is representing Spring House and McCullom Lake plaintiffs.
The newspaper’s series revealed problems with Ringwood plant owners’ assessments of the extent and spread of contamination. It also concluded that epidemiology studies conducted for McCullom Lake and Spring House by the McHenry County Department of Health and Rohm and Haas were flawed and lacked scientific merit.
The Northwest Herald has a news-sharing agreement with CBS2 Chicago, the network’s local news affiliate.
If you watch ...
The CBS Evening News with Katie Couric plans to air a story on the McCullom Lake brain cancers at 5:30 p.m. The story could get pushed back depending on other news events.
On the Web
You can read and watch the Northwest Herald’s coverage of the brain cancers at NWHerald.com/mccullomlake.
