Posted on Thursday, November 08, 2007
Did old Bayshore High make them sick?
By CARL MARIO NUDI
cnudi@bradenton.com
MANATEE --Students played a game of flag football Wednesday on a grassy field where part of the old Bayshore High School building used to stand.
About 100 yards away, five workers hired by the Florida Department of Environmental Protection were taking dirt samples to test for chemical contamination.
Forrest Branscomb, risk manager for the Manatee County school district, said soil and water samples were taken from the area where two underground diesel fuel tanks were removed in the 1980s and 1990s.
The building was torn down in 1999.
"They were sampling for petroleum constituents, such as benzene and other diesel components," Branscomb said.
He said the workers from Earth Systems, which the DEP contracted to do the testing, took 12 to 15 samples.
The results should be available in several weeks, Branscomb said.
The DEP was doing the testing at the behest of state Rep. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton, after he held a town hall meeting Oct. 26 to hear from former students and faculty of the old school.
At the meeting, Galvano heard stories of how more than 70 people who attended Bayshore High from the 1960s until it was closed in 1995 have been diagnosed with rare cancers or other health problems. "On the Monday after the meeting, I met with the lieutenant governor and DEP to explain the Bayshore situation," he said. "They understood the importance of having testing done."
Galvano said the purpose of the testing is to make sure there is not a current problem.
"Then we can begin to narrow the focus," he said. "The first goal is to make sure the property is safe right now."
Cheryl Lumsden Jozsa, a 1981 graduate of the high school, contacted Galvano about what she says is a high incidence of cancer among students and faculty.
"I think it's great they're doing the testing," Jozsa said. "But I mentioned to them they should test the whole area, not just the school site."
She said there were six fuel tanks on the Manatee Technical Institute property south of the high school, which sits higher than the latter's property. Jozsa's sister, Terri Jewel, a mother of two, died Nov. 19, 1999, of chronic myelogenic leukemia. She was 38 and graduated from Bayshore High School in 1979.
After hearing about other graduates and teachers who had cancer, she organized a group to gather information.
"We appreciate everything Mr. Galvano has done," Jozsa said. "I've been working on this for two years and until Bill Galvano had the town meeting, I wasn't getting anywhere."
"Based on reason, I suspect that the tests will show there are not high levels (of contaminants)," Galvano said. "But the tests are well worth having the peace of mind for my constituents and myself.
"And if there is something there," he said, "then we'll know for sure." WHAT LIES BENEATH?