US toxic wastes kill 2 more, says group
By Tonette Orejas, Inquirer
MABALACAT, PAMPANGA—A woman belonging to a group of 47 people who tested positive for high levels of arsenic and lead in their blood after living in an evacuation center said to be contaminated with military pollutants, died of a kidney ailment last week.
Rosalinda Pineda, 54, was the first to die among the “Cabcom 47,” the People’s Task Force for Bases Cleanup (PTFBC) said on Wednesday.
Cabcom was the Clark Air Base Command, which the defunct Mt. Pinatubo Commission converted into a temporary refuge for victims of Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruptions and lahar. Nearly 35,000 people lived there until 2000 when the government closed the facility.
The area was deemed contaminated by toxic wastes from the operations of US military bases and it was needed as a station for the NorthRail project.
Pineda, displaced by the disaster from Porac, lived at Cabcom for four years and was transferred to the Madapdap resettlement, according to the PTFBC that monitored the health conditions of the Cabcom 47.
She was buried on Jan. 12, said her mother, Ofelia Calaguas.
Last week, a former evacuee, Rogelio Banque, 37, died of a liver-related illness.
Myrla Baldonado, PTFBC executive director, said Pineda was one of the 97 respondents in the random study, “Health and Environmental Assessment of the Impact of Toxic Waste in Clark, Pampanga,” conducted by the National Poison Control and the Department of Health in March 2000 and September 2004.
Baldonado said the DOH had not announced the results of the study or shared its findings with the task force.
Reached by the Inquirer, the DOH in Central Luzon confirmed that the study was undertaken but said the report was in its national office.
Records obtained by the task force showed that Pineda had 108 ug/dl (microgram per deciliter) of lead in her blood or six times higher than the DOH average of 18.74 ug/dl.
Pineda was part of the group of 15 adults and nine children the DOH sent to a 15-day detoxification program at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila. The program was stopped due to lack of funds, it was learned.
Pineda’s daughter, Rose Anne, 12, also had high levels of lead and arsenic in her blood.
Calaguas said Pineda’s death stirred fear among her neighbors at Madapdap, who also lived at Cabcom for four to six years.
MABALACAT, PAMPANGA—A woman belonging to a group of 47 people who tested positive for high levels of arsenic and lead in their blood after living in an evacuation center said to be contaminated with military pollutants, died of a kidney ailment last week.
Rosalinda Pineda, 54, was the first to die among the “Cabcom 47,” the People’s Task Force for Bases Cleanup (PTFBC) said on Wednesday.
Cabcom was the Clark Air Base Command, which the defunct Mt. Pinatubo Commission converted into a temporary refuge for victims of Mt. Pinatubo’s 1991 eruptions and lahar. Nearly 35,000 people lived there until 2000 when the government closed the facility.
The area was deemed contaminated by toxic wastes from the operations of US military bases and it was needed as a station for the NorthRail project.
Pineda, displaced by the disaster from Porac, lived at Cabcom for four years and was transferred to the Madapdap resettlement, according to the PTFBC that monitored the health conditions of the Cabcom 47.
She was buried on Jan. 12, said her mother, Ofelia Calaguas.
Last week, a former evacuee, Rogelio Banque, 37, died of a liver-related illness.
Myrla Baldonado, PTFBC executive director, said Pineda was one of the 97 respondents in the random study, “Health and Environmental Assessment of the Impact of Toxic Waste in Clark, Pampanga,” conducted by the National Poison Control and the Department of Health in March 2000 and September 2004.
Baldonado said the DOH had not announced the results of the study or shared its findings with the task force.
Reached by the Inquirer, the DOH in Central Luzon confirmed that the study was undertaken but said the report was in its national office.
Records obtained by the task force showed that Pineda had 108 ug/dl (microgram per deciliter) of lead in her blood or six times higher than the DOH average of 18.74 ug/dl.
Pineda was part of the group of 15 adults and nine children the DOH sent to a 15-day detoxification program at the Philippine General Hospital in Manila. The program was stopped due to lack of funds, it was learned.
Pineda’s daughter, Rose Anne, 12, also had high levels of lead and arsenic in her blood.
Calaguas said Pineda’s death stirred fear among her neighbors at Madapdap, who also lived at Cabcom for four to six years.
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