In Death Valley. There are so many factors that would go into it, and so much money and time involved,” she said. She worries about chemical contamination in ground water and, especially, poisonous gasses escaping from the excavation across the street. He advised the Dudley family, who lived on the corner of Rockwood Parkway and Glenbrook Road before their house became the South Korean ambassador’s residence. How did it actually get into your system? “But I was treated at Hopkins for a blood disorder. Whether you or someone you love has cancer, knowing what to expect can help you cope. Then the board turned its attention to the Johns Hopkins health study. About 85% of women diagnosed with breast cancer have no family history of the illness . It has destroyed hundreds of munitions in a detonation chamber on federal property between Sibley Hospital and Dalecarlia Reservoir. Janet Bohlen inspects a faded 1918 photo of a dozen Army soldiers standing shoulder-deep in rugged trenches. With its tall trees and stately homes—which sell for upward of $4 million—Spring Valley is one of DC’s most prestigious neighborhoods. She agreed and also filed an administrative claim for $10 million from the Army for failure to warn people of the chemicals. District of Columbiaexternal icon 10. And the laws are stacked against residents who attempt to use the legal system as a recourse, especially when the government is charged with creating the pollution. But in 1918, when the US was fighting in the trenches of Europe, Spring Valley was fields and farms. But, Clem Gaines, the spokesman, said, “We should have done a better job of communicating with him.”. The Corps has told Dieterich and her neighbors that its elaborate tenting system will protect them from any poisons. “Wouldn’t you love to be able to identify exactly where that is now?”, From the other side of her coffee table, her husband, Buff, quips, “Don’t you recognize your own back yard?”. In 1920, two years after the armistice, the government closed down the project but didn’t clean up the land. Dieterich has two children, ages five and one. But we are reassessing all the time.”. The number one risk factor for breast cancer is being a woman In 2000, when she heard about the chemical-weapons testing at AU and the “Sedgwick trenches,” Saum started telling friends and relatives her diseases might be connected to the chemicals. It plans to set up sensors that will trigger sirens if poison gases escape into the air. “We were never able to get a handle on that. And when the developer tried to dump soil at a landfill, a bulldozer operator got sick. “I don’t think the government treated me or anyone else well,” says Saum. In 1999, the Corps dug up two pits outside the South Korean ambassador’s residence, at the intersection of Glenbrook Road and Rockwood Parkway, unearthing 680 items associated with chemical munitions. Mon – Fri 9am – 9pm ET. Photograph by Brad Howell. Attorney General Eric Holder makes his home there now, as do TV anchor Jim Vance and attorney Brendan Sullivan. Recently, the cleanup … “I was not overweight, I didn’t eat junk food. The dig could last into 2014. “Has anyone else in this room actually grown up in Spring Valley?” she asked. Over the past two decades, the Army Corps of Engineers has excavated pockets of their wealthy, tree-lined neighborhood, which was built over the Army’s World War I chemical warfare testing grounds, to analyze possible contamination. Miller said the discovery of bombs in 1993 caused delays that cost it millions. Alaskaexternal icon 3. Lewisite, made with arsenic, was perhaps the most toxic of the poisons tested on the AU campus. In the early 2000s, the Army Corps found the vestiges of a shed once filled with detonators under a 70-year-old tree in the Bohlens’ back yard, where Janet Bohlen said her daughter and neighborhood children would often play. There are other cancer clusters that occur without any obvious source of carcinogens. “It’s really not possible. She knows that the study is imperfect, yet she’s determined to make sure every household in the neighborhood knows of it. Ask Camille Saum, who grew up on Sedgwick Street. Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, and George H.W. Until it came to light in 1993, Spring Valley’s chemical past was buried in archives. Over 95% of women diagnosed with early stage breast cancer survive and thrive. Appointment Phone: 240-762-5130 . She was thought to have leukemia. This article appears in the March 2013 issue of The Washingtonian. A lawyer offered to represent her. “Many of them had disturbed the soil by building additions. “Thank God it was benign. He said he discovered a report by the corps that found more than 20 toxins and heavy metals on his property. “I could never figure out why my eyes burned all the time,” Miller says. “Of course we’re concerned if anything from Spring Valley becomes airborne and settles in the reservoir,” he says. Cancer.Net brings the expertise and resources of ASCO to people living with cancer and those who care for and about them to help patients and families make informed health care decisions. North America Date Disease Location Number Source Refs 1917–1927 Osteosarcoma: New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois: 86 Radium: Janet has been treated for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a condition the 2007 study recognized as potentially arsenic-related. Gillum and Saum got nothing from their lawsuits. The Loughlins’ live-in nanny, Patricia Gillum, was diagnosed with actinic keratosis, a precancerous skin condition that can be caused by sun or industrial chemicals, including arsenic. CT and MRI scans revealed a lesion in her brain. Inova Schar gives patients unmatched logistical, clinical and emotional support. Two things have become clear in the 20 years of testing and turmoil: It’s nearly impossible to prove a direct connection between the toxic chemicals and a specific disease. Bombs with lewisite were on their way to Europe when World War I ended. What the Army failed to state explicitly was that Dieterich and her neighbors were living yards away from the first military Superfund site in a residential urban area, where the Army is actively searching for bombs and poisonous chemicals. They know who died and how.”. They suffered skin problems and cancers. “They know the stories. The Corps has drilled 53 wells in Spring Valley and found arsenic as well as perchlorate, a component of rocket fuel, in the ground water. My friend Marc and I would play outside every chance we could. 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