Were you tested for arsenic?
This rare event was just in the newspapers:
Quote:
Doctor: Park may be poison source
Woman's arsenic level was elevated
January 19, 2007
BY TINA LAM
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
Stacy Karafotis believes her favorite pastime, softball, could someday lead to cancer.
"It makes me so angry that no one ever told us," she said.
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Karafotis, 39, of Garden City and her doctor believe she may have gotten arsenic poisoning from playing softball at Central City Park in Westland. The park was closed in early November after the Free Press began asking questions about contamination there. State, county and some Westland city officials have known since at least 2001 that the park was contaminated but didn't tell park users.
Karafotis played her last game two days before the park was closed. Tests a few weeks later showed she had arsenic levels several times higher than what is safe. Arsenic can cause cancer.
Michael Morgan, deputy director of Wayne County's health department, isn't convinced Karafotis got high arsenic levels from the park.
"We don't have data that shows there's arsenic on the baseball diamonds," he said.
Tests have shown arsenic elsewhere in the park.
Karafotis has played softball three nights a week for 20 years.
"People kiss the plate, rub dust into their cuts and lick dust from their hands when they get up to bat for good luck," she said.
Karafotis' physician, Dr. Michael Harbut, said her arsenic levels dropped 75% by December, evidence that her exposure could have come from the park. Because arsenic is excreted in urine, levels drop after exposure ends, he said. Harbut is an environmental medicine specialist and testified to Congress on the current arsenic standard.
Testing in 2005 found elevated arsenic in soil and woodchips near a pressure-treated wooden playscape at the park. An arsenic compound is used in the pressure treating process.
Seven other soil samples from other parks showed arsenic levels that wouldn't require a cleanup.
Harbut said dust from the playscape, near the baseball diamonds, could easily have blown to the dirt ball fields.
Morgan of the county health department said: "If it's a problem, we need to know about it. But we have looked over preliminary data and see no areas of arsenic other than the playscape."
Karafotis has been advised to have yearly screenings for cancers linked to arsenic for the rest of her life. She urges people who played at the park to get tested.
Contact TINA LAM at 313-222-6421 or tlam@freepress.com.
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Here is another medical article:
http://www.emedicine.com/neuro/topic20.htm
Quote:
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Neurological: Paresthesias and numbness, usually in a symmetric stocking-glove distribution, and muscle weakness are a result of peripheral neuropathy. The onset and progression may be mistaken for Guillain-Barré syndrome. This problem may persist long after arsenic exposure stops. Fatigue and weakness are major complaints. The neuropathy is not seen acutely but develops over the weeks subsequent to exposure in acute or subacute toxicity. In regular, long-term arsenic exposure, the presenting complaint is frequently a sensory neuropathy with features that resemble an alcoholic neuropathy. Burning paresthesias in glove and stocking distribution, early loss of stretch reflexes, and later weakness are seen. In severe toxicity, flaccid paralysis may appear in the lower extremities, then the upper extremities. This is maximal about 4 weeks after acute exposure. Again, the clinical picture resembles Guillain-Barré syndrome.
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Arsenic can be inhaled as a gas from fires. And can be in well water.
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