Should the ALS community keep an eye on APEX, N.C. and surrounding areas for the next several year for an increase in ALS? If ALS is triggered by chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, sulfur or fertilize theoretically this is a hot zone and there should be an increase in diagnosed ALS.

Any thoughts to this reasoning?

10-06-2006 9:44 AM
By WILLIAM L. HOLMES, Associated Press Writer

APEX, N.C. -- As many as 17,000 people were urged to flee homes on the outskirts of Raleigh early Friday as flames shot from a burning hazardous waste plant and a chlorine cloud rose high over the area.

No employees were believed to have been inside the EQ Industrial Services plant when the fire started late Thursday and a series of explosions began rocking the property.

Eighteen people, many of them law enforcement officers, were taken to emergency rooms with respiratory problems, hospital officials said.

EQ Industrial Services handles a wide array of industrial waste, from paints to solvents, and houses chemicals such as chlorine, pesticides, herbicides, sulfur and fertilizer.