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Health Department Sits Back on Toxin Lawsuit

BRIAN SLUPSKI COLUMN

Since a lawsuit was filed in April alleging that five companies contaminated drinking water in McCullom Lake with toxic chemicals, I have expected the McHenry County Health Department to do something.

Issue a news release.

Host a public meeting.

However, nearly a month since the federal class-action lawsuit was filed by individuals alleging that rare brain cancers and other illnesses are being caused by polluted air and water, nary a peep has come from any county health official.

The only comments from the health department have been a few quotes in stories and editorials about the lawsuits from administrator Pat McNulty, who has said things such as, "I want to reassure people that we have not had any positive hits in that area."

I called McNulty last week and asked him what the health department planned to do.

"Plans to do anything?" McNulty said. "I’m not sure what you mean."

So, I asked again.

McNulty talked about how the watershed near the companies in question – Rohm and Haas Chem-icals, Morton International, Huntsman, Huntsman Polyure-thanes, and Modine Manufact-uring – follows a creek. And although water from the companies flows in a southern direction, it does not come within a half-mile of the people who are suing.

McNulty also said that monitoring wells have been tracking past chemical spills and that drinking wells near the companies have not been contaminated. McNulty said that he had told me and other reporters and editors at the Northwest Herald this, and he said he was not sure why more detailed information had not appeared in the paper.

Well, if I was a health administrator and there was fear in a town whose water had been contaminated with toxic chemicals in the past, I might get all my facts and information together and issue a news release that dealt with the subject in detail.

And the health department does issue news releases. In fact, two have come out since the lawsuit was filed. One reminded people about the department’s pneumonia clinic and the other lauded municipalities for having "optimum fluoride levels" in their water.

On the plus side, McNulty said he had been working with McCullom Lake village officials to have a meeting. That’s a good idea, especially because the plaintiffs’ attorney in the lawsuit already came to town and scared the heck out of everyone.

Also, McNulty said a presentation will be made Monday to the health board about whether there is a cancer cluster in McCullom Lake.

Apparently, the health department has examined how many cancer cases there are in the 60051 area code to see whether the numbers are high compared to cancer rates nationally. McNulty did not have details for me, but said that there were not more cancer cases in 60051 than would be expected given cancer rates nationally.

The meeting will be at 7 p.m. at the Annex A building off Russell Court.

It’s a good thing I called and asked, otherwise, the health department might have gone and had the meeting and not told anyone about the study.

And that seems like the kind of information people would be interested in.

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