Attorneys representing cancer victims from the western Palm Beach County community called The Acreage say they know what made their clients sick. Five lawsuits filed by the firm claim that “big business” is at the center of a medical mystery that’s been plaguing the community for nearly a decade.
It's been more than three years since Palm Beach County health officials designated The Acreage a cancer cluster – a place where rates of brain tumors and brain cancers were higher than normal, especially in young children. Investigators never did find the cause.
But law firm Searcy Denney says the results of its own water and soil tests are showing high levels of radioactive material in the community’s drinking water. Attorney Jack Scarola says the business practices of jet engine manufacturer Pratt and Whitney and rock-mining company Palm Beach Aggregates are responsible for the contamination.“Alligators in the Corbett Wildlife Management Area did not conduct jet engine testing with radionuclides. Pratt Whitney did", said Scarola. "Burrowing gopher tortoises didn’t technologically enhance normally-occurring radioactive materials. Palm Beach Aggregates did.”
Palm Beach Aggregates did not respond to requests for comment. But in a written statement, a spokesman for Pratt and Whitney says the lawsuit has no merit.