The Poisoned Ink Well

Sunday, August 03, 2003


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CC Lockdown's twice in one week in the same neighborhood in good old Baton Rouge

I'm still here, but I am slightly speechless at the moment, not that I've run out of things to say, it's just that I'm not ready to say what I've been thinking about a lot lately and that is about the all the CC lockdowns going on in Baton Rouge.

I have some modest nursing experience, so my family members call me and tell me when they are ill. They didn’t hear about the lock down until it was too late and they called me before they were aware of a spill and told me they had symptoms similar to strep throat; unable to swallow or breathe deeply, but with excruciating migraines and burning, red eyes, and extreme nausea. I always say go to ER, or go to a doctor, but they decided to wait, and then got the news that there was a chlorine leak. And then heard the local ER doctor on the evening news telling everyone not to bother coming in because there was nothing they could (or would?) do for them.

Then just a few days later my friend called me and said she thought it was happening again because her symptoms were getting worse and she was scared and we found out there was another spill at the same place. (Honeywell) This time it was a chemical agent called antimony pentachloride and she couldn’t open her eyes because they burned so badly, and there was nausea, vomiting, splitting headaches, and trouble breathing, again. This is disgusting and they tell people not to go the doctor. I have some friends severely affected by this and I'm worried and I don't know what to say to them.

My friends live within a couple of blocks of the latest two that occurred within a week of each other at the same plant. (They can't afford to move)

They're all getting nausea, headaches, and vomiting and the doctors in ER are refusing to treat most of the people in the community who have been exposed. Hey maybe it has something to do with the fact that it's a POOR mostly minority area and the fat cat doctors in that town don‘t like poor, uninsured, or medicaid patients. Yah think! Anyway I am aghast at how this is being handled.

Do yourself a favor and don't relocate or move to Louisiana until they get their act together. This bullshit has to stop and gutting the clean air act just for Baton Rouge ain’t a good idea.

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