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| An image of Claire Schlaff: http://environmentreport.org/images/daily/claireschlaff.jpg |
In Part 2 of "Mapping Cancer Cases in a Small Town," a town in West Michigan is highlighted, in which a woman who lost her son and husband to cancer is looking to start a cancer mapping project. In her local area of White Lake, Claire Schlaff has started to raise community awareness and concern for what seems to be a "cancer cluster" in their area. These clusters are usually attributed to some sort of polluting factor, and Claire thinks that the nearby DuPont paint factory (or other nearby factories) could be the answer. Although the White Lake area has been cleaned up in recent years, the decades of exposure will surely lead to more people with cancer.
This is an interesting case, because Claire Schlaff does not truly know if her town is a true "cancer cluster," or what exactly is causing people to get cancer--she just simply wants answers. The idea of "minimally acceptable risk" allows for certain people to be affected by pollutants, but it can lead to people like Claire being left without a husband and son. We have grown accustomed to hearing about people dying on the news, and we have become disconnected. Many of us fail to recognize that these people that died had friends and family. The environmental injustice upon Claire and the residents of White Lake is an interesting one, because it is a higher-income, mainly white community. This shows that environmental justice is a topic that people of all races and backgrounds should be concerned with.
Article here
by Chris Graham
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