Ohio Scientist Wants Manganese Study Conducted
December 16, 2005
The head of the mid-Ohio Valley Health Department is calling on federal help in order to obtain scientific data that suggests that the town of Marietta, Ohio is suffering from manganese exposure. Dick Wittberg, a biologist and head of the Health Department, was a longtime resident of Marietta, his childhood town, and is concerned about the dangers that local factories pose to nearby residents.
Each year thousands of pounds of manganese dust fall on Marietta, Ohio from a nearby industrial area. A government-sponsored study in the 1990s found that children from Marietta were less well off academically and physically than their counterparts in a similar town. Wittberg wants to find the causal link between the manganese from the factories and the children's health problems, but he has faced indifference and hostility for the most part from the federal government.
A recent report about African-Americans in the US found that the majority of them live in areas which expose them to hazardous pollution and other dangerous industrial waste. The study particularly focused on Camden, NJ where over 100 contaminated industrial waste sites sit among populated areas that are some of the highest concentrations of unhealthy people in the country.To learn more about manganese exposure and its various side effects, contact a manganese attorney.
