Fight for Zero in the News
- An Environmental Procrastination Agency | The Brockovich Report
- Brevard Cancer Cluster Study Finds Ample Contamination | WKMG
- Brevard County Focus of UF Study | Hometown News
- Cancer-causing chemicals detected in groundwater at Patrick Air Force Base | Brevard Times
- Cancer Cluster? 20 cases in Satellite High school graduates | Click Orlando
- Cancer Mystery in Brevard Count Florida | Military Times
- Citizens Question if Satellite Beach Violated Florida's Open Meeting Laws | WKMG
- Clean water rally draws attention from park visitors | Hometown News
- Colder Temperatures Keeping Manatees Away | FOX 35
- Combatting forever chemicals in our drinking water | American University Radio
- Community group continues work to help struggling lagoon | News 13
- EPA finds no safe level for two toxic chemicals | Action News Jax
- EPA Forever chemicals pose risk even at low levels | AP News
- EPA Issues New Advisory on Forever Chemicals | News 13
- EPA says even tiny amounts of chemicals in drinking water pose risk | NPR
- EPA Warns that forever chemicals pose health risks | NBC News
- Environmental Activist Erin Brockovich Speaks in Brevard | News 13 Spectrum
- Fight 4 Zero focused on reducing pollutants in Florida water | WLRN Sundial Radio
- Fight for Zero Warns of Chemicals in Drinking Water | Hometown News
- Florida commissioner suggests killing manatees | Fox 35 Orlando
- Florida works on rules to clean-up forever chemicals | PBS Newsnight
- Florida politician floats idea of killing manatees to save them | FOX Weather
- Florida lawmaker sends dirty Indian River Lagoon water | Tallahassee Democrat
- Forever Chemicals in water and packaging can risk health | Fox News
- Forever Chemicals in drinking water pose risk even at low | CBS News
- From Cancer to Community: Stel's Story | Community Action Works
- High levels of chemicals soil South Patrick | Florida Today
- Manatee Deaths Prompt Action | Hometown News
- More Cancer Cases Reported in Satellite Beach | WKMG
- National Study Finds Forever Chemicals in Tap Water | Fox 4 Now
- New Advisory for Forever Chemicals in Drinking Water | EcoWatch
- Oncologist concerned over high number of cancers in Satellite Alumni | Florida Today
- PFAS Next Door | Breast Cancer Action
- Photos: Concerned citizens meeting about Cancer Cluster | Florida Today
- Planned visit from famous activist brings optimism | WKMG
- Potentially cancer-causing chemicals detected in Cocoa | WFTV
- Satellite Beach-area cancer survivors talk strategy | Florida Today
- Satellite Beach Police Urge Residents to Stop Feeding Manatees | Click Orlando
- Smells like raw sewage in Titusville worried about pollution | Fox 35 Orlando
- The Fight for Zero | Brockovich Report
- Researchers studying the presence of toxic chemicals in the Indian River Lagoon | WFTV
- Revealed: US water likely contains more forever chemicals | The Guardian
- Story of the 2018 year and published on the Sunday front cover | Florida Today
- University of Florida Reveals First Finding of PFAS Study in Brevard | News 13
- Water Expert and Erin Brockovich | Space Coast Daily
- Wells Test Positive for Chemicals in Cocoa Beach | FOX 35 Orlando
Forever in Florida - The chemical family known as PFAS in Florida
An Investigation on accelerated illnesses in central Florida communities, tracing the source to phosphate mining.
The chemical family known as PFAS, ubiquitous in everything from waterproof fabrics to nonstick cookware, is also becoming common in water, soil, land—and our bodies. While these “Forever Chemicals” are linked to serious adverse human health outcomes including cancer, neither the federal government nor Florida has regulated them closely. A mini-documentary from Kimberley Fowler and Amy Fu. -- News from North Central Florida's public media stations on http://WUFT.org , 89.1 FM & Florida's 5.
Follow WUFT News for more updates: http://www.wuft.org/news/
Cancer survivor and filmmaker Erik E. Crown joins local water activists to investigate accelerated cancer rates and other illnesses in central Florida communities, tracing the source to phosphate mining and the pollution of the state’s waterways by a multinational corporation, Mosaic. This investigation uncovers why corporate pollution continues today and why people in communities worldwide face the same issues as those in Florida. It begs the question – what’s in your water?
Cancer survivors ask leaders for more testing of contaminated water
Advocate Stel Bailey took that message Tuesday night to Melbourne City Hall.
"We have 54 students at Satellite High diagnosed with cancer," Bailey addressed city council members.
Nine beach side schools, including Satellite High, tested positive for traces of chemicals also found at Patrick Air Force Base.
Erin Brockovich associate vows to help find cancer answers
Cancer fears remain as water testing continues in Brevard County
Citizens question if Satellite Beach violated Florida's open meeting laws
Stel Bailey, a Brevard County resident, cancer survivor and advocate, expressed disappointment that she and about a dozen others who tried to attend Monday's meeting were stopped at the door. She coordinated independent testing for the fluorinated chemicals in canals and residences in the Satellite Beach area, results she'd planned to present Monday.
"I am optimistic that we are going to get to the truth," cancer survivor Stel Bailey said. "I believe that we are the only people that can save ourselves."
The testing has centered around cancer-causing fluorinated chemicals that have been used in firefighting foams. Nearby Patrick Air Force base used the chemicals for decades.
A group of cancer survivors and concerned citizens were not allowed to attend Monday's gathering at City Hall about possibly contaminated water and beachside cancer cases. The meeting was called for by environmental activist Erin Brockovich's coworker Bob Bowcock who visited Monday and Tuesday to investigate.
What's next after Erin Brockovich comes to town?
Over many months, Bailey and Willemin covered their map with 328 dots for 328 cancer cases in Satellite Beach since 2000. Survivors volunteered their diagnoses online, with new cases trickling in daily. Early drafts of the map showed cancers clustered in two distinct "blobs" just south of Patrick Air Force Base.
"I started having a lot of people coming forward. I just knew in my gut, 'I'm on to something here,' " said Bailey, a cancer survivor who grew up just north of the base in Cocoa Beach.
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich speaks to concerned Satellite Beach crowd
Stel Bailey, a local cancer survivor and activist says, it was a community effort to get Brockovich to the area and with her help, they will know what to do next.
“Known this was bigger than satellite beach, we need to see how far this goes,” says Bailey.
On Friday, Cocoa Beach reporter they found the cancer causing chemicals PFOA and PFOS's in their water.
More cancer cases reported in Satellite Beach
Bayshore Cancer Cluster Health Study Released
Some are still fighting to get results for a growing number of people being diagnosed with cancer around the Satellite Beach area.
"I think it stands with unanswered questions, still," Stel Bailey, with the activist group Florida Health Connection, said.
An advocate for the survivors, Bailey, herself, battled cancer.
Cheryl Jozsa’s sister attended Bayshore High School, and was one of three graduating students from the class of 1979 to pass away from leukemia, out of a class of 256 students, Jozsa says. Jozsa’s sister passed in 1999; another student from her class that year who had leukemia survived. She cofounded Fight For Zero, a nonprofit activist group that raises awareness about water quality issues.
Bayshore High Alumni Cry Foul on "Cancer Cluster" Study Results
Environmental activist Erin Brockovich speaks to concerned Satellite Beach crowd
Manatee Deaths Prompt Action
Colder temperatures keeping manatees away
“If they’re not looking for a cancer cluster, they’re not going to find one,” said alumni Cheryl Jozsa.
“They eliminated the classes where we had the most concentrated information,” Jozsa said, referencing the years around when her sister graduated. “By eliminating that data it allowed them to get the results that they wanted and be able to say that there’s no cancer cluster.”
Stel Bailey of environmental non-profit Fight For Zero said she’s watched people feed manatees lettuce, spinach and kale. Wildlife authorities are experimenting with feeding manatees but said it’s only a short-term solution.
‘’The community is at a point of desperation because they just want to help,’’ Bailey said. ‘’They’re sick of standing by and seeing these manatees die in their own backyard.’’
Stel Bailey of environmental non-profit Fight For Zero said she’s watched people feed manatees lettuce, spinach and kale. Wildlife authorities are experimenting with feeding manatees but said it’s only a short-term solution.
‘’The community is at a point of desperation because they just want to help,’’ Bailey said. ‘’They’re sick of standing by and seeing these manatees die in their own backyard.’’
"I really believe that we have become numb to this. I think that it is being normalized that now dead manatees have become a part of our daily life. People feel like they can’t do anything anyway. So, it is a discussion, but we need to take action," environmentalist Stel Bailey said. "It is devastating for me to see these manatees in the situation that they are in."
University of Florida reveals 1st findings of ‘forever chemical’ study in Brevard County
EPA issues new advisory on ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water
The study, which is focused on Brevard County, is trying to determine whether the existence of PFAS in the ground water, surface water and soil exceeds the level advised by the Environmental Protection Agency and whether there’s an overlap of high areas of concern regarding PFAS concentration/exposure and communities at high risk of health complications because of their age.
Groups like Fight For Zero in Brevard County have been collecting weekly samples from around the county to help UF researchers learn more about how these chemicals can spread from their original locations.
Stel Bailey, an advocate for clean drinking water in Brevard County and the founder of Fight for Zero, was one of dozens of people present at the Third National PFAS Conference in Wilmington, N.C., when the EPA made its announcement.
“In the beginning of this, we were criticized and dismissed and told things were safe and normal and nobody really wanted to listen to us,” Bailey said. “So, to get that confirmation that all of this work wasn’t nothing, it brings hope to communities, like ours, and advocates across the nation that we need to continue in this work to fight for zero chemicals in our waterways that are harmful to human health.”
A big thanks to the media outlets who have covered our work!
