JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Environmentalists in Glynn County are conducting an exposure study. Emory researchers are spearheading the work. They want to know if the years of pollutants from manufacturing plants have had any effect on the people.
To Glynn County Commissioner Allen Booker, the study is long overdue.
Booker grew up in Brunswick and he told First Coast News he lived close to a manufacturing plant. Over the years, Booker said his family and friends got sick. Some of them, he said, died. The county official hopes this study will provide some answers. There are four superfund sites in Glynn County. Booker wants to know if the sites are linked to health issues for people in the city.
"We really don't have all the information available on those sites," Booker said.
Researchers from Emory University are collecting blood samples from volunteers. They're specifically looking for chemicals in blood. Rachel Thompson, executive director of the Glynn County Environmental Coalition, is a partner in the study. She believes the chemicals polluted the air, water and soil. She said the goal is to keep the community informed.
"The most prevalent are going to be mercury and PCBs, which stands for polychlorinated biphenyls," Thompson said. "The other one is toxaphene which is a pesticide."
Thompson said the results from the test won't say how they were exposed, but the information is to encourage people to speak to their primary care doctor. Researchers are looking for people who lived in Brunswick for more than 10 years. They're asked to fill out an exposure survey. Booker said she noticed people over 40 come forward.
"We believe have cancer clusters here," Booker added. "We have young people who have asthma and all of this impacts our quality of life."
Previous research found record high levels of a rare PCB in Brunswick-area dolphins a decade ago. That pollutant was directly linked to a closed chemical factory and later found throughout the marshes of the Turtle River and nearby creeks.