"Many of us believe St. Clair County has an abnormally high cancer and illness rate. But the U.S. and Canadian governments tell us that's not true.

Don't be silly ... it's nothing more than an urban myth, we have been told.

I was stunned to read a lengthy commentary by Melody Petersen titled "The Lost Boys of Aamjiwnaang" in the December 2009 issue of Men's Health. It makes the case that all of us may be rolling the dice.

Petersen asserts that across the St. Clair River at the Aamjiwnaang Reservation south of Sarnia's massive Canadian economic engine of Chemical Valley, the boys of the Anishinabel Tribe are being treated with less concern than laboratory rats.

There is talk of dead and abnormal animals. The boys are told not to eat or drink from their land. Only one boy is born in every four births.

Researchers throughout the world believe chemicals such as those produced in Chemical Valley are causing similar results elsewhere."

Get the Story:
Cliff Schrader: Don't expect government to answer cancer concern (The Port Huron Times Herald 5/27)