(Originally posted on DailyKos.)

On June 30th, 1992 a Burlington Northern train derailed while crossing a bridge over the Nemadji River near Superior Wisconsin. A tank of benzene ruptured and over 40,000 people were evacuated. To paraphrase an old quote, the evacuation of 40,000 people is a statistic, the leukemia of one is a tragedy.

This was brought home to me today as I read Barbara’s Diary on DailyKos about her sister Betti. Her diary starts off, “What do you do when you begin your Saturday like most others with heading to ride my horse and work on some horses and you receive a call from your niece saying that her mother (my sister-Betti) is in NICU bleeding in her brain.”

She goes on to talk about “Betti having been diagnosed with AML (an acute luekemia that is pretty deadly) due as a result of a 1992 train derailment in Superior, Wisconsin that dumped TWENTY EIGHT THOUSAND TONS OF BENZENE...this happened a mile from her farm.” Betti is 51 and has no medical insurance.

There has been an outpouring of support for Barbara and Betti on DailyKos and I am adding my prayers for Betti and for everyone who is touched by this tragedy. But I also wanted to find out a little bit more about the whole story.

The National Marrow Donor Program describes Acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) as “a fast-growing cancer of the blood and bone marrow. In AML, the bone marrow makes many unformed cells called blasts. Blasts normally develop into white blood cells that fight infection. However, the blasts are abnormal in AML. They do not develop and cannot fight infections.”

A search on AML returns lots of hits on lawyers specializing in cases of AML caused by benzene exposure. Benzenelaw writes, “Benzene is classified as a "known" human carcinogen (Category A) under the EPA Risk Assessment Guidelines of 1986. A number of studies and reviews have linked Benzene exposure to certain forms of leukemia.”

Searching out information about the accident at the Nemadji River revealed a lot of testimony about the accident from government sources. On April 4th, 1995 the Department of Justice announced an agreement where Burlington Northern agreed to pay $1.5 million to settle claims for three spills, including the spill near Superior.

The following month, Dr. David Satcher, Administrator of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR) testified before the Subcommittee on VA, HUD, and Independent Agencies. He started off saying, “I am pleased to be here today in support of the President's FY 1996 Budget request of $68 million for ATSDR from the Hazardous Substances Response Trust Fund, or what is more commonly known as Superfund”.

He went on to talk about ATSDR “Testing of approximately 6,000 persons who live near 10 hazardous waste sites and were potentially exposed to volatile organic compounds showed an increased rate of an unusual production of abnormal blood cells that has been associated with chronic lymphocytic leukemia. As a result, ATSDR has arranged for referral of some individuals for extensive clinical examination at the National Institutes of Health.”

With regards to the Burlington Northern accident, he said:

“An example of ATSDR's role in response to chemical emergencies is the Burlington Northern Train Derailment episode, which occurred near Superior, Wisconsin. In June 1992, three tank cars plunged into the Nemadji River, spilling 26,000 gallons of chemicals into the river and producing a vapor cloud over the area. Almost 50,000 people were evacuated from their homes that night. One hundred and three residents were sent to local emergency rooms for treatment. ATSDR emergency responders were on the scene within hours providing critical health information that local officials used to order the evacuation and to notify residents when it was safe to return to their homes. ATSDR also provided diagnosis and treatment information to local hospital personnel who were treating people suffering illness related to their exposure. ATSDR is currently funding a follow-up study by the Wisconsin Department of Health to address the health effects suffered by residents living in the vicinity of the derailment.”

In many ways, reading through the various press releases and testimony feels like I am reading statistics. When I read Betti’s medical treatment and the outpouring of support from the readers of DailyKos, it feels like I am part of a community that is grieving a tragedy.

When we talk about terrorism or homeland security, we need to think about what makes us more secure. When terrorists strike, when natural disasters happen, when accidents happen, who is going to be around to lend a hand. Who is there for Betti?