Environmental Toxins Might Be To Blame for Hair Loss

Here’s an unfortunate story from Todd Brown at the San Mateo County Times. Seems residents of Midway Village in Bayshore have long been experiencing health issues – including bouts of alopecia areata – that may have their source in toxic fill dirt used to grade the area when the public housing units were constructed.

The more callous among us would tell the residents not to look a gift horse in the mouth. It’s public housing; be glad you’re not sleeping under a bridge.

It’s not that simple, in my opinion. When the government took it upon itself to provide the housing, that commitment came with the expectation that the homes will be reasonably safe. Poverty, a lack of education, the disintegration of the family and other systemic problems are challenge enough. They don’t need to worry about carcinogens seeping up from the ground beneath them. To be fair, it sounds like the government has dealt above the board and been doing what it can.

The problem, then, likely stems back to either the original polluters, who were allowed to dispose of the property without cleaning it up or discounting the sale price by the cost of future clean up; or to a system which failed to disclose all relevant information along the way.