"Telling Our Stories" Canvass in the Ledger

Jessica Trufant, a reporter for The Patriot Ledger, joined FRRACS members to help spread the word about our new health-related project, called "Telling Our Stories." Volunteers handed out hundreds of flyers to residents who live in North Weymouth, East Braintree, Quincy Point, and Germantown.

We are looking to collect and document stories about people's illnesses and their possible connection to environmental toxins in the Fore River Basin. Have a health-related story to share with us? Send us an email (send it to frracshealth@gmail.com) or click here to learn more.  

To read the full article in The Patriot Ledger, click here. 

Excerpt: "Growing up in Germantown, Donna Pilalas O’Brien said an awful stench would fill the air every night after a horn sounded at a soap plant in the Fore River Basin.

In the morning, O’Brien said she’d go outside to find the cars coated in a film of something that she assumed came from the plant.

“We breathed that in. We swam in the water,” said O’Brien, 69, standing at a public park next to the Fore River Bridge on Sunday. “There have been so many sick people and people who have died. It’s awful.”

O’Brien is among a group of former and current Fore River Basin residents who say they believe that decades of pollution from their industrial neighbors have caused serious health problems, including cancers, asthma and autoimmune disorders.

She now lives in Acushnet, but O’Brien joined more than a dozen volunteers who canvassed the neighborhoods around the basin on Sunday and handed out flyers for a project lead by the Fore River Residents Against the Compressor Station.

The group said it hopes to tally health issues reported by residents in North Weymouth, East Braintree, Quincy Point and Germantown who say living in the industrial area has made them sick and compile their stories into a short documentary. ...

Alice Arena, Wendy Cullivan and Becky Haugh, the town council representative for North Weymouth, dropped flyers at dozens of homes in Quincy’s Germantown neighborhood. Arena said the group hopes to reach as many as 3,000 homes in the next few months." (Jessica Trufant, The Patriot Ledger)