Spring Valley sick blame chemicals in WWI dumping

A survey of the incidence of disease among residents of Spring Valley is renewing questions about whether the Army’s chemical-weapons tests in the Northwest neighborhood during World War I led to later health problems.

The yearlong, unscientific survey by the Northwest Current, a weekly newspaper, collected health data from 345 Spring Valley households. It found 131 current or former residents with chronic — and sometimes rare and life-threatening — diseases.

Some residents say they believe their illnesses are linked directly to long-term exposure to chemicals that contaminated the soil or were buried after World War I ended in 1918.

“I’m absolutely and totally convinced it came from the chemicals,” said Geza Teleki, 60, who lived in Spring Valley for most of the period 1974 to 2002 and five years ago developed diabetes, hypothyroidism, and kidney, colon and heart disease.

“You don’t have substantial portions of your internal organs fail within a period of five years if you haven’t been exposed to something,” said Mr. Teleki, who two years ago moved his family to Bethesda.

But Greg Beumel, a toxicologist whose criticisms of the Current’s methodology were cited by the newspaper, yesterday said its findings would be more meaningful if compared with those from a similar neighborhood.

The evidence does raise questions, he said.

“I think we need to see what would happen if a well-designed health study were conducted,” Mr. Beumel said in an interview with The Washington Times.

Mr. Teleki said his kidney failure occurred 10 months ago. His wife, Heather, 50, has a vision problem known as peripheral neuropathy. He said their son, Aidan, 9, has severe headaches and stomach pains.

Mr. Teleki went on dialysis treatment but says he has been rejected for kidney-donor lists because “so many other internal organs are failing.”

The Current’s survey found 160 cases of disease among the 131 current or former residents. The 56 different diseases included Parkinson’s, several types of cancer and blood disorders, among them forms of anemia, which lowers the number of red blood cells. Many were autoimmune disorders, which cause the body to attack itself.

“There’s definitely a higher incidence of illnesses, cancer and other blood-related illnesses in this area than you would find in a normal community of this sort,” said Curtis “Buff” Bohlen, 77, who has lived in Spring Valley with his wife, Janet, 75, since 1958.

Mrs. Bohlen, an avid gardener, discovered four years ago that she has a cancer known as non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Mr. Bohlen said the couple have no plans to leave the neighborhood before the Army Corps of Engineers finishes testing his property.

Spring Valley, comprising about 1,300 homes, is adjacent to Massachusetts Avenue north of American University.

The Current’s extensive report includes three health experts who studied conditions there and cast doubt on the newspaper’s findings, which were inserted into Wednesday’s editions in a package of 11 articles and a two-page map.

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