The Tribune

By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

PUBLIC health officials have renewed calls for Marathon residents to “take advantage” of medical screening clinics after only 50 per cent of pre-screened residents visited health facilities.

Nurse Charlene Bain, administrator of Community Health Services, revealed yesterday that despite last weekend’s high turnout, not many of the pre-screened, “at risk” residents from the 40 households visited during the department’s home contact programme actually took advantage of government-offered medical screening clinics.

Mrs Bain indicated that the Department of Health had identified 130 residents as a result of the department’s home contact programme, which aimed to highlight “at risk” residents in the Marathon area.

However, she explained that the majority of the 135 residents that showed up for health screening last weekend were not persons contacted by officials from the home contact programme.

Mrs Bain urged residents that haven’t been screened to make an effort to attend this weekend’s clinic.

She said that officials are working to ensure that they screen and treat as many patients as possible. Mrs Bain added that a number of the residents screened have, over the course of their evaluation, discovered unrelated health issues.

“We want to allay their fears, we have found that persons have other health and social issues that they need help with,” she said.

On May 6, a number of Marathon residents told The Tribune they had not undergone any testing or screening to determine their exposure to the 2012 fuel leak.

Those residents, all of whom live within five blocks of the Rubis gas station on Robinson Road, also questioned the government’s logic to hold the public health screenings nearly three years after the initial leak.

The health screenings started on May 4, however, later that week health officials said their work was hindered by rainy weather. Officials insisted that week that screenings were underway and that the matter was being taken seriously.

In an independent report into the spill released this year, it was confirmed that the leak occurred in November 2012, was discovered by former station operator Fiorente Management in December 2012, but not reported to station owner Rubis until January 2013.

The report completed by Black and Veatch International, and turned over to the government in February 2014, also revealed that tests for groundwater contamination at one Marathon home indicated that concentrations of benzene, a cancer-causing compound found in gasoline, were above acceptable screening levels in the United States.

The report also found that Marathon residents were exposed to potentially harmful chemicals. For more than a year, some residents have argued that they received little to no information from the government or Rubis on the impact of the leak.

Mrs Bain said that residents interested in the government-offered medical screening can visit the Elizabeth Estates’ clinic between 9am and 5pm on Saturday or Sunday.

She said persons coming in this weekend should refrain from consuming food after midnight.

For more information, health officials can be reached on the following hotline numbers: 242-502-4776 and 242-502-4790.