Many in Fayette and south Fulton counties are aware of the illnesses reported since May by residents who say they were sickened after inhaling the onion-like emissions of chemicals from the Philip Services Corp. (PSC) plant on Spence Road.

But many are not aware that some local residents have experienced an as yet unexplained diminishing of symptoms after leaving the area for a period of time, then experiencing reoccurrence of the symptoms after returning home.

The symptoms experienced by some residents since May and by hundreds more beginning late June are consistent with exposure, overexposure and acute exposure to both chemical odorant propyl mercaptan and organophosphate pesticide MOCAP.

Those symptoms include headache, nausea, vomiting, respiratory problems, kidney damage, skin and eye irritation, muscle cramps and a sense of drunkenness, according to material safety data sheets for the two chemicals.

The thing that some residents of the 40 square-mile hot zone have noticed over the months is that their symptoms manifest until they leave the area for a few days or a few weeks. After that, the symptoms either diminish or cease. Yet on their return the symptoms return.

To date, nothing can explain why. Yet all report the onset of symptoms or the escalation of those symptoms after breathing the now familiar onion-like smell of propyl mercaptan and MOCAP.

Cathy Strong’s family lives in north Fayette County. Her 14-year-old son began having visible, red blood in his urine on June 27. The date is two days prior to the arrival of the now-documented, intensely strong MOCAP water wash that was refused by plant officials.

But it is also seven days after the first MOCAP water wash was received at the PSC plant.

His urine was not yellow, it was blood red, Strong explained, alarmed over this sudden change in her son’s well-being. She had intensive testing done by a urologist and a nephrologist, but to no avail. She took the advice of a naturopath but saw no positive results.

“There was nothing wrong with his kidneys or his bladder,” Strong said. “They said something was wrong but they didn’t know what it was.”

Desperate to find answers and even more desperate to provide a safe living environment, Strong sent her son to Dallas, Ga., to live with relatives and attend school there.

“I sent him to Dallas because of a mother’s need to protect her child,” she said with deliberation. “There was no way I could protect him here. I missed him, but I knew he was safer in Dallas.”

Homesick for his Fayette home, Strong moved her son back in early November. It should be a good move since his urine was essentially clear and the problem abated, she said. But that was not the case.

“That weekend he had blood in his urine again,” she said. “Red blood.”

The curious return of symptoms after leaving the area was also experienced by Union City Councilwoman Helen Turner. A resident of the Christian City area since November, Turner began smelling the ”onions” and, like other residents, believed the odor to be wild onions growing in the vicinity.

Turner began experiencing nausea, stomach aches and cramps. Those symptoms persisted for a few weeks until she took a two-week trip to Florida. During her visit the symptoms disappeared. Yet on her return to Fulton County’s portion of the hot zone those symptoms returned. The same thing happened when she returned to Florida in mid-November. On her return to Christian City the symptoms began again.

“My doctors didn’t know what’s wrong with me,” Turner said. “During one trip to the hospital they said I had pulled a muscle in my back. But it wasn’t my back. It was my stomach.”

And as of last week Turner, like Strong’s son, has blood in her urine.

Just to the southwest in Fayette County, Annette Kircher, like many other long-time residents in the area, is no stranger to odors coming from the old Fulton County Wastewater Treatment Plant on Spence Road. Kircher began experiencing muscle cramps in her legs and feet in May.

“I thought at first it was my shoes or that maybe I was doing too much yard work,” she said, explaining her penchant for working outdoors, especially barefoot.

Kircher’s cramping would come and go, apparently without explanation. But in the month of September Kircher realized that a connection existed between the cramping and the diminishing of symptoms. Frequently away from home during many weekends, she realized that the cramping diminished while she was away, only to return a couple of days after returning to her north Fayette home.

“I didn’t think about it until September. Then I realized there was a pattern,” she said.

Kircher has also experienced intermittent skin rashes for the past year. Those rashes were more severe during the summer months, the same time frame where her feet would become so swollen she could not wear her regular shoes. It was the same time that she, like others in the area, noticed the obvious absence of birds in the area.

“I always have birds, but I didn’t have them this summer,” said Kircher. “This summer the bird feeders stayed full.”

Just a couple of miles up the road in south Fulton, building contractor George Nicholson and his wife Kim live just north of the PSC plant on Spence Road. Long-time residents of the area, the Nicholsons’ have breathed odors dating back many years.

For the past two years, George Nicholson has gone through many tests to determine the cause of respiratory problems, cramping, nausea and other symptoms. None of his doctors can find an explanation. The situation worsened significantly during the summer. And like other area residents, those symptoms abated when the couple left the area.

“I have had many tests over past two years for the nausea and cramps with no results. The nausea and cramps were the most severe during the (summer) onion event,” George said. “They totally went away while I was in Canada and then returned when I came back. The smell was present daily. The cramps had diminished greatly as did the nausea for several weeks while we were gone.”

George and Kim have been away from home on other occasions, for days or weeks. Yet the patten is the same. When they are away from the Fayette/Fulton area, the symptoms diminish or disappear. When they return, the symptoms return.

The Nicholson’s openly wondered if that curious pattern of illness is somehow connected to their dog’s reluctance to go outside and the unexplained absence this summer of the large number of birds and butterflies that have frequented their yard for years.

Georgia Division of Public Health is currently conducting a Health Consultation of the affected areas of Fayette and south Fulton counties. Results of the study are expected in late 2006 or early 2007, according to DPH Communications Director Michele Hennessey.

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