Carver Middle School is a microcosm of this West Grove community. Many of our students, teachers, and staff have grown up or are now growing up in the shadow of Old Smokey. A staff member remembers her mother telling her to take the laundry off the clothesline when Old Smokey would fire up. A science teacher recalls running barefoot through the grass in front of the incinerator. One of Carver’s most beloved French teachers, Catherine Dudouet, lived across from our school since 1981. She spent most weekends working in her garden, her favorite hobby. She died of pancreatic cancer after a 5-year battle in June of 2011. As news of the contamination began to break last summer, Catherine’s illness was on the minds of all who worked with her at Carver Middle School. We found a scientific journal article citing that our school and Ms. Dudouet's house are both in one of Florida's pancreatic cancer clusters.* We wondered if her illness had anything to do with Old Smokey. We learned that the link between arsenic and pancreatic cancer is not substantiated. Nonetheless, we tested for arsenic in Ms. Dudouet's garden for this project. Her property tested negative for toxic levels of arsenic.
*Journal article can be found at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3600048/.
*Journal article can be found at: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3600048/.