Did Premcor make kids sick?
One mom thinks so, but epidemiologists don’t agree By Marcus K. Garner Staff writer January 23, 2005 – Tricia Krause wants to know if the former Premcor oil refinery is to blame for her children’s illnesses and hundreds of others. For eight years, Krause and her family lived in Crestwood, four miles from the refinery. In early 2000, her son Matthew Fry, then 10, was diagnosed with leukemia. Krause’s daughter Brianne, then 5, was diagnosed that same year with pilocytic astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor. She soon learned of children and adults living near her who were suffering from similar ailments, and she has spent four years doing her own epidemiology study. On a large map of the Southland, Krause has stuck 345 pins representing where she says are known cases of cancer, brain tumors or other unusual medical problems that she claims are caused by the plant. “We have an overwhelming amount of children in the area, according to my research, that have had leukemia, aplastic anemia, brai
