Wondering, and I'm not a  conspiracist-type nor  a chicken little but to have already lost 50(ish) of our classmates out of, I counted 359, seems substantial. This is about 16-17% of us. Anyone have actuarial/medical statistician type skills who might be able to shed light on this?

I have read about about accusations of Aerojet discharging toxins that leached into the Rancho groundwater systems. My mom got thyroid cancer while we were still living in Rancho. Just wanted to put this out there to see if anyone else has ideas....

Thanks Lancers!

Jeryn Byrne

Jeryn,

Maybe there is something to the Aerojet angle. I don't know what the percentage is, but there are quite a few classmates who are either are battling cancer now or are survivors. 

On a positive note, while it is sad that we have lost so many classmates, the percentage is lower. We had 487 people in our "official graduating class" plus those who for some reason started with us but didn't finish with us. Of the 50 we have lost, not all were from cancer. Subtract the accidents, drugs, murder, and other health issues and the percentage we want to attribute to Aerojet goes down further.

I always wondered what part of Rancho they lived in.

Hey Jeryn - I plan to write you something personal but saw this comment and felt compelled to join the thread ... I don't doubt any environmental misadventures, especially those that involve the govt./business partnership to maximise profits, or to reduce taxes ... think Flint (that is the definition of fascism).  Go back to before the 60's, to before the great awakening, and it's worse. If that makes me a conspiracy nut then I guess I was born one. After the war and until 1956 my dad worked at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Richland, WA, (read Plutocracy ... then read Silent Spring). I and two of my three siblings were born there. Then in 1956 my dad got a job at Aerojet, where he worked for 10 years ... oh brother, right? My dad and older brother seemed less affected, but nobody else even has a thyroid. Some have been surgically removed and others, like mine, just sit there doing nothing (but is responsive to synthetic hormone replacement ... I guess, who knows, is this the way you're supposed to feel?) And never mind blaming a culprit, too many variables to prove any single assertion. I'm actually part of a study. This group gets funding every decade or so and when they do I get a questionnaire. They want to know am I dead, and what killed me, NOT how'm I doing. You know what I mean?

I was 43 when finally diagnosed and it took a year to determine proper medication levels. How did I get diagnosed? I threatened my doctor, of course. I said, "Look, I've been complaining about this for four or five years and I know it's killing me. But you keep welcoming me to my 40's, reminding me I'll never feel 20 again. Boy are you gonna feel sorry for me when I keel over suddenly." That led to a simple test (tsh) which revealed a 144 score. Normal high (hypo) is something like 5.6. This doctor who called me, out of breath and with his hair on fire, asked me how I felt. "Oh" I said, like I'm about 50." He said I really should feel like shit, and probably be in the hospital. That was surprising. You believe me? Really? I had been walking in a coma, trying to work and raise kids. For three years if I wasn't at work I was sleeping in my car or going to bed as soon as I got home. 

Yeah Jeryn, since your post that number has gone up into the 70's. Maybe it isn't as statistically significant as you thought, but it was a number high enough that it caught my attention too. Maybe we should be tracking cause of death as well. Remember if it's me to send a note to the department of energy, eh?

Jeryn Beringsmith Byrne wrote:

Many more wonder about thyroid connection.  I deal w/thyroid issues, too.  Father and sisters to be included.  We all or should know back in the day Aerojet just dropped its waste out in the fields.  Little did we realize the seepage into the water tables.  I think those who left RC may have lucked out, but no guarantee.  As peasants living outside 'the castle' we may never know and maybe it could be something else.  I just wonder.

Please, have yourselves checked.  Thyroid problems are a real pain.

Add me to the list taking synthetic thyroid.  Love feeling "normal" again:)

I rode the hyper & hypo thyroid train.  Hyper is a real pain, but hypo is not your friend, so don't be misled.   No joke, it is something to keep an eye on.

I made a mistake above; The book about Hanford I meant to recommend is Plutopia, not Plutocracy.

Chad Mckeown and I both have thryoid problems, my mother, our oldest son Justin, and our daughter Autumn.  

Add me to the list as well, been taking one 150 MCG Levothyroxine every day for the last 20 years. Without the medication it's diffcult to do anything physical. Both Aerojet and Mather AFB are on the Federal Superfund Cleanup list for toxic chemicals. I left RC in 1980 when I moved to Santa Clara and haven't been back since. My parents continued to live in RC until my Dad passed away from cancer in 2001, then my Mom moved to Florida and died at 90. My parents issued  a complaint about the water with the Board of Supervisors in 1968/69 with little success. Citizens Utilities had good lawyers and stalled any investigation into water quality. From that point on my parents only used bottled water for cooking and drinking, and as I said my Mom was 90 when she passed away in 2012. If anyone still lives in RC the best thing to do is drink bottled water and stay away from tap water. Next best thing is move away but a lot of places in California and the country for that matter, are facing the same water quality problems. If I had known that this many classmates were passing away I would have said something sooner. Rod Meneley '71

Just did some quick back of the envelope calculations. On average for the US, by the age of 63, about 17% of males have died and 11% of females (This is from actuarial tables for 2013). Average across both sexes about 14%. For our class, there were 550 folks listed on the class list (this includes folks who did not graduate at CHS). There were profiles on 225, and death notices for 73 as of this posting. When somebody died the profile was removed so there is no overlap here. So of the 298 classmates we have information on, nearly 25% have died, well above the national average.

My methodology is hardly scientific and you could poke holes in my assumptions, but this is a quick look at the stats.

Mike

I went to the EPA website and found some information you may want to be aware of with regard to Aerojet General and the groundwater contamination. The information was found at the following link but when I try to access the map I get an error message.

https://yosemite.epa.gov/r9/sfund/r9sfdocw.nsf/vwsoalphabetic/Aerojet+General+Corp.?OpenDocument