September is childhood cancer awareness month, but we're always aware of it where I live. Lots of kids here, in the area surrounding the Santa Susana Field Lab near Los Angeles, have rare forms of pediatric cancer. I believe it's a cancer cluster caused by the Santa Susana Field Lab's radioactive and chemical contamination. 

When my daughter was first diagnosed with an exceptionally rare form of leukemia (PH+ ALL) in 2014, I assumed she'd be the only kid with cancer from our area because her doctors had already told me how rare pediatric cancer is and because Children's Hospital Los Angeles is very big and very busy.

Only 15,000 kids are diagnosed with cancer each year in the United States. There are 74,000,000 children in America. Kids with cancer make up 0.02% of the entire childhood population under age eighteen. Just for reference, about 2% of kids in the US have a peanut allergy, or about 1,500,000 kids. 

The first family we met at Children's Hospital Los Angeles lived near our high school. The second family lived down the street. We met family after family who lived down the block, two blocks over, one mile, two miles, three miles. We met families at the park, at Costco, at our preschool, at our church. It seemed everywhere we went we met families whose children were currently in treatment, or who had fought cancer, or who had died from cancer. 

I remember asking one of my daughter's doctors about it, and they suggested that maybe I was experiencing the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon (when people notice something more after learning about it, like when you buy a blue car and then you notice blue cars all the time on the freeway after). But that's like saying you buy a Ferrari, and then you notice Ferraris all the time. The thing is, Ferraris are pretty rare cars, and if you notice Ferraris everywhere you go, then it's not a normal situation. Pediatric cancer isn't normal. It's rare. To see so much cancer in the community isn't a normal situation. 

Not long after, I met scientists whose studies supported what I was seeing. A federally-funded epidemiological study by Dr. Morgenstern showed that residents living within two miles of the Santa Susana Field Lab have a 60% higher cancer incidence rate compared to residents living five miles away. His study proves that the closer you live to the SSFL, the more likely you are to get cancer from it. 

I also learned about why children get cancer so easily. These quotes are shocking and infuriating about how radiation, like the kind near my home, impacts children:

• Children… are at special risk due to their smaller body mass and rapid physical development, both of which magnify their vulnerability to known or suspected carcinogens, including radiation. (1)
• Findings document that the very young are especially susceptible to adverse effects of radiation exposure, even at relatively low doses. (2)

After talking with world-renowned biologist Mary Olson from the Gender and Radiation Impact Project, I also learned about how girls are disproportionately harmed by radiation exposure. 

It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that the radioactive and chemical contamination at the Santa Susana Field Lab is harming our kids and giving them cancer.

Please help us get the site's complete cleanup and protect our kids by sharing this petition with a friend who hasn't signed it yet.