By:Scott Brinton
Stricken by leukemia, family joins battle against diesel-electric plant
William Reilly's life hangs in the balance of his blood.
Once a week, the bright, soft-spoken 18-year-old takes a terrifying car ride from his Merrick Woods home to Schneider Children's Hospital in New Hyde Park. At the medical center, William's doctors draw blood from his arm and study it under a microscope, searching for cancerous cells.
Since age 14, William has suffered from acute myelogenous leukemia, or AML, a rare, acute form of leukemia. AML strikes only 1 in 100,000 people under age 35, according to the Ohio Bureau of Health Surveillance, which conducted a case study of leukemia patients in Marion County this past summer.
William, a talented artist, should be studying movie-set creation at the Rhode Island School of Design right now. Instead, he lives at home with family, recovering from a bone-marrow transplant. And, as he makes the half-hour trip to Schneider Hospital, he anxiously wonders whether AML has returned.
Doctors must continually monitor William's blood for signs of leukemia because AML is so aggressive that it can begin attacking the body within a week.
AML is caused by a malignant change in cells that produce granulcytes, one type of white blood cell made in bone marrow. As they multiply, the leukemic cells fill up the bone marrow, stifling growth of normal white blood cells, which protect the body from infection. Then, the cancerous cells invade organs and tissues, especially the liver and spleen, according to the American Medical Association.
The first time William got AML at age 14, he was treated with a battery of chemotherapy drugs, which ravaged his body but saved his life. His cancer went into remission. Then, AML came back on Thanksgiving last year.
This time, William couldn't take chemotherapy.
Because of his earlier treatment, William suffered severe liver damage and congestive heart failure that caused permanent scarring. (He was under consideration for a heart transplant when leukemia returned.) His mom, Jennifer Reilly, described his heart as that "of an 80-year-old." Another dose of chemotherapy could very well kill William.
So, he took the only treatment option he had - bone-marrow transplant, a debilitating operation that would leave William immunosuppressed. That means he wouldn't be able to fight infection until his body accepted the donor marrow. On March 28 in Seattle, Wash., William was given the transplant, for which he received half the donor's marrow and kept half of his own. His leukemia went into remission.
Now, Jennifer Reilly said, "If he gets leukemia again, and the donor [marrow] doesn't kill it, the fight's over. He's 18."
His mother says that often during treatment over the years, his doctors remarked that he wouldn't make it through the night. But he battled back, even from comas lasting five days.
Jennifer Reilly said, "He's been through five years of torture and hell, and there are no words to explain it."
Now, William, his mother and father, William Sr., are ready to take on a new fight - the ongoing battle against Freeport Village's diesel-electric Power Plant No. 2.
Two 10,000-horsepower, diesel ship engines run the plant. The Fiat engines can produce as much diesel exhaust as 140 to 180 18-wheel tractor-trailers would per hour. The California Air Resources Board classifies diesel exhaust as a known carcinogen, meaning that it causes cancer. The federal Environmental Protection Agency calls it a likely carcinogen.
William grew up on Hedge Lane in the Old Lindenmere section of Merrick. From 1988 to 1999, he lived 1.1 miles from Plant No. 2. He got cancer in 1997.
Jennifer Reilly, 39, who only learned in recent weeks that the plant exists by reading the Herald, said she fears it might have, in some way, led to her son's disease.
She described her reaction when she found out about the plant: "I was infuriated. I was shaking. I had to go in the bathroom and cried. I didn't sleep the whole night, thinking maybe this is what" caused William's leukemia.
Jennifer, though, recognizes that proving such a claim is
difficult, if not impossible. Experts say that linking cancer to one source such as the Freeport plant, at least under the law, is troublesome because science often attributes cancer to a multitude of factors (for example, genetics and the environment).
Indeed, William is a survivor. He graduated Calhoun High School this June with a 92 average. While in Seattle, he studied in bed, determined to earn his diploma, despite the exhaustion and pain he endured.
William, soon to be 19, is like most teenagers. He wears a goatee and earrings. He loves listening to music, particularly the Dave Matthews Band. He's also a movie buff. His favorite film is "Pulp Fiction." And he enjoys spending time with his girlfriend, Shannon, who flew to Seattle five times while he underwent treatment.
There are differences, however.
Today, William must ingest 60 pills of varying medicines daily to survive. Because he's immunosuppressed, he can't touch a door handle at a public place for fear it might contain germs that his body cannot fight. He cannot go anywhere there's a crowd. He cannot meet anyone with a cold. He constantly must sanitize his hands with a disinfectant.
Believing the Freeport plant might have brought such misery, the Reilly family want Plant No. 2 closed.
They plan to write to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, which is now accepting written comments about a reworked, more-stringent operating permit for the plant. (The old permit, which will govern the plant until the new one takes effect, has no emissions standards.)
The Reillys also want to speak at a public hearing over the plant at 7:30 p.m., Monday, Oct. 22 at Freeport High School. And they are joining the Old Lindenmere Civic Association, which has led the fight against Plant No. 2 from the outset (see related article, "Merrick to make its case," page 13, and editorial, "Power-plant hearing: Be there," page 26).
Since January this year, people from throughout the Merricks, Bellmores and Freeport have sought to have pollution controls installed at the plant (it has none now) or have the plant shut down.
Freeport Mayor William Glacken has, to date, refused to close the plant or retrofit it with pollution controls. At a June village board meeting, Glacken said he didn't think there is evidence that diesel exhaust causes cancer.
The mayor's position angers Jennifer Reilly, because she believes the plant shouldn't operate if there's even a chance that its exhaust is
carcinogenic.
Studies, including the recent Marion County probe, suggest an
environmental connection, such as exposure to diesel exhaust, to acute myelogenous leukemia. According to the California Coalition for Clean Air, benzene, which is found in diesel exhaust, has been shown to cause AML.
Benzene in diesel exhaust is carried through the air in fine particulate matter, more commonly known as soot. Because of its extremely small size, particulate penetrates deep into the lungs when breathed in by humans. It is then absorbed into the bloodstream, where it is sent throughout the body.
Kevin Shannon, M.D., wrote in the 1997 Pediatric Environmental Health Research Conference Report that most childhood cancers are caused by "mutation events that are not inherited." That means they likely result from an environmental factor. In fact, only 4.6 percent of children with cancer inherit the disease from their parents, Shannon wrote.
William Reilly Sr., 42, who owns a construction company, said of Plant No. 2: "Personally, it makes me very angry. There are solutions at this plant."
He added, "I'd like to know who's responsible for this [the power plant]. Somebody should be held liable for it."
William Jr. says simply of the plant: "I definitely don't think it should be there."
That is why, with his remaining strength, William Jr. is joining the fight against the plant. And he will continue taking his life week to week, planning to attend the Rhode Island School of Design next fall.
