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Many people are sensitive to VOCs at levels most people aren't. I know several people that cannot be around strong synthetic fragrance (aka, unregulated VOCs)

Many people are sensitive to VOCs at levels most people aren't. I know several people that cannot be around strong synthetic fragrance (aka, unregulated VOCs) or it makes them feel ill. Whether it's a barrel of waste, or just chemical laden construction materials, most likely she was very much experiencing real health problems. Her blog is kind of hard to follow, and she seems a little nutty, but if her boss indeed tried to 'hook her up' with somebody, that seems like it could be considered harassment in some form.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago
> Many people are sensitive to VOCs at levels most people aren't. Yes, but she’s making huge leaps to claim that her 3rd-floor apartment is being filled with VOCs from an old toxic waste container that may or may not still be buried somewhere on the 100 acre property where her apartments were built. If VOCs were truly the cause, and we don’t know that, it would be far more likely to be coming from construction materials or the furniture in her apartment. I’m not doubting that she’s experiencing distressing symptoms. I am very skeptical of her conclusion that it’s due to buried toxic waste somewhere nearby and her ongoing battles against the city and apartment builders. This same person has been in the headlines for 3 different victimization stories in the past 6 months: The toxic waste story and her ensuing battle with the city, the time her work phone was subpoenaed for a legal case and lawyers wouldn’t let her selectively delete files from evidence, and now her harassment lawsuit against Apple. The harassment claims should be investigated like any others. However, before we grab our pitchforks in the court of public opinion it’s important to know the context of her actions. When someone is becoming an extreme outlier victim in multiple situations and promoting her case vigorously on social media, skepticism is warranted.
- linuxftw 5y ago
  > she’s making huge leaps to claim that her 3rd-floor apartment is being filled with VOCs from an old toxic waste container I think part of her original argument in the case was that the cleanup was never actually performed, the city rubber-stamped the job, and that the entire site might actually be contaminated. She was getting the run around trying to investigate, everyone involved refused to look into any facet of the grounds. I don't recall if she provided any specific evidence of this causing a measurable affect in here apartment or not.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - dekhn 5y ago
    what you're basically saying is that her "claim that the cleanup wasn't really done is consistent with the visible evidence", but the reality is there are many more other more believable ways to explain the visible evidence than hers, which are more likely from a scientific perspective. Superfund sites like this are pretty well understood and characterized at this point, which ongoing monitoring and sampling done by multiple parties. The only way to see into this, however, is to get involved in local politics or hire lawyers to do some investigation. ashley instead appears to have done a terrible job at "investigation" and then threw a bunch of unrelated "facts and opinions" together to make it sound more legitimate. Here's an example of an actual superfund site that has had all sorts of problems that likely affected the health of people nearby: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/03/25/hunters-point-shipyard-residents-radiation-settlement/ https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/03/25/hunters-point-s... That's a legal case where actual legal people did actual real investigation and uncovered strong evidence of corruption. By the way the more you learn about what happened in the bay area in the 1940s-70s, the less surprised you should be by any of this, or why we exported semiconductor manufacturing.
    - linuxftw 5y ago
      > That's a legal case where actual legal people did actual real investigation and uncovered strong evidence of corruption. I think if there's evidence of corruption in one, that's evidence of corruption in all. The entire area needs an independent investigation IMO. Unfortunately, California is still struggling with basic things like electricity, so that's unlikely to happen any time soon.
      - dekhn 5y ago
        there's no reason to assume general corruption simply because of the Bayview Hunters Point debacle. The investigation would have to be federal, as it's Superfund, which is federal and supercedes local law.

PragmaticPulp 5y ago

> Many people are sensitive to VOCs at levels most people aren't. Yes, but she’s making huge leaps to claim that her 3rd-floor apartment is being filled with VOCs from an old toxic waste container that may or may not still be buried somewhere on the 100 acre property where her apartments were built. If VOCs were truly the cause, and we don’t know that, it would be far more likely to be coming from construction materials or the furniture in her apartment. I’m not doubting that she’s experiencing distressing symptoms. I am very skeptical of her conclusion that it’s due to buried toxic waste somewhere nearby and her ongoing battles against the city and apartment builders. This same person has been in the headlines for 3 different victimization stories in the past 6 months: The toxic waste story and her ensuing battle with the city, the time her work phone was subpoenaed for a legal case and lawyers wouldn’t let her selectively delete files from evidence, and now her harassment lawsuit against Apple. The harassment claims should be investigated like any others. However, before we grab our pitchforks in the court of public opinion it’s important to know the context of her actions. When someone is becoming an extreme outlier victim in multiple situations and promoting her case vigorously on social media, skepticism is warranted.

linuxftw 5y ago
> she’s making huge leaps to claim that her 3rd-floor apartment is being filled with VOCs from an old toxic waste container I think part of her original argument in the case was that the cleanup was never actually performed, the city rubber-stamped the job, and that the entire site might actually be contaminated. She was getting the run around trying to investigate, everyone involved refused to look into any facet of the grounds. I don't recall if she provided any specific evidence of this causing a measurable affect in here apartment or not.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- dekhn 5y ago
  what you're basically saying is that her "claim that the cleanup wasn't really done is consistent with the visible evidence", but the reality is there are many more other more believable ways to explain the visible evidence than hers, which are more likely from a scientific perspective. Superfund sites like this are pretty well understood and characterized at this point, which ongoing monitoring and sampling done by multiple parties. The only way to see into this, however, is to get involved in local politics or hire lawyers to do some investigation. ashley instead appears to have done a terrible job at "investigation" and then threw a bunch of unrelated "facts and opinions" together to make it sound more legitimate. Here's an example of an actual superfund site that has had all sorts of problems that likely affected the health of people nearby: https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/03/25/hunters-point-shipyard-residents-radiation-settlement/ https://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2021/03/25/hunters-point-s... That's a legal case where actual legal people did actual real investigation and uncovered strong evidence of corruption. By the way the more you learn about what happened in the bay area in the 1940s-70s, the less surprised you should be by any of this, or why we exported semiconductor manufacturing.
  - linuxftw 5y ago
    > That's a legal case where actual legal people did actual real investigation and uncovered strong evidence of corruption. I think if there's evidence of corruption in one, that's evidence of corruption in all. The entire area needs an independent investigation IMO. Unfortunately, California is still struggling with basic things like electricity, so that's unlikely to happen any time soon.
    - dekhn 5y ago
      there's no reason to assume general corruption simply because of the Bayview Hunters Point debacle. The investigation would have to be federal, as it's Superfund, which is federal and supercedes local law.