Victims
of TCE Exposure....A Lasting Legacy's History
Who are the members of the organization
V.O.T.E.?
How did V.O.T.E. get started?
WHO WE ARE: V.O.T.E
Board of Directors October 2003-2006:
President
and Founder Amanda Evans amandaevans@victimsoftceexposure.org
Amanda
spent several years working in a part-time administrative
capacity
for Technical Assistance for Community Services (TACS)
in Portland, Oregon.
At TACS Amanda learned about non-profit management. Amanda
moved to the Los
Angeles area in 1997 where she began working in the television
and film
industry. In November of 2001, Amanda's father Gary Evans,
former Vice
President of Creative and Licensing at View-Master, was
diagnosed with a
rare form of cancer that he attributed to the water he
drank at View-Master
where he worked for 24 years. Her father passed away in
February of 2002.
Soon afterwards Amanda founded V.O.T.E to help the former
workers, employees
of Powell's Bookstore and families that reside along Fanno
Creek cope with
the tragedy of being exposed to trichloroethylene at work
and at home.
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Secretary Cindy Evans cindyevans@victimsoftceexposure.org
Widow of former View-Master Vice President of Creative and Licensing Gary Evans. Cindy is also the Director of Patient Care Services at Legacy Good Samaritan Hospital in Portland.
Treasurer Charles O’Connor charlesoconnor@victimsoftceexposure.org
Charles is a C.P.A. and Professor of Accounting at Pacific University
Director
Shirley Barley shirleybarley@victimsoftceexposure.org
Shirley
has tremendous experience in public service and volunteerism.
She is the director of the Marshall Street Group Home
in Portland Oregon a group home that serves mentally challenged
adults. Shirley also volunteered for "Our House"
an AIDS Hospice here in the
Portland area and Acorn House, another AIDS hospice, in
Eugene, Oregon.
Shirley became involved with the View-Master contamination
when she helped
Amanda care for her dying father. Shirley has helped with
coordinating with city officials regarding the VOTE worker
memorials, helping with the organization of the public
actions and recently joined the VOTE Memorial Committee.
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Director
Tom Griffith, Phd tomgriffith@victimsoftceexposure.org
Tom
is a retired Professor of Physics of Pacific University.
Tom has been a life longfamily friend of the Evans family
since he and Gary taught at Pacific University before
Gary began working in the View-Master creative department.
Tom's background in science has been instrumental in helping
VOTE to understand the scientific studies done on
TCE. Tom's efforts have brought a very important element
to Victims of TCE Exposure that of understanding the importance
of acquiring grant money for technical assistance. Tom's
work has been particularly useful in communicating with
the Oregon Department of Human Services and Dr. Jan Semenza
regarding the progress of their studies on the former
View-Master workers. Tom has acted as Secretary of the
View-Master Citizen's Advisory Group the past year and
was recently voted again to be Secretary this year.
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Director
Peggy Harris peggyharris@victimsoftceexposure.org
Peggy retired this year from being an elementary
school teacher in Hillsboro. Peggy has been a life time
friend of the Evans
family and was instrumental in helping the Evans family
cope with Gary's
illness and passing. Peggy's energy and compassion continued
on when she
helped Amanda organize VOTE's first public action which
was the celebrity
silent auction in October 2002. Peggy continues to help
VOTE plan and
execute public activities - currently she is on the View-Master
Workers
Memorial Committee.
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Director
and Founder Cindi Phelps
cindiphelps@victimsoftceexposure.org
Wife
of former Tyco Shipping Department Manager Steve Phelps
was the development director for the Fort Stevens Museum.
After learning of the TCE contamination at the former
View-Master plant and her husband losing 1 and 1/2 kidneys
to renal cell carcinoma Cindi became involved in helping
to organize former workers. Cindi was very
instrumental in assisting Amanda with organizing the celebrity
silent auction and in deciding to form VOTE. During Steve's
illness's Cindi became interested in Nursing and is currently
pursuing her nursing degree.
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Director
Steve Phelps stevephelps@victimsoftceexposure.org
Steve
worked in the shipping department of the former View-Master
plant when it was Tyco for 8 years. When Steve left Tyco
and began working with another shipping company he was
diagnosed with kidney cancer. The diagnosis would lead
Steve to battle four bouts of cancer that involved losing
1 1/2 kidneys , several surgeries to remove tumors in
his lungs and Interluken II treatments. Three years later
Steve is still in
remission and cancer free. Steve's dedication to helping
his former
co-workers is unparalleled. His compassion and positive
attitude has helped
former workers who need to speak to another worker who's
"been there".
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Advisory Board
Elle McKay ellemckay@victimsoftceexposure.org
Rocky Teague rockyteague@victimsoftceexposure.org
Rocky
worked at the former View-Master plant for 36 years as
a supervisor of the injection molding department. Rocky's
wife Doris also worked at the plant. Doris passed away
from breast cancer after working at the plant. Rocky has
also experienced health issues he blames on his exposure
to TCE in the drinking water at View-Master. Rocky's
involvement and dedication to coming to meetings has made
him an asset to VOTE's cause. Rocky was voted to be the
View-Master Citizen's Advisory Group's Co- Chairman with
Chair Tina Paddock at the CAG's October 2004 meeting.
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How
we got started:
In March of 1998 Hall Street Associates
was doing some soil and water
testing around the View-Master plant in Beaverton, Oregon.
The landowners
were doing the testing because they had been informed
by Mattel, who was
operating the facility, that Mattel planned to vacate
the Hall street plant
and move manufacturing to Mexico. Water and soil testing
is routine for
leasing a manufacturing plant to new companies who might
lease a vacated
facility.
The water test results were alarming.
The test results showed that a
volatile organic compound was registering at levels far
above the federal
safety standards set by the EPA. This volatile organic
compound was a common
chemical degreasing solvent known as Trichloroethylene
(TCE). The presence
of TCE registered at 1670 parts per billion (essentially
1670 drops of TCE
per Olympic size swimming pool) Trichloroethylene at that
time was listed as
a "probable human carcinogen" due to scientific
studies done on lab animals
that found that TCE caused kidney and liver tumors in
rats and mice. For
this reason he federal safety standard for TCE in drinking
water was 5
ppb.View-Master employees were drinking TCE at 1670ppb
on a daily basis.
Hall Street Associates informed
Mattel who promptly shut down the drinking
fountains and bathrooms and supplied the plant's employees
with bottled
water and portable toilets. Mattel then switched over
the entire plant to
city water and followed through with it's plan to shut
down the plant's
manufacturing by the end of March in 1998. However they
still operated the
shipping department out of the Hall Street facility until
early 2002.
Oregon's Department of Water Quality headed by the Oregon
Health Division
fined Mattel $20,000,00 for operating a contaminated water
system. The
Oregon Center for Environmental Health (OCEH) also filed
an intent to sue
for operating a contaminated water system in violation
of the 1990 Safe
Water Act. But the OCEH was prevented from going forward
since Mattel had
discontinued the use of the well water after the discovery.
In November of 2001 Amanda Evans
spoke with her father and found that he had
been diagnosed with inoperable liver cancer. This was
shocking news as her
father Gary Evans didn't drink or smoke and had no history
of liver cancer
in his family. When asked how this could have happened
her father told her
it had something to do with the water at work. This was
the first Amanda had
heard of the discovery of the solvent trichloroethylene
in the drinking
water at the View-Master plant where Amanda's father worked
for 24 years.
All efforts were made to help Gary
battle his cancer but it was too advanced
and Gary Evans died at home in February of 2002 at the
age of 61 only two
months after his diagnosis. During this time Amanda researched
all she could
on the TCE found in the water at the View-Master Hall
Street facility in
Beaverton, Oregon. What she learned was that the chemical
was suspected to
be very dangerous to the human body. In fact research
was showing evidence
that TCE was suspected of affecting all of the body's
major systems. Amanda
was urged to create a documentary on the story by associates
in the
entertainment community in Los Angeles where Amanda was
working as an Art
Department Coordinator and Assistant Art Director.
Amanda began looking to find what
actions, if any, had been taken on behalf
of the former workers to help them to deal with their
long-term chemical
exposure. She found that the Oregon Department of Human
Services (ODHS)
formerly the Oregon Health Division was applying for federal
funding to do a
health study on the former workers. She also learned via
several of her
father's former co- workers of the actions taken by Jane
Haley and David
Paul of the Oregon Center for Environmental Health. With
this information
she set off to interview all of the key players in an
attempt to find how
this could have happened.
Amanda also knew an organization
had to be formed to advocate for the
workers. In May of 2002 she was introduced to Cindi Phelps,
wife of former
View-Master Shipping Supervisor Steve Phelps who was battling
tumors in his
lungs from his kidney cancer for the fourth time. Amanda
and Cindi put their
heads together and decided to call the group "Victims
of TCE Exposure.A
Lasting Legacy" ( V.O.T.E) and began organizing a
silent auction to raise
funds for the cause. The fundraiser was a success, and
by September of 2003
V.O.T.E had appointed a founding board of directors and
on April 20, 2004
V.O.T.E received tax exempt status as a non-profit organization.
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