Brockovich, Masry Take On Beverly Hills Over Oil Fumes

Erin Brockovich and attorney Ed Masry on Monday filed 23 claims against the Beverly Hills school system and city government, alleging that toxic fumes from an oil-drilling rig on the local high school campus have caused cancers in former students.

A handful of TV cameras were on hand in Beverly Hills to catch the latest appearance by Brockovich, who inspired an eponymous movie about a water pollution case that won the residents of Hinkley, Calif., a $333-million settlement from Pacific Gas & Electric. Julia Roberts won the best actress Academy Award for her portrayal of Brockovich.

Brockovich said as many as 300 claims could eventually be filed on behalf of alumni who attended the school between 1975 and 1997 and have been treated for Hodgkin’s disease, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, and thyroid, breast and other cancers.

The Beverly Hills Unified School District and the South Coast Air Quality Management District have disputed findings by Brockovich and Masry that the active oil rig under the athletic fields at Beverly Hills High School emitted high levels of benzene and other cancer-causing chemicals.

Parties who plan to sue government entities must first file administrative claims. The city and the school district have 45 days to respond, said Ward Benshoof, an attorney representing the district.

“We’ll be asking the claimant for some information,” Benshoof said.

Masry said his Westlake Village firm expects to file lawsuits against several oil companies in the next few weeks, then add Beverly Hills and the school district later. The claims did not specify damage figures.

Gwen Gross, district superintendent, said the AQMD and environmental consultants hired by the district have done several air tests. “In all cases,” she said, “the levels were well below health limits established by state officials.”

The contention that oil rig emissions were causing cancer in Beverly Hills High alums came to light in January. The suggestion shook the affluent community.

Masry & Vititoe, the law firm where Brockovich is director of research, held meetings to court potential clients, drawing about 750 participants. Health concerns prompted one set of parents to remove their son from a school baseball team. Many other students and parents have pushed the district to conduct thorough testing of the site.

Al Stewart, a Dallas attorney working with the Masry firm on the case, said their epidemiological research has found unexpectedly high cancer rates among graduates of the school.

Masry and Brockovich said they have identified 250 cancer cases among people who attended the school between 1975 and 1997. An estimated 11,500 students graduated during those years. The firm has also found 40 cases of cancer among teachers.

Stewart said that the rate of Hodgkin’s lymphoma among the former Beverly Hills students was 20.3 times higher than the national average; thyroid cases, he added, were 17.8 times higher than the national average.

But Wendy Cozen, a professor of preventive medicine at USC, called such risk figures improbably high.

“It’s impossible to evaluate their numbers without seeing exactly how they did their calculations and what they based them on,” Cozen said.

Cozen, who is working on an analysis of the cancer risks among Beverly Hills residents, said that “some preliminary data show no increased risk of Hodgkin’s disease compared to other high-social-class neighborhoods.”

Wealthy people with few siblings are at higher risk of getting Hodgkin’s disease, noted Thomas M. Mack, also a USC professor of preventive medicine. Mack, Cozen’s husband, said he was hired as a consultant recently by a law firm working for Venoco, the small independent operator of the campus oil rig.

Mack said it can be difficult to establish a link between particular chemicals and cancers or between oil wells and cancers.

“I told the lawyer for Venoco that I didn’t find any reason to be concerned about exposure from the oil well,” he said.