Suit claims emissions from oil wells under Beverly Hills High caused cancer.

Former students of Beverly Hills High School recently filed suit against several oil and gas companies, the school district, and the city of Beverly Hills, claiming that they were poisoned by emissions from oil wells located under the school campus that have been emitting toxic chemical fumes for decades. (Moss v. Venoco, Inc., No. BC 297083 (Cal., Los Angeles County Super. Ct. filed June 9, 2003).)

In addition, nearly 300 people who attended, worked at, or lived near the school have filed administrative claims with the city and its school district. Nearly half of these claimants have been diagnosed with cancer; the remainder are suffering from autoimmune diseases and other chronic health problems.

The Westlake Village, California, law firm of plaintiff attorney Ed Masry began investigating the case when its research director, Erin Brockovich, learned that a 1992 Beverly Hills graduate and several of her classmates had been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma and other types of cancer. A firm employee collected air samples on the high school's campus and sent them to a laboratory for analysis. The results showed high levels of toxic chemicals--including benzene and toluene--and radioactive materials, according to the complaint.

Masry said the rates of some types of cancers his clients suffer--which also include non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and thyroid cancer--are "way over the national average."

Oil and natural gas reserves were discovered in the Los Angeles area, including Beverly Hills, in the mid-19th century. The region experienced a drilling boom in the first half of the 20th century, and oil derricks, including one on Beverly Hills High School property, are a common sight in suburban communities. The high school campus contains 18 working oil wells and 25 abandoned ones.

In a statement following the filing of the claims, the school district's superintendent, Gwen Gross, announced that results from preliminary air quality tests conducted by the South Coast Air Quality Management District (AQMD) showed that levels of the alleged toxic gases were "well below" limits set by the state. "The district has been given no credible testing information that contradicts the AQMD findings. In fact, several of the allegations made by lawyers for the claimants have proven inaccurate so far," Gross said.

The city hired the environmental engineering firm of Camp, Dresser, McKee (CDM) to conduct additional tests, and these also showed no elevated levels of toxic gas. In a report released in late May, CDM researchers said they found "no basis for believing that the ambient air on the campus is adversely impacted by oil well operations or that exposure to air on the campus presents any different potential health impact than exposure to air elsewhere in the Los Angeles Basin."

Medical experts have also questioned the claimants' allegations. "The observed numbers of Hodgkin's lymphoma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and thyroid cancer among white residents were within the expected range compared to other whites of similar socioeconomic status, gender, and age, although at the upper limits of normal. Results could not be computed for any cancers occurring in non-whites because there were too few cases," wrote epidemiologist Wendy Cozen, an assistant professor of preventive medicine with the University of Southern California Cancer Surveillance Program, which tracks cancer cases diagnosed in Los Angeles County.

However, Cozen noted that additional research would be needed to rule out the cancer cluster claims.

"This type of neighborhood analysis has some limitations," Cozen wrote. "It is possible that residents moved out of Beverly Hills and were diagnosed with cancer while living in other areas and that persons now residing in Beverly Hills in the studied age group never attended the high school. This problem of misclassification of residence makes it somewhat difficult to draw inferences about the Beverly Hills High School alumni."

Additional air sampling tests are planned throughout the summer.

Masry's firm became famous after winning a multimillion-dollar settlement in 1996 for residents of Hinkley, California, who claimed that their drinking water had been polluted by a toxic industrial solvent leaching from a nearby gas compressor station. The case became the subject of a Hollywood movie named for research manager Brockovich. At the time, she was a law clerk at the firm and discovered, while looking through the files of the firm's clients, a possible link between the solvent and illnesses suffered by Hinkley residents.