Erin Brockovich Launches Investigation Into Tic Illness Affecting N.Y. Teenagers
By KATIE MOISSE (@katiemoisse)
Jan. 27, 2012

Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has launched her own investigation into the mysterious illness causing facial tics and verbal outbursts among 15 teenagers in Le Roy, N.Y.

Most of the teens have been diagnosed with conversion disorder -- a psychological condition that causes physical symptoms such as jerky movements, or tics, convulsions and even paralysis. But Brockovich suspects groundwater contamination from a chemical spill from more than 40 years ago may be behind the Tourette-like symptoms.

"They have not ruled everything out yet," Brockovich told USA Today. "The community asked us to help, and this is what we do."

Don Miller, whose 16-year-old daughter, Katie, still suffers from debilitating tics, said his sister contacted Brockovich for help.

"We're just trying to eliminate everything, and she wants to eliminate that it's the environment," said Miller. "It's a possibility and she wants to either prove it is or it isn't something in the environment."

Brockovich, who famously linked a cluster of cancer cases in California to contaminated drinking water prompting an Oscar-winning movie starring Julia Roberts, said a derailed train spilled cyanide and trichloroethene within about three miles of Le Roy High School in 1970. All 15 of the affected teenagers -- 14 girls and one boy -- attended the school when they started showing symptoms last fall.

"When I read reports like this that the New York Department of Health and state agencies were well-aware of the spill and you don't do water testing or vapor extraction tests, you don't have an all-clear," Brockovich told USA Today.

An investigation by the New York Department of Health found "no evidence of environmental or infection as the cause of the girls' illness," according to department spokesman Jeffrey Hammond. "The school is served by a public water system. ... An environmental exposure would affect many people."

Doctors also ruled out Pandas -- a neurological disorder linked to streptococcal infections -- and the Guardasil HPV vaccine, which many of the girls did not receive, Hammond said.

The school was tested for volatile organic compounds by an independent company. But "people are free to pursue additional environmental testing," Hammond said.

Twelve of the teens -- all of them girls -- have been diagnosed with conversion disorder, in which the emotional response to a stressful situation manifests itself in physical symptoms. Three new suspected cases are still being examined. Women are more likely to get conversion disorder than men, and teens are at a higher risk than adults. But some parents want a second opinion.

"We don't really agree with it," Miller said of the diagnosis. "Down the road, who knows. But for them to give that diagnosis, they have to rule everything else out. And they haven't done that."

The possibility of an environmental trigger has been bolstered by reports of similar symptoms in two teens living in Corinth, a town 250 miles from Le Roy. The girls started showing symptoms in May, around the same time they passed through Le Roy on their way to a softball tournament in Ohio.

"We have two girls out here that were showing these symptoms before those girls," said Randall Nicholson, whose daughter Alycia continues to have tics and even seizures. "Is it just a coincidence? Is this the same as what they have or are we dealing with two completely different animals here?"

Nicholson said it's been hard for his daughter, who just turned 16.

"She's so excited about getting to drive. How do you tell her, 'No, you can't."

If it is conversion disorder, there are treatments. Psychotherapy and stress management can improve the symptoms, which usually subside within a few weeks.

Miller said his daughter Katie has good days and bad days.

"On Wednesday I brought her to cheerleading practice and she was fine. But when she got home, she had verbal ticks for almost an hour -- just loud verbal ticks," he said. Katie is still attending school but spends half her time at home sleeping, exhausted from her uncontrollable symptoms, Miller said. "Yesterday she seemed better, but who knows today."

Erin Brockovich Launches Investigation Into Tic Illness Affecting N.Y. Teenagers - ABC News