Erin Brockovich Investigates Mysterious Illness in New York [Video]

Erin Brockovich and several other environmentalist have launched an investigation into a mysterious illness that has been afflicting a growing number of girls at a New York high school. More than a dozen girls have been diagnosed with conversion disorder and Brockovich believes it may have something to do with a chemical spill that occurred in the area more than 40-years ago.

The NY Daily News reports that last fall 12 girls were diagnosed with conversion disorder, a psychological condition that causes physical symptoms like jerky tics. Three more girls have complained of similar symptoms since then.

The New York Health Department said that the there was “no evidence of environmental or infection as the cause of the girls’ illness” and that “the school is served by a public water system. … and environmental exposure would affect many people.”

But Brockovich isn’t convinced.

Brockovich says that a train spilled cyanide and trichloroethene about three miles from Le Roy High School in the 1970s and that may be the cause of the girl’s mysterious symptoms.

Brockovich told ABC:

“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.”

Don Miller, whose daughter has been diagnosed with conversion disorder, said:

“We’re just trying to eliminate everything, and (Brockovich) wants to eliminate that it’s the environment. It’s a possibility and she wants to either prove it is or it isn’t something in the environment… We don’t really agree with (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.”

Brockovich, a former beauty queen turned environmentalist, gained international fame when her case involving contaminated drinking water in California was turned into a movie starring Julia Roberts.

Do you think Brokovich will be able to help the girls in New York?

Here’s a report from ABC.