Home FEATURE STORY Ruben Luna Bruce Brummel Libby Thompson Bill Sinn Dave Erickson Tom Schultz Anna Sutton Anonymous Dana Weese Bill Fleming Update:Nicor denies contamination issue again Denise CrosbyDenise Crosby weighs in. Find out more. The Documents View Gallery Download .pdfs The Culprit? Workers at the Nicor plant in Aurora believe methylene chloride was leaking into drinking water at the plant How can your water go bad ? Without a fairly simple device, it’s easy for polluted water to back up into your shower. Download the page Read More Peril in the pipes Backflow problems have had serious consequences in the United States. Find out more. Additional Links Nicor Co. Information via Google Nicor Corporate Homepage OSHA Homepage Credits Story by:
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Dana Weese, 40 Employee: 1993 - about 1995 Dana Weese worked at Nicor’s Aurora facility from 1993 to 1995. She was shocked when she found out that other former Nicor employees were suffering from the same pains and digestive problems she has dealt with for years. “I just can’t believe how many of us are sick,” she said. When Dana Weese left Nicor in 2001, her grandmother was upset she would leave a well-paying job at a steady company.

But during the day, Weese had so much pain in the middle of her stomach it left her doubled over. And according to Weese, her boss wasn’t too sympathetic when she took sick days.

Although she left Nicor to work for her husband, she couldn’t shake her illnesses.

She had to give up going to restaurants because the food would leave her running to the bathroom.

“I had an accident where I almost didn’t make it (to the bathroom),” she said. “And it’s totally embarrassing.”

For years, doctors could find problems, but never the cause.

In 2002, doctors discovered nine fibroid tumors in her uterus. They cut her open and removed the nine tumors —one as big as a grapefruit.

From one office to the next, doctors looked everywhere: down her throat; “up the other way,” as she put it; she even swallowed a camera the size of a Tootsie Roll.

A doctor thought she might be a diabetic so he had her pricking her finger for months before that was ruled out.

In October 2005, her doctor decided her gall bladder needed to be removed. The gall bladder came out, but the pain stayed.

Then, she read an article in the local newspaper about some of her former Nicor co-workers, who were protesting that the company was ignoring their illnesses. When she contacted Bruce Brummel, the leader of the protest, he started listing off the illnesses workers were having.

Weese started crying.

“It’s like: I have that, I have that,” she said. “It’s just bizarre— there’s no way Bruce could have known all the different doctors, all the different symptoms.”

When she worked in Aurora between 1993 and 1995, Weese drank the water, which workers believe was tainted with methylene chloride leaking from faulty plumbing. Nicor has denied there was a problem.

But Weese thinks back on the soups, ice and cups of water, then thinks about her own medical problems.

“When I quit there, my grandma was devastated,” she said. “Now when I tell all this stuff, she can’t believe it. I can’t either.”