Sick from dust

“THEY COULD AS WELL call the undertaker for me when they start digging the marl.”

That was the ominous warning from 86-year-old Pearl Jackman last August when Arawak Cement Company started clearing a large tract of land upwind of her home at Bromefield, St Lucy, in preparation for the start of quarrying.

Her home, like those of dozens of her neighbours in the village where she has lived since 1947, was inundated with dust.

Yesterday, her grandson Cristopher Jackman reported that Pearl was now undergoing treatment in the United States for major respiratory complications, and her family had decided against letting her return home on April 14 as scheduled because doctors had warned that a return to the same conditions could hasten her death.  (RRM)

Please read the full story in today’s Weekend Nation, or in the eNATION edition.