The data is in, but the jury is still out on why Whitmire residents have been suffering from so many gallbladder problems.

In lieu of Whitmire's regular Monday town council meeting, three Department of Health and Environmental Control employees presented what their agency has found in the matter since citizens first alerted the department of their gallbladder concerns.

Many residents had suspected Whitmire's environment, which includes a defunct mill and landfill, of causing a high number of gallbladder issues in the town's youth particularly.

But DHEC'S first step was showing that there were in fact a high number of gallbladder problems.

Resulting studies showed the number of annual gallbladder surgeries in area youth were sometimes triple the amount of surgeries in earlier years and in other counties, depending on the comparisons used.

The gallbladder issue has since become a question of why.

DHEC presented numerous slides with titles like “organic analytical results“ and gave data from several Whitmire areas of concern: its landfill, the site of the former mill, reported dumping sites and the school area.

WHAT DHEC FOUND

The school area

During research, DHEC got word that troops were in the school area in the late 1950's and 1960's.

A “Swift Strike“ training operation did, in fact, bring troops through the area. Also, an airstrip was used in the school area, but researchers found it to have had no ill effect on the town environment.

“