Smoker passes away from cancer; wife blames vehicle fumes
Ignatius Garcia was battling lung cancer for many years, and today, the cigarette smoker for about three decades passed away. His wife, Adelia Garcia, blames the Esso Gas station and the buses that park at the terminal for aggravating his condition. She wants the government to do something about the fumes that she believes has sickened and eventually killed her loved one.
Adelia Garcia, Wife of Ignatius Garcia
“He used to smoke cigarette.”
Jose Sanchez
“How many years did he smoke cigarette?”
Adelia Garcia
“I don’t know—long, long, long he smoke. But he stop smoke cigarette eleven years, no twelve years ago.”
Jose Sanchez
“Did he start when he was an adult about eighteen, nineteen years?”
Adelia Garcia
“I think so.”
Jose Sanchez
“So that’s about thirty years more or less of smoking.”
Adelia Garcia
“Something like that.”
Jose Sanchez
“It could have been because of the cigarettes?”
Adelia Garcia
“Yes, but when he gone da states and the doctor check up on lung cancer and doctor tell ah “Ignatius you want to live longer, just no deh in a place weh could irritate you cancer. The chemicals, smoke and thing like that. You know what happened here.”
Jose Sanchez
“You live near the bus stop.”
Adelia Garcia
“Yes. This is the problem.”
Jose Sanchez
“It’s not a good place for him to live?”
Adelia Garcia
“Yes. No good place. And the problem we have with the people at the station, the buses and the cars they park and come full gas and they no out the engine. You know that affect we a lot.”
Jose Sanchez
“So between the bus stop and the gas station is not the best place.”
Adelia Garcia
“Dat da no di best place. Only he know what happened but I will tell you, mek he know this affect lot of people. I know this affect people a lot. I want somebody come out and talk the same thing. I know this problem and I want this problem stop.”
Jose Sanchez
“So you prefer they move the gas station and the buses?”
Adelia Garcia
“Well, that I want, because I know they affect my two daughter. Yes, that is what I want. I appeal to the government look after this.”
The fifty-one year old died three weeks before his birthday. Garcia’s funeral service is scheduled for Saturday at two. His wife says that despite the toxic air that they breathe in the Pound Yard area, no one else in the family has been maligned by cancer.
