Advocates for an official investigation into fears of a "cancer cluster" at the Middlesex County high school say there are parallels to the notorious water system contamination in the Ocean County town that was blamed for more than 130 cases of childhood cancer in the 1990s. To get unlimited access, please subscribe or activate your digital account today. Keeping my fingers crossed!! I need your help Facebook. 3/31 UPDATE: Thanks to all of you, the post has gone viral. The Middlesex Sampling Plant is located at 239 Mountain Avenue in Middlesex, New Jersey. Komorek said some studies suggest a relationship between exposure to PCBs and a greater risk of developing brain tumors. is continuing. Radiological assessments will be conducted throughout the . Never did I think when I started this post I would hit this number! Angela M. DeCillis, a Colonia High School graduate, Class of '95. All rights reserved, concluded there was no dangerous or carcinogenic radiation there, 107 Cases of Brain Tumors Led to Investigation at NJ High School: Mayor Announces Results, Study of NJ HS at Center of Cancer Cluster Mystery Shows No Radioactivity: Mayor, Grad Inks Deal to Bring Free Brain Scans to NJ Community in Cancer Cluster Mystery, 108 people from over a period of three decades ending in the early 2000s, no traces of radioactivity found in the school, Next Winter Storm May Bring Even More Snow to NYC Area This Week: What to Know. Lupiano and his wife, also is a Colonia High School grad, also developed brain tumors. All three have been diagnosed with a brain tumor. We recognized that communication guidance was an area that warranted attention, said Patrick Breysse, director of the C.D.C.s National Center for Environmental Health and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, in an email statement. The agencies acknowledged their concerns regarding the potential cancer cluster, but are not conducting any testing aside from radiation and radon that the Township undertook, even though the school remains open. Here's What to Know About Bruce Willis' Diagnosis, The Wanted's Tom Parker Dies at 33 After Brain Tumor Battle, Next Winter Storm May Bring Even More Snow to NYC Area This Week: What to Know. His . That means we have an incident rate of 15 cases out of 5,000 people. All of them graduated from Colonia High School, and they all have brain tumors, ABC7 reported. For public health officials, resolving this tension is the macro version of bedside manner: How do you reassure a frightened patient that nothings wrong? Colonia High School is 1 of 3 high schools in . Im working on a big piece for Vice News which will air on their network in a week or two, and the Star Ledger is running a multipage story which should drop this Sunday. Even so, these constraints do not relieve public health departments from their duty to do all they can to address their constituents concerns even if they cant deliver definitive answers and even if they are under strain themselves. Middlesex Sampling Plant to Colonia High School in New Jersey. Despite the number of cases, officials first have to determine if scientific evidence indeed indicates a connection between the school grounds and the brain tumors. My three siblings graduated class of 91, 95, and 98. We have to accept the results.. The town announced in May that there were no traces of radioactivity found in the school. Colonia High School 180 East Street Colonia, NJ 07067 Phone: 732-499-6500 Fax: 732-574-2575. He was 52 years old. In April, Colonia High School in Colonia, New Jersey, made national headlines after more than 100 former students and staff reported online that they had been diagnosed with brain tumors, in a . Marion Renault is a health and science journalist. Above, Jason Wisinski, with his daughter, Haylee, lost his wife and sister-in-law, both Colonia High alumnae, to primary brain tumors. Cancer-Causing Toxins Found in New Tests at NJ School, Mom Says, Raising Concerns. This is 18 hours a day. Colonia High School entrance. While I dont know for sure if they are related, being graduates of the High School, living next to the HS, and/or having rare cancers is something I feel needs to be explored further. There never was a cancer cluster, Mr. McCormac said in June. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. (Gosselin Funeral Home) In August 2021, DeCillis received . The answer? We all of us attended Colonia High School. Pollution gets cleaned up or dissipates into the air. (Google Maps), "Our agencies are aware of the concerns raised by local residents, particularly as they relate to Colonia High School, and are partnering with Mayor McCormac and Woodbridge Township to better understand the issue and determine whether any relevant environmental exposure concerns are present at the site," the DOH and DEP said in a joint statement. As previously stated, there is basically one medically proven cause of rare brain tumors like ours radiation. They asked us to do this, and we did it. Lupiano's quest for information took him to Facebook last month, and that list of people who went to or worked at Colonia High School - and have a primary brain tumor - is now closing in on 100 . An investigation has . Several people raised questions to me about the state health departments analysis. In the 1980[s], the contaminated residential properties were cleaned up, and the excavated soil was stored at the site in a specially constructed pile, known as the Vicinity Properties (VP) pile," the USACE New York Division's website states. The plant received uranium, thorium and beryllium ores between the 1940s and 1967, which is the same year Colonia High School was built. After meeting with Komorek, Massimino sent a notice to parents Monday about her results from additional environmental testing at the school. Find Us . We need action! Because the school remains open, we demand greater urgency to find out if potentially harmful substances are harming our children and staff at Colonia High School.". Schools in North Brunswick and Trenton, as well as in Greenwich, Conn., and Northport, N.Y., were discovered to have been constructed on or near contaminated soils. ou can send me a private message using FB Messenger or call/text me at (732)718-4753. 3/25 UPDATE: The meetings with County, State, and Federal agencies are going well. On May 26, Mayor McCormac and state environmental and public health officials held a news conference in the high schools gymnasium to share their final determination: There was no indication of any potential radiological hazards that would warrant further inquiry. It was an entry point for uranium ores that were "imported for use in the nations early atomic energy program, were assayed at the Middlesex Sampling Plant and then shipped to other sites for processing," according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New York Division. Superintendent of Schools Joseph Massimino announced the findings Thursday in a letter to township families, following allegations . Al Lupiano, a graduate of Colonia High School, tells Fox News Digital that since posting his theory about an apparent link between brain tumor diagnoses in 1990s and early 2000s graduates of . Lupiano was diagnosed with a rare and abnormally large brain tumour Acoustic Neuroma (AN) in 1999 when he was just 27 years old. "I dont know that we know enough yet to be definitive in terms of causation, et cetera.". There are hundreds more probable carcinogens of varying ubiquity under study, such as pesticides, parasites, night shifts and indoor fires. Of the 120 or so known carcinogens, some are inescapable, like sunshine, engine exhaust, air pollution or the asbestos still embedded in millions of older buildings. Since cancer can take such a long time to manifest, evidence of what caused it has ample time to disappear. It was Lupiano, who is an environmental scientist and industrial engineer, who started connecting the dots. V Trng Ton High School. After Al Lupiano, his wife and his sister developed brain tumors, he reached out to former classmates at their New Jersey high school to see if they had similar problems. Hold the phone in landscape mode. She stressed more testing needs to be done on the schools East Street property to see if there are other sources of possible contamination, such as fill material, illegal past discharges, or contamination from other sites. Humans are awash in potential cancer-causing agents, and it is practically impossible to determine the cause of a given case. Earlier this year, officials claimed that penetrating radar tests on the grounds of Colonia High School concluded . Al Lupiano, a Colonia High School graduate is on a mission to answer that question after discovering more than 80 fellow graduates from the Woodbridge Township school developed the same rare brain tumor and graduated between the years 1975 to 1995 . Im 99.99 percent convinced.. Earlier this year, 1989 Colonia High School graduate Al Lupiano developed a list of more than 120 people who were students, teachers or staff members at the school from the 1970s to 1990s who have . The designation is the first, prerequisite step on the path toward a full-throated response, from investigation to cleanup and remediation and, potentially, legal recourse. The updates also move to de-emphasize statistical significance as the main criterion for investigating suspected cancer clusters in order to make more room for other criteria, such as mortality and electronic health record data, neighborhood patterns of cancer and even community-created lists of individuals with cancer diagnoses. But where did the exposure come from? Nguyn Tri High School. McCormac said both commissioners acknowledged they received the township's email and he hopes to hear back from them soon. McCormac said he has seen Komorek's findings and consulted with the superintendent of schools. That kind of follow-up could have the opposite effect, said Shawn LaTourette, New Jerseys commissioner of environmental protection, and send the wrong message that the suspicions deserved any more resources than what had already been invested. "Nothing in the newly reported information has any bearing on the prior studies which determined last spring that no radiation was found inside or outside of Colonia High School," Massimino said in his letter, adding parents would be kept informed of a plan of action based on the advice of experts. Al Lupiano, a graduate of Colonia High School, tells Fox News Digital that since posting his theory about an apparent link between brain tumor diagnoses in 1990s and early 2000s graduates of . Her sister Cheryl Black died of brain cancer in 2015. And when do you need to check your own biases and take patients concerns more seriously? Fox News reported that the plant received uranium, thorium and beryllium ores between the 1940s and 1967, which is the same year Colonia High School was built.. April 15, 2022 1:00 PM ET. Font Size: Ninety-four former staff members and students from Colonia High School in Woodbridge, New Jersey, have developed an "extremely" rare form of malignant brain tumor, leading local officials to approve an emergency probe of the school Tuesday. Assuming we follow the same statistical analysis as stated previously, over a 20-year period from 1975 1995, I estimate approximately 5,000 individuals have passed thru the hallowed halls of CHS. On April 10, Mr. Lupiano's list of former students and staff members with primary brain tumors hit 100 names. A cancer survivor is vowing to untangle the twisted mystery of why almost 100 people associated with a New Jersey high school have developed "extremely" rare malignant brain tumors. NEW JERSEY - A New Jersey man has uncovered a medical mystery apparently linking more than 100 people . "I wasn't happy and I knew that they didn't do enough sampling, didn't test soil, groundwater tests for PCBs," Komorek said. Its unclear whether any of those questions will ever be answered, and if they are, how residents would receive the responses. Komorek, who was hesitant about having her children, a junior and a freshman, at the high school, transferred them to another district school this week. The Woodbridge town council spent $221,000 to deploy 83 radon testing devices and conduct radiological testing at the school building and encircling 28-acre campus. "Nothing indicates that the school building or property is unsafe," he added. So, if not the neighborhood, what was the link? Is the exposure ongoing? My sister and siblings attended Lynn Crest, Colonia Middle, and Colonia High School. Colonia High School was reportedly the common denominator among those suffering from the tumors Credit: CBS NEW YORK. $9 Million Contract from National Cancer Institute Awarded for NJ State Cancer Registry. "Also, records later revealed that in 1948, some radioactively contaminated materials had been trucked from the plant to the Middlesex Municipal Landfill (MML), one-half mile away. The post above reflects the thoughts and observations of New Jersey 101.5 producer, writer, and host Joe Votruba. There is one well documented cause of brain tumors radiation exposure. 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