Cancer Cluster in New Jersey? Not So Fast

By ACSH Staff — Dec 16, 2009
NBC New York tells the horror story of a cancer cluster in New Jersey "in a neighborhood where state health department officials have found elevated rates of kidney cancer in women and non-Hodgkins lymphoma in men. The study stopped short of linking the cancer to the chemical-laden groundwater from the sprawling DuPont plant that takes up 1,455 acres in this Passaic County community."

NBC New York tells the horror story of a cancer cluster in New Jersey "in a neighborhood where state health department officials have found elevated rates of kidney cancer in women and non-Hodgkins lymphoma in men. The study stopped short of linking the cancer to the chemical-laden groundwater from the sprawling DuPont plant that takes up 1,455 acres in this Passaic County community."

"This news story and the meeting it covers did not question the fact that there is a cancer cluster, it just talks about whose fault is it and how can we keep it from getting worse," says ACSH's Dr. Gilbert Ross. "I went to the New Jersey Department of Health website to see the report they issued on this 'cancer cluster.' It turns out they did not even say there is a cancer cluster. Although there is apparently some water contamination, they couldn't conclusively link those chemicals to any type of cancer. That really should put an end to this story. There is no evidence of a cluster despite the sensationalist headlines."