NEPA Cancer Cluster (Philadelphia, Hazleton, Tamaqua: home, living, area)

[Toonamatic]

A federal agency admits there's a 20-mile stretch in Pennsylvania where residents have an elevated risk of contracting a rare blood cancer.

Officials say people living between Hazleton and Tamaqua are four times as likely to suffer from the rare disease, known as PV, as anyone in the outlying area.

The area 80 miles northwest of Philadelphia is home to several Superfund toxic cleanup sites and a power plant fired by waste coal, though the government report stresses not enough data exists to trace the cancer cluster to a specific source.

Some residents blame a center where paint sludge, waste oils, and other carcinogens were recycled 30 years ago, as well as the power plant.

It's the only cluster of PV recorded in the U.S., though officials say it's likely there are others.

[cathyde]

My father was a doctor in Nesquehoning, and several times was asked to present numbers to various institutions as to how many of his patients had cancer. His figures, although alarming to us, never seemed to raise anyone else's eyebrows. He worked a long time, along with other physicians, to try to get the area to be examined more closely in the 1970s and 80s, but nothing was done.

I'm glad this area has finally been recognized as having a cancer cluster, though to many in the area this is old news.