Cancer - Contaminated Water

Source: Case-control Study of Childhood Cancers in Dover Township (Ocean County), New Jersey, Volume I: Summary of the Final Technical Report, prepared by

Division of Epidemiology, Environmental and Occupational Health
New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services
in cooperation with
Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Full report: Volume I: Summary of the Final Technical Report

Introduction

In 1995, at the request of the federal Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ATSDR), the New Jersey Department of Health and Senior Services (NJDHSS) evaluated the occurrence of childhood cancer in Dover Township and found that the incidence was significantly higher than expected for the period 1979 through 1991. Consequently, the NJDHSS and ATSDR, in cooperation with the local Citizen Action Committee for Childhood Cancer Cluster, developed a Public Health Response Plan (PHRP) detailing a systematic process to investigate the elevation of childhood cancer in Dover Township. The PHRP s purpose was twofold: 1) to update and re-evaluate information on childhood cancer incidence in Dover Township; and 2) to evaluate possible community exposures to toxic chemicals in the environment, called exposure pathways, in order to generate hypotheses which could be assessed in an epidemiologic study.

The results of the cancer update, Childhood Cancer Incidence Health Consultation: A Review and Analysis of Cancer Registry Data, 1979-1995 for Dover Township (Ocean County), New Jersey (1997), confirmed that the overall childhood cancer incidence rate in Dover Township was statistically significantly elevated for the period 1979 through 1995, primarily due to excesses of leukemia (over 9 times higher than expected) and brain and central nervous system cancer (11.5 times higher than expected) in females residing in the Toms River section of the Township.

Findings of the PHRP evaluation of potential exposure pathways in the community indicated that past releases of toxic chemicals into the environment had resulted in exposure to residents in Dover Township. Consequently, NJDHSS and ATSDR concluded that the Reich Farm Superfund site was a public health hazard due to past human exposures to toxic chemicals due to groundwater contamination which affected both private wells and wells in the public water distribution system. Early in the course of evaluating these exposure pathways, testing of the community water supply revealed a previously undiscovered contaminant, styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) trimer, attributable to the Reich Farm site, in groundwater from two of the wells in the United Water Toms River (UWTR) Parkway well field. NJDHSS and ATSDR also concluded that the Ciba-Geigy Corporation Superfund site represented a public health hazard due to past human exposures to toxic chemicals from operations at the facility, through past groundwater contamination affecting public water wells and private wells used for irrigation. Past air pollution emissions from the facility were also of public health concern.

In 1997, based on these findings, NJDHSS and ATSDR decided to conduct an epidemiologic study to evaluate the relationship between the completed environmental exposure pathways and the elevated childhood cancer incidence in this community. The primary hypotheses in this study are that childhood cancers were associated with environmental exposure pathways which were identified in earlier reports:

• contamination of potable water from UWTR Parkway well field by the Reich Farm Superfund site;
• contamination of potable water from UWTR Holly Street well field, due to wastewater discharge into the Toms River from the Ciba-Geigy site;
• contamination of potable water affecting private wells near the Reich Farm and Ciba-Geigy sites and other areas in Dover Township from other or unknown sources; and
• air pollution emissions from the Ciba-Geigy facility.

Potential exposure to other environmental factors are also considered in order to address additional community concerns. These environmental factors included:

• potential exposure to ambient air releases from the Oyster Creek Nuclear Generating Station, located approximately ten miles south of Dover Township;

  and

• residential proximity to sites in the area which concerned the community:
  • the Ciba-Geigy Superfund site;
  • a section of the Toms River where treated wastewater was discharged (1952 to 1966) from the Ciba-Geigy facility;
  • the Ciba-Geigy pipeline which transported treated wastewater across Dover Township (1966 to 1991) and experienced three documented breaks (1984, 1988, and 1989) during its usage;
  • the Reich Farm Superfund site;
  • the Dover Township Municipal Landfill;
  • the Ocean County Landfill; and
  • the Toms River Coal Gas site.

The epidemiologic study uses a case-control design to evaluate possible risk factors and the magnitude of their association with childhood cancers in Dover Township. The risk factors evaluated include the environmental exposures comprising the primary hypotheses and other factors which have been evaluated in other studies of childhood cancer. A case-control study design was selected because it is the best epidemiological method for studying rare diseases.

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