Delaware cancer clusters

April 24th, 2008

(stolen from Jack Markell’s site)

A report on Delaware cancer clusters has finally been made public.  First was disclosure of a cancer cluster surrounding NRG’s Indian River Power Plant.  Now eight clusters have been disclosed.

Here’s the report:

Average Annual Age Adjusted Cancer Incidence Rates

Today’s paper has a few articles about it — is anyone paying attention?

Eight cancer clusters discovered in Delaware

But just as the Millsboro-area findings led activists and residents to suspect pollution as the main culprit, so did the new report.

Sen. David McBride, a Democrat who represents the Hares Corner and Wilmington Manor areas — part of the New Castle region, with inflated rates of lung cancer, prostate cancer and all cancers combined — said he suspects the high rates stem from the area’s history as a “dumping ground” for chemical plants and other heavy industry.

High incidence seen in most polluted areas

Cause of cancer cluster often never discovered

“It’s always the case that cancer rates are distributed unevenly,” he said, “and almost always, they relate strongly to socioeconomic factors.”

Map of cancer clusters in Delaware

Just the day before the paper reported on an “Earth Day” forum of Governor wannabes — was this a topic of discussion?

Posted by Carol A. Overland
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One Response to “Delaware cancer clusters”

  1. carol james Says:
    January 15th, 2009 at 2:49 pm

    My husband was diagnosed with 4th stage lung cancer in 2006. We lived for 11 years on Rehobeth bay in Millsboro De. He fished and crabbed both bays.The VA in Millsboro was chest xraying veterans. They said it was just a random thing. Tunnell Cancer Center took 6 months to finally state it was 4th stage cancer and not the remnants of pneumonia. We had already put our home up for sale to get better treatment options in Nesw Jersay and to be near family. The pulminary doctor who first saw him said he was” a dead man”. My husband was a veteran of the Korean War-was on ships going and returning from Europe. He had been a smoker but had clean chest xrays from the time he stopped smoking-18 yrs. – until the chest xray in May 2006.He died March 22, 2008, We learned about the cancer cluster shortly after his death. Delaware will never tell the populace there are problems because they need the tourist industry to bolster their coffers. I can remember many fish kills and warnings towards the end of our time there about mercury etc. We did not fish or crab after these warnings. There are still a few trailer parks on the bays that put untreated sewage into the bays.

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