SOURCE:
https://gotechdaily.com/state-no-cancer-found-at-bellport-school-2/
By David Keith - December 18, 2019
A report by the state Department of Health, amid concerns over emissions from the Brookhaven Landfill, concluded that there was insufficient evidence of a cancer complex at a Bellport school, where staff blamed dumping for tumors and other illnesses.
The six-page report, released last week, reported 31 confirmed diagnoses of cancer over 38 years among Frank P. Long Intermediate School staff do not appear to be abnormally high. The types of cancers reported by school staff also do not appear to be rare, the report said.
About 30 people, parents, students and neighbors of the school, about a mile south of the 192-acre landfill, filed a state lawsuit that Brookhaven Town failed to protect them from the harmful odors coming from the Brook dirt road. . The lawsuit, which seeks indefinite damages, says the plaintiffs suffered from diseases ranging from throat irritation to cancer.
The health department’s cancer surveillance program attempted to determine if school officials developed cancer at a higher rate than normal. The report did not seek to link the cases of cancer to the landfill or any other possible cause.
“Based on the information available to us and our comparative review of confirmed cases of cancer, the number and form of cancer diagnoses do not appear unusual,” the report said.
The study began after meetings between Suffolk County government officials and the Bellport Teachers’ Union, which represents the school’s teaching staff.
Supporters for the teachers, including their lawyer, criticized the report for failing to examine the potential causes of the cancers and ignoring other types of illnesses.
“I think it’s very tragic that the health department tells us that we have to accept and wait for this cancer,” said Adrienne Esposito, executive director of the Farmingdale-based Environmental Citizens Campaign, who worked closely with school staff. “They should stop telling us what the statistics are and tell us what the causes are.”
E. Christopher Murray, a Uniondale lawyer representing school staff, said the report would not affect the lawsuit.
“It’s very limited in scope,” he said. “I don’t think he paints a complete picture of what’s going on at this school.”
In a prepared statement, city spokesman Jack Krieger said the landfill is being closely monitored by state environmental authorities. “We work diligently every day to operate safely and efficiently, and this report reinforces that our efforts there have been successful,” he wrote.
The South Country School District, in a message posted on the site’s website, said it cooperated with the examiner. The area did not comment.
In their report, health officials said they looked at factors such as the timing of cancer diagnoses, the ages of staff with cancer and the types of cancer reported. They said that 13 types of cancer were reported, with breast cancer being the most common.
“People’s ages at the time of diagnosis were characteristic of the types of cancer they had,” the report said, adding that 28 of the 31 confirmed cases have been reported since 2000, which “was not unexpected given the larger number of older people, retired staff “and improved methods of diagnosing cancer.
Carl MacGowan is a longtime local dwarf covering the city of Brookhaven after first covering Smithtown, Suffolk County Courts and numerous news and stories about his 20-day career on Newsday.