DOH releases study on LOOW, NFFS cancer incidences

by Terry Duffy
Lewiston Porter Sentinel, September 20, 2008

The New York Department of Health released its long-awaited cancer study findings of residents, Lew-Port students and/or district employees situated near the hazardous waste and municipal dump operations of the Lake Ontario Ordnance Works, and the highly radioactive contaminated Niagara Falls Storage Site on Pletcher Road. Requested by area citizen groups and the Niagara County Health Department, both of which had raised concerns at an earlier Ransomville session over heightened incidences of cancers, and a purported link to those in proximity to LOOW and the NFFS, the study overall in essence failed to draw any direct links.

Prepared under the direction of Aura Weinstein, director of the DOH Cancer Surveillance Program, it did find some correlations, reporting higher than expected cases in a number of studies.

But overall, it concluded the heightened cancer incidences were linked to other factors. “The possibility that the occurrence of the cancers was the result of chance cannot be ruled out,” the DEC summarized.

The study examined three areas – those living near, attending or working at the Lew-Port School District; those adjacent to LOOW and living in zip codes 14174 (Youngstown) and 14131 (Ransomville) and the northeastern areas in the 14131 Ransomville zip code downwind from CWM. Numbers were extrapolated from actual cancer cases in the years 1999-2002 from the New York State Cancer Registry (observed number); from calculating the number of people in the aforementioned areas expected to have been diagnosed with cancer, based on age (calculated number), data from children, and the types of cancers found.

Mixed Bag

For those who initially aired concerns at the Ransomville session over the prevalence of cancers in areas neighboring LOOW – i.e. students and/or employees of the Lewiston-Porter School District and those living in the Ransomville areas northwest of CWM Chemical Services LLC, the results present a mixed bag as DOH’s findings appear to be inclusive or even counter each other.

For study area No. 1 – Lew-Port – DOH found a total of 702 cancers in males versus 614 expected and commented the difference was “statistically significant” – i.e., “It was unlikely to occur by chance.” But it also reported 590 cancers in females versus 565 expected, and opined the number “could be the result of random variation.”

It found 15 cancers in children versus eight expected in study area No. 1. But in its analysis, DOH both offered concerns over those afflicted with 12 variations of cancers, and downplayed its concerns over the numbers of those suffering from leukemias, lymphomas and other cancers. “The numbers of these were within the range we would expect to find,” wrote DOH.

Not Significant

In study area No. 2 – Youngstown and Ransomville zip codes – DOH reported 334 cancers in males, versus 311 expected; 277 cancers in females, versus 270 expected; and six cancers in children versus five expected. When considering various types, while finding, for example, that prostate cancers among males were “statistically higher,” DOH also found others afflicting men, women and children in those zip codes were not “statistically significant.”

And in area No. 3 – Ransomville zip code – DOH reported 160 cancers in males, versus 155 expected; 118 cancers in females, versus 135 expected; and fewer than six diagnosed cancers of children. All three were deemed to be “not significantly different from the number expected.”

Following concerns of Ransomville residents on the results from an earlier study in 1995-99, which found numbers of certain cancers, such as bladder cancers in males, to be “significantly greater” than expected, and “closer” to expected numbers for females, the latest DEC findings, when broken down to consider “all types of cancer,” appeared to be somewhat fragmented and inconclusive. In fact DOH varied from its earlier assessment when stating it did not “confirm the statistically higher number of total cancers in males” and that bladder cancer numbers in Ransomville “was closer to the number expected.”

DOH concluded it “found no unusual cancer patterns” both for the Youngstown-Ransomville zip codes and the second Ransomville zip code in the latest study, excluding prostate, but reported “statistically high numbers of several other cancers” including prostate in the Lew-Port area study.

Exposure Link Downplayed

But still, DOH in its overall determinations failed to shed much light on linking cancer sustained from exposures from any of the three aforementioned study areas. The issue of exposure was a primary argument for calls of additional DOH cancer studies from the earlier Ransomville session, particularly with regards to the safety of those in study No. 1 – Lew-Port. “We cannot … conclude that these higher numbers were related to exposures from any contaminants from the sites, because we don’t know enough about where these individuals went to school or other possible risk they may have had.”

And again it concluded, “the result of chance cannot be ruled out.”

DOH announced it will be holding a public meeting Monday, Sept. 29, at the Lewiston-Porter High School auditorium to further discuss its findings. The time of the session is from 7 to 9 p.m. DOH reps will on hand and residents are encouraged to attend.

For further information, contact Weinstein at 518-474-2354.