Fox News correspondent Bryan Llenas has the latest as 100+ have been diagnosed with rare brain tumors from Colonia High School in Woodbridge, New Jersey. WOODBRIDGE A New Jersey man is on amission to find a link between rare braintumors inmore than 60 graduates and former staff at Colonia High School, including his wife and late sister. It's the largest oil spill cleanup company in the United States. The Township of Woodbridge, in cooperation with the Woodbridge Township School District, has taken the proactive initiative to contract with T&M and Cabrera Services, Inc., a nationally recognized radiological and environmental remediation company, to engage their team of environmentalists to begin collecting data at Colonia High School, the town said in a statement. ", Colonia High School entrance. (Gosselin Funeral Home) In August 2021, DeCillis received her diagnosis of Grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive, rare, and deadly form of brain cancer. 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For now, radiation levels in and around the school are being monitored in a two-week test that began on April 9 by a private contractor hired by the municipality. According to United StatesEnvironmental Protection Agency (EPA), radon is a naturally-occurring radioactive gas that can cause lung cancer. After the testing ends, Lupiano said he and his supporters will be looking for a commitment by federal authorities for a conclusive investigation into whether something in the schools environment caused the brain tumors. His wife graduated in 1991. In August 2021, DeCillis received her diagnosis of Grade 4 glioblastoma multiforme, an aggressive, rare, and deadly form of brain cancer. The results from the environmental study that was conducted at a New Jersey high school campus enveloped in a brain tumor cluster mystery among graduates and workers at the school revealed no traces of radioactivity were found in the school. . Middlesex Sampling Plant to Colonia High School in New Jersey. Support our nonprofit newsroom. They were very appreciative that we reached out to them but they were not interested in getting involved, and they kept trying to pass it off, and saying they will have to do research and get back to you, he said, referring to the New Jersey agency. But the growing number of victims both alive and dead on the list dont constitute the evidence that public health experts need to determine that Colonia is a cancer cluster, said Dr. He alleges that some contaminated soil was removed from the site when it closed down in 1967 the same year Colonia High School was built. CBS News has reached out and is awaiting response from the principal of the school, superintendent and mayor as well as the Federal Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry. Mitesh Kapadia moved right next to Colonia High just a few years ago. Caitlin O'Kane is a digital content producer covering trending stories for CBS News and its good news brand, The Uplift. The mayor has reached out to the state Department of Health, Department of Environmental Protection and the Federal Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry, according to CBS New York. That decades-long stretch ended in the early 2000s, but recent. Phillips had surgery to remove the tumor on March 3 and entered physical, occupational and speech therapy soon after. A copy of Lupianos list, with the names and phone numbers of victims redacted, includes some who, like Lupiano himself, graduated decades ago. His sister died from it in February. It "was an entry point for African uranium ores known as pitchblende" that were "imported for use in the nations early atomic energy program, were assayed at the Middlesex Sampling Plant and then shipped to other sites for processing," according to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) New York Division. Because cancer clusters are often suspected in very small subpopulations like neighborhoods, apartment buildings or homes on the same side of the street they can be very difficult to establish, Platz said. Dating back decades, newly detailed reports of more than 100 cases of brain tumors among former students and staff at Colonia High School in Woodbridge have raised obvious concerns. Notably, brain cancer is rarer than other cancers. Woodbridge officials are now trying to determine an underlying cause for the disease. Parent Edyta Komorek said she and other parents are thinking about transferring their kids to another district. But doubts that the tumor cases represent a cancer cluster are unwarranted, said Lupiano, who predicted strong protests in the Woodbridge community if state and federal authorities dont start a formal investigation soon. The township has filed an Open Public Records Act request with the state Department of Education to get files from 55 years ago when the school was built, the mayor said. McCormac, who lives three blocks from Colonia High School,is not yet convinced of a link. At the time of the CBS interview in late March, Lupiano claimed to have confirmed 65 cases of rare brain tumors, all affecting people who either attended or worked at Colonia High School. The Middlesex Sampling Plant, which has since closed, is located on 9.6 acres, about a 30-minute driving from Colonia. On April 10, Mr. Lupiano's list of former students and staff members with primary brain tumors hit 100 names. Copyright 2023 CBS Interactive Inc. All rights reserved. Lupiano was diagnosed in 1999 with a benign tumor known as Acoustic Neuroma. Print |. More than 100 former Colonia High School students and staff over a 30-year period have been diagnosed with cancer and local parents say the information they're getting on the investigation. Rather than looking at all central nervous system cancers over 30 years, investigators will likely look at rates of specific types of brain tumors and how long after high school these tumors developed, she said. His wife and sister both got it. Last summer, Lupiano's wife and now-deceased sister were diagnosed with rare brain tumors on the same day. Lupiano and McCormac have spoken to officials with the state Department of Health and thefederalAgency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Normally speaking, you dont get radiation in a high school unless something is going on in that area that we dont know, Raval added, calling for an immediate investigation. Three of the victims are Al Lupiano, his wife Michelle, and his sister Angele Decillis. The canisters do not poseany danger and do not emit any substance, and are routinely used in homes, businesses and schools to collect radon measurements, township officials said. But just because there is an investigation does not necessarily mean there's a cancer cluster, Platz told Live Science. (Google Maps). NBCLX storyteller Peter Hull walks you through the research. Lupiano was diagnosed with a rare and abnormally large brain tumour Acoustic Neuroma (AN) in 1999 when he was just 27 years old. "Two hours later, we received information that my wife also had a primary brain tumor," Lupiano said. We're just doing it," said Mayor John E. McCormac. Initially, he found 15 people who attended the high school and were diagnosed with a primary brain tumor, meaning a tumor that originates in the brain, according to NBC Today. But in 2021, his wife and sister, also graduates of Colonia, were both diagnosed with rare brain tumors, according to NJ Spotlight News. Find your municipality in this alphabetical list to see how its average property tax bill for 2021 compares to others. Al Lupiano first sent public nearly two months ago about concerns of a cancer cluster related to Colonia High School. You've successfully subscribed to this newsletter! In April, Woodbridge approved environmental testing at the school, but those results won't be made available until the end of June. 100 PEOPLE WITH RARE TUMORS WHO ATTENDED SAME NEW JERSEY HIGH SCHOOL DEMAND ANSWERS The 110 people that Lupiano has counted on his list of former Colonia High School graduates have been. .. Advertisement .. Over 100 Former Students, Staff Of New Jersey School Get Rare Cancer, Probe Launched, S Jaishankar's "Firm" Reply To UK Minister Who Raised BBC Tax Row: Sources, Nithyananda's 'Republic Of Kailasa' At UN Meet. (Al Lupiano), "[A]s of midnight Sunday 4/10, I recorded the 100th case of someone having a primary brain tumor," Luapiano said in an update on his Faceboook post. But where? And we don't have the same major risk factors for brain cancer as we do for common cancer types, Platz said. A subsequent TikTok video discussing the medical mystery has also racked up more than 2.2 million viral views in just 24 hours. "There could be a real problem here, and our residents deserve to know if there are any dangers," Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac said in a statement carried by the New York Post. Lupiano said. "This is terrific news for the current students of Colonia High School and their parents who worried about their safety, along with current staff members. A part of the campus is named for Pat Barbato - a longtime football coach and athletic director. The school district's superintendent, Dr. Joseph Massimino, said in March that he was waiting to hear from the environmental agencies on next steps. "The Departments stand ready to assist Woodbridge in reviewing any environmental data it collects to determine appropriate next steps," the statement reads. "As previously stated, there is basically one medically proven cause of rare brain tumors like ours radiation," he wrote. The cause of glioma, the tumor that occurs in the brain or spinal cord, is not known like most tumors, Mayo Clinic says. Many of the former staff and teachers included in the total lived outside Woodbridge Township making the high school, so far, the only clear link. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. After his sister passed away, Lupiano wrote a lengthy Facebook post as well as an article in a local newspaper in March, asking for people in the area for help in reporting cases of brain tumors. Two weeks from now, if we dont hear anything from the federal agencies, theres going to be a lot of yelling and screaming, and the parents are going to run out of patience, he said. There could be a real problem here, and our residents deserve to know if there are any dangers, Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac said in a statement. Colonia High School Costello-Greiner Funeral Home - Woodbridge Sunday, January 1, 2023 Add Photos Add a Memory Sandra Wilson Sandra Wilson was born to Sarah Wilson and James Bradley on November. More than 100 people from the same high school have been diagnosed with brain cancer and it is feared soil contaminated with uranium used in the first atomic bomb made them ill. But brain . A 2012 study in the journal Critical Reviews in Toxicology demonstrates how tricky it can be to confirm a cancer cluster. Updated on: May 4, 2022 / 11:30 PM COLONIA, N.J. -- There is a growing push to go back to remote learning at one New Jersey high school, but not because of COVID fears. "But I understand why anyone would be concerned. The program will take real-time measurements of radiation inside and outside the building, the town said. Lupiano's quest for information took him to Facebook last month, and that list of people who went to or worked at Colonia High School - and have a primary brain tumor - is now closing in on 100 cases. On Tuesday after a public push by Lupiano local officials approved an emergency probe of the school. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. (Exposure to certain types of radiation can increase the risk of cancer, according to the National Cancer Institute.) But public health experts are cautioning against deeming the tumor cases a cancer cluster just yet. "It was clearly alarming enough that it merited further attention and I just helped him get that attention. A man investigating his former high school in New Jersey says he has counted 115 people who attended or worked there have had a rare brain tumor. Without analyzing the data herself, Platz said shes not able to estimate how many of the 15,000 people who have gone through Colonia High in the past 30 years would need to have developed cancer for it to be considered a cluster. I will not rest until I have answers, Lupiano, 50, declared in an interview with NJ.com and the Star-Ledger on Thursday. Lupiano also suggested a potential link between Colonia High School and a Middlesex, New Jersey, sampling plant in his interview with NJ Spotlight. Out of roughly 10,000 people, having more than five dozen cases of brain tumors and cancers is far above the average. Donavyn Coffey is a Kentucky-based health and environment journalist reporting on healthcare, food systems and anything you can CRISPR. Almost 100 people from the very same New Jersey high school have all developed brain tumors. An MRI revealed Michele had a 30-millimeter acoustic neuroma, another raretype of brain tumor that develops on the nerves leading to the inner ear. The four-year high school has more than 1,300 students. A report outlining results is expected in about a month, McCormac said. After nearly 100 people who attended the same New Jersey high school developed rare brain tumors, an alumnus and cancer survivor is demanding answers. Al Lupiano is among the 94 former staff and students from Colonia High School in the Woodbridge Township School District who have been stricken by the devastating diagnoses in recent years. Middlesex Sampling Plant to Colonia High School in New Jersey. Whittington a board-certified MD in California claimed several of the brain tumors developed by ex-Colonia High staff and students are glioblastoma multiforme an aggressive cancer which spreads to brain tissue. While the exact number of former faculty and staff diagnosed with glioblastoma is not precisely known, the cancer is exceedingly rare. According to MyCentralJersey.com, the issue stems from legal concerns over the potential risk of offering a medical procedure with which municipal officials have no experience. The review article looked at 567 cancer cluster investigations over 20 years. The Department of Health will work with the federal Agency for Toxic Substance and Disease Registry and will conduct a public health assessment and evaluate the potential for health effects. (Al Lupiano). Despite the number of possible cases, officials say they must first determine if there is any scientific evidentiary connection between the school grounds and the brain tumors. 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