Radiation tests are being carried out at a New Jersey high school where over 100 former students and staff are reported to have developed brain tumors and cancer—and the results are expected next month.
Environmental engineers have been working at Colonia High School in Woodbridge Township for weeks after local officials became aware of a reported pattern of tumor diagnoses linked to the school.
Concerns about problems at the school were first raised by Al Lupiano, an environmental scientist who graduated from the school in 1989 while his wife Michele and sister Angela DeCillis attended in the 1990s. All three eventually developed primary brain tumors, and DeCillis died in February this year at the age of 44.
Lupiano decided to find out whether any other former students or staff suffered from brain tumors, and after reaching out publicly on Facebook, he received a startling amount of reports.
"I went on Facebook on March 7, and I asked for the people on Facebook to help me find others. And today we now stand at 117 individuals with primary brain tumors, and another 70 with very rare cancers," he told NewsNation. Newsweek has not independently verified these reports.
John McCormac, the mayor of Woodbridge Township, was prompted to launch a radiation investigation after becoming aware of what Lupiano had found.
"We consulted with our environmental engineers, T&M Associates, and came up with a plan to test the school grounds," McCormac told Newsweek. "Frankly we have the ability to act quickly compared to the federal and state governments, which do not."
Work began on April 9 after local officials passed an emergency authorization and paid $211,350 to T&M Associates for their investigation.
More than 100 radon detection canisters were placed throughout Colonia High School, McCormac said, including every classroom and office and in the gymnasium and auditorium. They were collected on April 24 and sent for laboratory analysis.
In addition, mobile radiation detectors have been placed to test 28 acres of the school's property. That round of testing is due to go on for one more weekend, after which those results will also be sent for lab testing.
McCormac told Newsweek that results are expected to come back "by the middle of May", at which point they will be shared with state and federal agencies. What happens next will depend on the results.
Radon is a radioactive gas that forms naturally due to the breakdown of radioactive materials like uranium, thorium, or radium in the ground.
Radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer after cigarette smoking, and it's estimated that the gas is responsible for more than 20,000 lung cancer deaths in the United States every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Dr. Joshua Palmer, a cancer researcher at Ohio State University, told Newsweek that he and colleagues "have data that supports a higher incidence of brain tumors in areas of high particulate pollution and high environmental radon."
A paper outlining Palmer and his team's findings is under review in the journal Neuro-Oncology, he said.
It should be noted that there has not yet been any confirmation that radon is the cause of brain tumors reported by former Colonia High School staff and students.
Uncommon Knowledge
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Newsweek is committed to challenging conventional wisdom and finding connections in the search for common ground.
