State expands health study in Sayreville
Initial review of cancer cluster concerns criticized as hurried
BY MICHAEL ACKER Staff Writer

SAYREVILLE - The state health department is expected to present an expanded study next month in response to concerns that a cancer cluster exists in the borough.

State Assemblyman John Wisniewski (D- 19) made the announcement during a meeting on environmental concerns last week at borough hall. Experts from various state and federal agencies discussed the borough's three Superfund sites and other issues broached since the cancer cluster concerns came to the attention of local officials in May.

Wisniewski said the state Department of Health and Senior Services would increase the amount of data being used to make its conclusion, going back to statistics from 1978 that was not used in their original survey.

An earlier analysis by the state looked at cancer statistics in Sayreville from 1990- 2004, and concluded that there was no evidence of a cancer cluster. The expanded probe comes in response to criticism from residents who said that the report was rushed and did not take enough data into consideration.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention defines a cancer cluster as a greater than expected number of cancer cases that occur within a group of people, a geographic area or over a period of time.

Former Sayreville resident Cheryl Hardt, a cancer survivor who grew up in the Green Valley section of the borough, raised concerns of a potential cancer cluster in the area south of Washington Road, north of the Conrail tracks and east of Jernee Mill Road. She found that residents in this area, as well as elsewhere in the borough, reported a higher than expected number of cases of cancer.

Hardt and other residents called for an investigation into whether a cancer cluster existed, leading to the health department's report, which was presented at a crowded July 2 meeting by Deputy Commissioner of Public Health Services and State Epidemiologist Eddy A. Bresnitz.

Last week, Mayor Kennedy O'Brien began the meeting by explaining that residents want to know if there is an environmental reason for what is perceived to be an unusually high rate of illness in Sayreville. He added that a producer from a television news channel that has covered the story told him that the same carcinogen could cause two different forms of cancer.

The term cancer cluster is attributed to communities where a specific type of cancer is prevalent, a rare form of cancer is found in abundance, cancer impacts employees exposed to certain toxins, or if it affects a specific age group.

The health department said its initial investigation did not validate cancer-cluster concerns in the borough since there was no significant difference between the number of cancer cases in Sayreville compared to the rates elsewhere in Middlesex County and the rest of the state.

U.S. Congressman Frank Pallone Jr. (D- 6) told the public and local officials that he asked representatives of the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry (ASTDR) to attend last week's meeting.

The state health department did not attend last week's meeting, since it will be preparing an expanded study for release next month.

John Price, of the EPA's Central New Jersey Remediation Section, said that the borough is home to three Superfund sites: the Horseshoe Road Superfund site, the neighboring Atlantic Resources site and the Sayreville Landfill, which is in the area of Jernee Mill Road. All of these sites are being remediated, and the Sayreville Landfill may be removed from the list of Superfund sites in the state over the next few years.

John Osolin, remedial project manager for the Horseshoe Road and Atlantic Resources Superfund sites, updated the public on the status of those areas.

The former Atlantic Development Corp. facility, which is part of the 12-acre Horseshoe Road Superfund site (not the separate 4.5-acre Atlantic Resources site), was a series of buildings that were rented out to chemical companies, Osolin said. The Horseshoe Road Superfund site includes the Sayreville Pesticide Dump and the Horseshoe Road Drum Dump.

He said the EPA has removed 3,000 drums of contaminants from the Atlantic Resources site. Osolin said there is evidence of midnight dumping at the site, likely by parties who were not involved with the businesses at the site.

Cleanup at the site is ongoing, Osolin said, with more work planned for next spring, including the hauling out of 89,000 cubic yards of material by way of railroad, in order to minimize use of neighboring roadways to dispose of the material.

Edward Putnam, assistant director of the remedial response element program for the DEP, discussed the 35-acre Sayreville Landfill, which has 20 acres of buried waste. He said the EPA and DEP have worked together on the property since 1983. In that time, drums were removed from the Jernee Mill Road site and the landfill was capped.

"In 1988, tests determined that there was no need for any further action," Putnam said, adding that inspections and reviews of that monitoring are done on a biweekly basis to ensure that the site is being properly maintained.

The next meeting on the concerns surrounding the alleged cancer cluster has yet to be scheduled, according to the clerk's office. Officials anticipate that it will take place in October.