And the soil was right below where the caulking is.". Humans are awash in potential cancer-causing agents, and it is practically impossible to determine the cause of a given case. Facebook Something Is Wrong Here. More Than 100 Local Residents Had Brain Tumors, but What Was the Cause? Al Lupiano, a former Colonia High School student, Pop-punk band New Found Glory playing rare performance near NJ, The cast of Home Improvement what they look like now, Bristol Palin on the mend after 9th breast augmentation, There is now a 24-hour Rocky TV channel, Gisele Bundchens post-Tom Brady magazine cover fuels satanic panic, These Speciale meatballs named best balls in New Jersey, Reward yourself! A consultant will be testing the grounds at Colonia High School, New Jersey, amid concerns that the school is linked to a high rate of rare brain cancers. However, the agency accepts a greater responsibility for helping communities cope with this uncertainty and the lack of resolution that often characterizes these investigations. Any opinions expressed are his own. The Woodbridge School District superintendent at the time then added: Radioactivity is ubiquitous in the environment. Al Lupiano, a 1989 graduate of the school, has identified 65 Colonia High graduates, including himself and two other members of his family, who have been diagnosed with an extremely rare brain cancer. But some still want more. 3/29 UPATE: The list has continued to grow, and now stands at 65 individuals. Here are some tips. "[W]e have really solid data on primary brain tumors because of what we learned after World War Two, what we learned after Chernobyl," Lupiano explained. Al Lupiano . Al Lupiano, a Colonia High School graduate is on a mission to answer that question after discovering more than 80 fellow graduates from the Woodbridge Township school developed the same rare brain tumor and graduated between the years 1975 to 1995. Local and federal environmental agencies say they are assisting the town of Woodbridge, New Jersey, in its investigation into more than 100 graduates of the same high school that have been diagnosed with rare brain tumors. Chu Vn An High School. Photo credit Google Street View. It's going to have PCBs, they all do. State your name, what you were diagnosed with, when, and what year you graduated CHS or worked there. The New Jersey cancer registry offers little help, since not everyone who went to or worked at Colonia still lives in Woodbridge, and not everyone in Woodbridge went to Colonia. Frequently, in hazmat, you never find it in the first shot," Lupiano said. Never did I think when I started this post I would hit this number! But not all carcinogens cause cancer every time. The soil sample also contained some pesticides. According to My Central New Jersey, the township has approved an emergency contract of $221,350 for an engineering firm to conduct radiological assessments at Colonia High School.. It is possible that soil from the plant had been trucked to Colonia High School during its construction in 1967, according to the NJ Spotlight. Thats not body cancers and general tumorsthats 80 rare primary brain tumors! The states health department calculated it would be statistically ordinary for about 120 former students and staff members to have developed brain tumors in the decades since the school was built in 1967. All rights reserved. Several people raised questions to me about the state health departments analysis. The states environmental agency confirmed that the water company which does not use water from ground wells known to be pollution-prone serving the area had not had any violations for radiological contaminants since at least 2004. For those who dont know me, my name is Al Lupiano and I graduated CHS class of 89. Some depend on the type of exposure, others unleash carcinogenesis only in people with the right genetic predisposition. Trng Vng High School. The numbers of primary brain tumors continues (unfortunate) to rise as the story has gone national. In a conversation with NJSpotlight, Al Lupiano said that asecret World War II lab in Middlesex Borough, called the Middlesex Sampling Plant, is said to have been used during the Manhattan Project,a research and development undertaking during World War II that produced the first nuclear weapons. or redistributed. medical mystery at a high school following dozens of diagnoses of brain tumors. WOODBRIDGE TWP., New Jersey -- Al Lupiano graduated from Colonia High School in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey in 1989. Edyta Komorek is a professional environmental scientist. Why Al Lupiano raised alarm over Colonia HS cancer links Is it a cancer cluster or a coincidence? Among other things, the law calls for periodic updates to federal cluster investigation guidelines work that the C.D.C., compelled by the legislation, began in 2018. Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by Refinitiv Lipper. Based on our information regarding the rock, and the surveys conducted of our staff, we are confident that it is safe for the children to return to school. Since discovering three individuals in my family were diagnosed with very rare brain tumors, and all about the same size and on the same side of our head, I needed to find a link. My wife Michele class of 91. Edyta Komorek, an environmental scientist and parent with two children enrolled at the school, met on Monday with Superintendent of Schools Joseph Massimino, Colonia High School Principal Kenneth Pace and the president of the Woodbridge Township Education Association to discuss findings of some testing she had done at the school. The designation is the first, prerequisite step on the path toward a full-throated response, from investigation to cleanup and remediation and, potentially, legal recourse. ou can send me a private message using FB Messenger or call/text me at (732)718-4753. ", "They tend to leave stuff behind, and that stuff tends to migrate from one location to another. Jason Wisinski, who lost his wife and sister-in-law, both Colonia High alumnae, to . Is cancer spreading at a New Jersey high school? https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/05/opinion/cancer-cluster-colonia-woodbridge.html. But where did the exposure come from? All rights reserved. Our children and Colonia High School staff deserve more involvement of the State and Federal agencies. A high school in Woodbridge Township, New Jersey, is being investigated by environmental experts . Yesthere is. On April 10, Mr. Lupiano's list of former students and staff members with primary brain tumors hit 100 names. Pollution gets cleaned up or dissipates into the air. Also, records later revealed that in 1948, some radioactively contaminated materials had been trucked from the plant to the Middlesex Municipal Landfill (MML), one-half mile away. Both sisters graduated from Colonia High School, just like Al Lupiano in 1989, his wife Michelle in 1991, and his sister, Angela Decillis in 1995. The same day my sister was diagnosed (August 2021), I received the devastating news my wife Michele (nee Zawada) also has a very large (3.0 cm), very rare brain tumor called an Acoustic Neuroma (aka Vestibular Schwannoma) on her left side. A few weeks ago, we very suddenly and tragically lost my 44-year-old sister Angela (CHS-95) to a very rare and highly aggressive malignant glioma brain tumor (Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM)) discovered on her left side. An alumnus of Colonia High School in Woodbridege, N.J. is investigating his former high school, claiming he has counted 115 people who attended or worked there to have had a rare brain tumor . Lupianos Facebook post initially read, Calling all Colonia High School (CHS) alumniI am in urgent need of your help!. (Gosselin Funeral Home) In August 2021, DeCillis received . It confers such chaos into the people who are affected by it.. McCormac said the investigation found "no cause and effect relationship between those illnesses and the building or grounds at Colonia High School." Kate McGreevy, an epidemiologist from the New Jersey Department of . Why would they include classes as recent as 2021 when we know many cancers take decades or longer to develop? Schools in North Brunswick and Trenton, as well as in Greenwich, Conn., and Northport, N.Y., were discovered to have been constructed on or near contaminated soils. On the same day, his sister, Angela, learned she had a fast-growing malignant tumor, also on the left side of her brain. A majority of former students of Colonia High School developed glioblastoma, a rare brain tumour. "I wasn't happy and I knew that they didn't do enough sampling, didn't test soil, groundwater tests for PCBs," Komorek said. I'm exhausted. $9 Million Contract from National Cancer Institute Awarded for NJ State Cancer Registry. Al Lupiano, a Colonia High School graduate is on a mission to answer that question after discovering more than 80 fellow graduates from the Woodbridge Township school developed the same rare brain tumor and graduated between the years 1975 to 1995 . Several of these people have already died, according to Colonia High School graduate Al Lupiano, who said he was diagnosed with a primary brain tumor in 1999 in a now-viral Facebook post. Colonia High School 180 East Street Colonia, NJ 07067 Phone: 732-499-6500 Fax: 732-574-2575. Why hasnt anyone confirmed Mr. Lupianos list, in order to have an official tally to compare with the official estimate? This helps explain why cluster investigations so often fail to arrive at a satisfying conclusion. We have to accept the results.. At the Colonia High School news conference in May, reporters pressed a panel of state experts on the decision not to test water and soil, even if just to reassure concerned community members that there was nothing there. "Every inch of Colonia High School from buildings to fields is being tested for radiation to determine if there is a link between the school and the number of cancer cases . Ive also started a sublist of what I am classifying as cases of interest due to several anomalies. All the testing, both by Komorek and the district, came after 108 people from over a period of three decades ending in the early 2000s who attended the school were diagnosed with brain tumors. An alum of Colonia High School in Woodbridge is raising the alarm over a possible cancer cluster among the school's graduates. As previously stated, there is basically one medically proven cause of rare brain tumors like ours radiation. "The Departments stand ready to assist Woodbridge in reviewing any environmental data it collects to determine appropriate next steps. NEW JERSEY - A New Jersey man has uncovered a medical mystery apparently linking more than 100 people . Colonia High School . I don't get that," he said. Market data provided by Factset. His wife was similarly diagnosed with a malignant AN tumor, and his sister was diagnosed with malignant Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), which has an incident rate of 30 out of every 1 million people. The agencies acknowledged their concerns regarding the potential cancer cluster, but are not conducting any testing aside from radiation and radon that the Township undertook, even though the school remains open. Ten L Man High School. Im optimistic we may see action in the next few days. Posted: Feb 28, 2023 / 02:45 PM EST. Follow The New York Times Opinion section on Facebook, Twitter (@NYTopinion) and Instagram. If you were affected or have a tumor or rare cancer, I need your assistance. They asked us to do this, and we did it. (Al Lupiano), Lupaino says he has witnessed, in his career, "what happens when our government and our military [are] involved with leaving a location and not being very good environmental stewards. "One hundred out of 15,000 have brain cancer -- sure sounds like something we should be concerned about," Woodbridge Mayor John McCormac has said. Ive reached out to both the news and local newspapers, but have not received any interest. A part of the campus is named for Pat Barbato - a longtime football coach . He, his wife, and his sister all attended the school in the '90s. A A. Lupiano, however, says Woodbridge Mayor McCormac is the only government official who has reached out to him for information. (In one scientific review of 428 cancer cluster investigations over 21 years, for example, just one in eight cases was a confirmed increase in cancer, and only one investigation revealed a definitive source.). WOODBRIDGE Environmental testing earlier this year indicating there were no radiological hazards at Colonia High School, despite a growing list of former students who had developed brain cancers, wasn't enough to convince one mother that more testing shouldn't be done. The New Jersey Departments of Health (DOH) and Environmental Protection (DEP) say they are involved in an investigation into the apparent cancer cluster, though Lupiano says he has not received requests for information from either agency. While there is no known direct correlation between this incident and the cluster of brain tumors that has emerged from former students and staff, it is worth noting the history of that area that could have potentially led to both incidents. Assuming we follow the same statistical analysis as stated previously, over a 20-year period from 1975 1995, I estimate approximately 5,000 individuals have passed thru the hallowed halls of CHS. Lupiano, an environmental scientist, said he has confirmed 65 cases of people with rare brain tumors, adding the common denominator is they were all Colonia High School graduates or had worked there. My main focus is still on determining if ionizing radiation is the cause of these tumor and other rare cancers. All three of them have since come down with rare brain disorders. Colonia High School. But she hopes the district will do more research. "To me their health is the most important thing.". COLONIA, N.J. - Radiation tests are being done at Colonia High School in New Jersey after more than 100 people were diagnosed with rare brain tumors. It opens up more questions, more doubts, more anxieties, more concerns, he said. There are hundreds more probable carcinogens of varying ubiquity under study, such as pesticides, parasites, night shifts and indoor fires. Is it a cancer cluster or a coincidence? Of special note: many are former CHS teachers and staff members who didnt live in Colonia, they just worked in the school. "People have to stop using the word cancer cluster. Al Lupiano, his wife and his sister all had brain tumors. I dont believe so as we all came from different parts of the Township. READ NEXT: Graphic Video Captures Death of 14-Year-Old Boy on Orlando Free Fall Amusement Ride. 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