Nazareth area teen cancer victims leave parents searching for answers

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/nazareth/index.ssf/2012/05/nazareth_area_teen_cancer_vict.html FROM THE EXPRESS TIMES BY PAMELA SROKA-HOLZMANN AND RUDY MILLER Six teens in about six years. That’s at least how many Nazareth area young men and women were stricken with cancer. Four of them succumbed to the disease. The number of cases has led their parents to question whether the community they live in has anything to do with the teens’ diagnoses. Derek Kehoe, 19, of Lower Nazareth Township, died of cancer six years ago. His soft tissue cancer is not genetic and his mother received little information about what could have caused it. “You wonder why all these kids are getting all these cancers. You wonder, but you just don’t know,” Maureen Kehoe said. She suspects environmental factors. “Knowing all these kids were diagnosed with cancer, it makes you wonder where this cancer is coming from,” said Jeannie Cardinal, whose daughter, Angelina, 23, survived a bout with thyroid cancer. Wayne Folweiler lost his 19-year-old daughter, Lori, to lung cancer in 2008. He questions whether fumes from the area’s cement plants sickened his daughter and other teens. The Nazareth area lies in the middle of a line connecting Keystone Cement in East Allen Township, Essroc Cement in Nazareth and Hercules Cement in Stockertown. “Is it in the air from what they burn? Who knows?” Folweiler asked. He said parents have a duty to find out. “I don’t want anybody else to go through what we went through,” Folweiler said. Emissions standards MORE COVERAGE: • Angel 34 helps families of young cancer victims cope • Keystone Cement was once targeted as a possible cancer source Essroc and Hercules say the families’ fears are unfounded. According to Hercules Cement, the effect of cement kiln emissions on cancer rates has been studied in several states, by the U.S. government and internationally. “In all of these previous studies no such link has been established,” wrote a Hercules spokesman in a statement. “Our position is there’s nothing in our product that would create a carcinogenic situation with anyone in the community,” agreed Craig Becker, the senior vice president of human resources for Essroc North America. Attorney James Pew said that’s a claim no one can make. He works for EarthJustice, the San Francisco-based nonprofit that began as the legal arm of the Sierra Club. Cement plants emit chromium and lead, both suspected carcinogens, and mercury, which can accumulate in fish in local waterways. No one can prove these emissions are making people sick, but no one can disprove it either, he said. “To say it’s not possible is just wrong,” Pew said. Out of about 100 cement plants operating in the United States, the local plants were in the top half for the most toxins emitted as charted by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. In 2010, the most recent data available, Essroc came in 26th, with 65,739 pounds of toxins released. Hercules ranked 30th and Keystone was 37th. Becker said the plant operates within strict EPA regulations. Pew, however, said those regulations can’t guarantee anyone’s safety. “They’re not health-based emissions standards,” he said. “They’re just emission standards that were set in 1997 that were supposed to be based on what the best plants were doing at the time.” Hercules disputes Pew. “In many cases, EPA sets the standards as much as 10 times lower than the scientific level at which no effect on human health has been observed, just to ensure the safety of human beings,” the company wrote in a statement. Pew is suing the EPA to force it to impose stricter standards, which the federal agency has sought to delay. EPA spokeswoman Enesta Jones said in an emailed statement her agency is close to a settlement with environmental groups. The EPA plans to issue a proposal for cement emissions standards by June 15 and take final action Dec. 20. Statistics BY THE NUMBERS • From 1990 to 2005 the number of newly diagnosed cancer cases for Northampton County children ages 10-19 was 6.9 per year. From 2006-09, the number of new cases was 12.8 per year, an increase of about 85 percent. The statewide rate from 1990 to 2005 is 272. From 2006-09, the rate is 309, an increase of about 13.5 percent. Luzerne and Erie counties have about the same population as Northampton County. Luzerne’s rate was 7.2 from 1990-2005 and 7.8 from 2006-09, an increase of 8.3 percent. Erie’s rate was 6.8 from 1990- 2005 and 9.5 from 2006-09, an increase of about 40 percent. Source: Pennsylvania Cancer Registry • Of at least 100 cement plants in the U.S. in 2010: Essroc ranked 26th highest in the amount of toxic chemicals released. The plant released 65,739 pounds of toxic chemicals, including 1,916 pounds of chromium compounds, 154 pounds of lead compounds and 153 pounds of mercury compounds. Hercules ranked 30th, with 56,656 pounds of toxic chemicals, including 62 pounds of lead and 6 pounds of mercury. Keystone was 37th, with 36,758 pounds of toxic chemicals, including 250 pounds of chromium compounds, 14 pounds of mercury compounds and one pound of lead compounds. Source: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s toxics release inventory, epa.gov/tri • Two Nazareth area cement plants paid fines in recent years: Hercules was fined $218,000 by the state Department for Environmental Protection for faulty emissions monitoring equipment operating from 2006 to 2008. Essroc was fined $82,000 for failing to keep reports on the amount of lead processed at its facility from 2006 to 2008. Essroc settled with the EPA last year and agreed to pay $33 million for emissions upgrades at five of its U.S. plants, including Nazareth. While cancer rate information hasn’t been collected for Nazareth youths, Northampton County has seen a spike in cancer rates for youths ages 10 to 19. From 2006 to 2009, the county’s youth cancer rate was 85 percent higher than the rate from 1990 to 2005, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health Cancer Registry. The state cancer rate rose only 14 percent statewide during that time. Joseph Mangano, a New York-based expert with the nonprofit Radiation & Public Health Project, said the cancers experienced by the Nazareth area students — colon, leiomyosarcoma, lung and thyroid — are often unheard of in young people. “It’s important public health officials take this seriously and immediately begin an investigation to get answers so in the future we don’t have as many kids stricken with cancer,” Mangano said. Gaining a cancer cluster designation is not easy. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a cancer cluster must have a high number of the same type of cancer or similar cancers for a similar ethnic, gender or age group, within a limited geographic period and time. In about 20 years of researching cancer, Mangano is only aware of two areas gaining a cancer-cluster designation from the government. Toms River, N.J., and Port St. Lucie, Fla., were acknowledged for high incidences of childhood cancer in the 1990s. Millions of dollars were poured into research of toxic groundwater from a Toms River dump and air, soil and water quality in Port St. Lucie. The studies proved inconclusive, Mangano said. Help sought The local parents say they haven’t gotten very far with lawmakers or health officials. Angelina Cardinal’s sister, Jessica Shafnisky, said most of the group’s questions have gone ignored. “It was very frustrating,” Jeannie Cardinal, their mother, said. “It was like nobody cared. There was a reluctance to talk about it. But this is for our kids. We want to make sure no one else has to go through what they went through.” Kurt Derr, chief of staff for state Sen. Lisa Boscola, said her office has fielded complaints and concerns from a few constituents. After an inquiry from The Express-Times, Boscola, D-Lehigh/Monroe/Northampton, asked the state health department and state cancer registry to look into youth cancer rates near Nazareth. She received a letter March 29 promising an answer from the state deputy secretary for health planning and assessment. State health department spokeswoman Christine Cronkright said her office’s acting physician general has been with the state since 2007 and had received no requests from anyone to look into childhood cancer rates in Nazareth other than Boscola’s request. She said anyone who wants questions answered should call 877-PA-HEALTH. Questions about a suspected cancer cluster also caught the attention of state Rep. Joe Emrick, R-Northampton. “This is a very serious issue, about which I am still learning a great deal,” Emrick said. “The Lehigh Valley has some of the finest medical professionals in Pennsylvania, and I am confident that they will spearhead the effort to conduct pertinent research and find answers to the many questions we have.” Quality of life The air quality in the Lehigh Valley is better than it’s ever been, according to Keith Williams, a third-generation cement worker and former chairman of the Lehigh Valley-Berks Air Quality Partnership. He works for Hercules but does not speak on behalf of the company. “A lot of these studies are being requested from families who don’t know the history of the cement industry in the Lehigh Valley,” he said. “At one time there were 22 plants in the Lehigh Valley.” That number is down to five if you count plants in Berks and Lehigh counties. Those that remain are subject to the most stringent regulations in industry history. Residents are exposed to more carcinogens every time they fill their gas tanks and paint their fingernails than those that come from cement plant smokestacks, he said. He said only 2 percent of cement used in the U.S. is made domestically. Environmentalists should take aim at China and India if they want to clean up the planet, he said. “I wouldn’t be in this business if I thought I was causing anybody harm or health risks,” Williams said. Parents like Folweiler say it’s worth poring over health statistics even if there is no guarantee they’ll answer any of the parents’ questions. You can’t put a price tag on children’s health, they say. “I guess the main thing is to find out what the facts are and if there is something that isn’t right, to get it fixed so no one has to go through what me and my wife and the other families went through,” Folweiler said. *** YOUNG CANCER VICTIMS cancer hotspot graphicView full sizeExpress-Times Graphic | JONATHAN HARDICK At least six Nazareth area youths were diagnosed with cancer in their teens in recent years. Four died from cancer. Lori Folweiler, 20, of Bushkill Township, died Oct. 29, 2008. She was a 2006 graduate of Nazareth Area High School who succumbed to lung cancer. She was diagnosed in September 2007. Andrew A. Milheim, 16, of Lower Nazareth Township, died April 30, 2008. He was a sophomore at Nazareth Area High School who was diagnosed in November 2007 with midline carcinoma, a rare and aggressive form of cancer. Courtney Anne Diacont, 18, of Upper Nazareth Township, died March 22, 2007. She was a senior at Nazareth Area High School who died from colon cancer. By the time she was diagnosed in December 2005, tumors had spread throughout her body. Derek R. Kehoe, 19, of Lower Nazareth Township, died October 28, 2006. The 2005 graduate of Nazareth Area High School was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma, a cancer of smooth muscle cells, about six months before he died. Angelina Cardinal, 23, of Nazareth, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer in 2007. The Nazareth Area High School graduate is now cancer-free. Patrick Donahoe, of Upper Nazareth Township, was 13 when he was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 2007. He’s a sophomore at Nazareth Area High School and has been cancer-free for three years.