More than 120 people who attended Colonia High School in New Jersey have been diagnosed with brain tumors. There's no proof yet that anything at CHS is the cause. 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The brain tumor cases, appearing over a thirty-year period, are a significant medical mystery that has caused alarm for experts. "We're all concerned, and we all want to get to the bottom of this. They have a lot more resources at their disposal. NEW JERSEY - A New Jersey man has uncovered a medical mystery apparently linking more than 100. Exterior shots of Colonia High School in Colonia, NJ on Thursday, April 7, 2022. He had developed 'rare' brain tumor some 20 years ago. "This approach of calculating the expected number was done to provide context to . 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 cancerand the . "The Departments stand ready to assist Woodbridge in reviewing any environmental data it collects to determine appropriate next steps," the statement reads. Platz expects that public health officials will look for specific overlaps in timing and tumor type. "They'll have the means to do air sampling, water sampling and soil sampling," Lupiano told New Jersey 101.5. 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. I pray we find answers(as of 18:00 4/11, the list stands at 102 individuals). I will uncover the truth.. On April 10, Mr. Lupiano's list of former students and staff members with primary brain tumors hit 100 names. The last case was a while ago, like 2000," Kapadia said. WOODBRIDGE - The township has approved an emergency contract of $221,350 for an engineering firm to conduct radiological assessments at Colonia High School, following a 1989 graduate's. Its way too early to call it a cancer cluster, said Dr. Joseph Landolfi, chief medical officer at JFK Medical Center in Edison, and its director of neuro-oncology. And that the children of this school, the faculty of this school and the parents and caregivers of these children and the people in and around this community they can have confidence, they can have confidence that this is a safe place.. Last month, McCormac and Superintendent of Schools Joseph Massimino became aware of health-related concerns reported on social media about a potential connection between Colonia High School and graduates who developed brain tumors. Colonia High School is now the subject of radiation detecting. Suzanne Russell is a breaking news reporter for MyCentralJersey.com covering crime, courts and other mayhem. Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. (Gosselin Funeral Home) In August 2021, DeCillis received . How will officials determine if a true cancer cluster exists? We're just doing it," said Mayor John E. McCormac. 2023 NYP Holdings, Inc. All Rights Reserved, I make $80k selling nudes to pay for cancer treatment men love bald look, Jimmy Carters niece says former president still has some time in him, Experts say youve been storing potatoes wrong this whole time and shut down cancer rumors, Joe Exotics doctors suspect he has bladder cancer but hes refusing treatment: report. So far, more than 2,000 people have signed a Change.org petition demanding, in part, students return to remote learning. One former student at Colonia High School who developed a 'rare' brain tumor over 20 years ago and survived having cancer is looking to uncover the cause. Just three of these clusters were linked to a possible exposure, and only one had a clear cause. COLONIA, N.J. (WCBS 880) A New Jersey town is planning to conduct environmental testing at a high school after dozens of alumni and others connected to the institution developed rare brain tumors. 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. Woodbridge Mayor John McCormick told CBS New York the school, which was built in 1967, was built on "virgin land" in the woods. According to agency estimates, about 21,000 people die each year from radon-related lung cancer. 'I will not rest until I . The city of Woodbridge says it has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars for testing at a school that graduated roughly 15,000 people over the last 30 years. His sister Angela Decillis. A cancer survivor is vowing to untangle the twisted mystery of why almost 100 people associated with a New Jersey high school have developed extremely rare malignant brain tumors. By April 11, he had heard from more than 100 former Colonia High School attendees who had been diagnosed with rare tumors and cancers. Glioblastoma is an aggressive type of cancer that can occur in the brain or spinal cord, according to the Mayo Clinic. Her work has appeared in Scientific American, Wired UK, Popular Science and Youth Today, among others. She worked for 16 years to help other rising nurses at Rutgers and RWJ Barnabas Health. "They're the only ones with the authority to do something," Lupiano told CBS2's Kevin Rincon. Parents like Dawn Genoni are willing to wait for that critical update. In a mysterious story, a man from New Jersey named Al Lupiano found out that 100 people with uncommon cancers were linked to Woodbridge Township School District, Colonia High School. Copyright 2023 NBCUniversal Media, LLC. Donavyn Coffey is a Kentucky-based health and environment journalist reporting on healthcare, food systems and anything you can CRISPR. There has been plenty of inventions and history made in New Jersey. for 7-year-old's rare brain cancer. On Tuesday after a public push by Lupiano local officials approved an emergency probe of the school. More than 100 primary brain tumors have now been linked to people who graduated or taught at Colonia High. Related: The 10 deadliest cancers, and why there's no cure. 89. My wife had a 30-millimeter acoustic neuroma," Lupiano said. Schools Brain Tumor Link To Colonia High School 'Credible,' Town's Mayor Says A scientist's theory that a contaminant at the Woodbridge school is linked to 65 rare brain tumors is being taken . While the exact number of former faculty and staff diagnosed with glioblastoma is not precisely known, the cancer is exceedingly rare. Knowing about the numbers we are talking about here, I think this meets every definition of what a cancer cluster looks like, he said. But Lupiano was not initially sure that the high school was a link to the similar yet rare brain tumor cases until he made a request on Facebook for others who attended Colonia to reach out to him personally. 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. 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. Please enter valid email address to continue. You can also see how much the average bill changed from 2020. As a Rutgers University graduate with a major in environmental sciences and a minor inindustrial hygiene safety engineering, he's made a career of cleaning up unsafe sites. 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. Notably, brain cancer is rarer than other cancers. He has continued to update followers on social media and on Thursday, said the list stood at 115 people who had either malignant or benign tumors. Until then, he knew of 15 former Colonia attendees who had been diagnosed with brain tumors. That decades-long stretch ended in the early 2000s, but recent. 2023 FOX News Network, LLC. 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. For anothertwo decades, he held similar jobs withbig companies including Lockheed Martin. "I started doing some research and the three became five, the five became seven, the seven became 15," he told CBS News York. A mystery in Colonia 94 people from 1 N.J. high school developed brain tumors. The environmental engineering firm T+M Associates was. The program will take real-time measurements of radiation inside and outside the building, the town said. For the past two decades, he's spoken with other victims, comforting them on message boards and Facebook. The analysis took several weeks. / CBS New York. Jason Wisinski, who lost his wife and sister-in-law, both Colonia High alumnae, to . The analysis was conducted after dozens of former high school students and staff over decades were diagnosed with cancers. It is now one of the hottest topics to be discussed on TikTok. Caitlin O'Kane is a digital content producer covering trending stories for CBS News and its good news brand, The Uplift. "Today we are very happy to announce that our extensive testing for both radon and radiation, in the interior and exterior, of the school produced no evidence of any cancer-causing hazards that warrant further investigation," McCormac said. document.getElementById( "ak_js_1" ).setAttribute( "value", ( new Date() ).getTime() ); Thanks for contacting us. "It seems like in a little over a 20-year period to have 65 people on a list is somewhat alarming, it's quite alarming," said the mayor, who lives blocks away from Colonia High School, but added the link only appears to pertain to people who attended or worked at the high school. Starting this weekend, various radiological assessments will be conducted across the schools 28-acre campus, including the testing of indoor air samples for radon. The department declined to comment for this story. 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. After nearly 100 people who attended the same New Jersey high school developed rare brain tumors, an alumnus and cancer survivor is demanding answers. He went on to recover from the disease. And he said New Jerseys Department of Health has been similarly noncommittal. After seeing a social media post from Lupiano earlier this month, concerned residents reached out to Mayor John McCormac. What I find alarming is theres truly only one environmental link to primary brain tumors, and thats ionizing radiation, he declared. Al Lupiano graduated from the Middlesex County school in 1989. But how will officials figure out if a true cancer cluster exists or if the cases are simply a coincidence? The states Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Shawn LaTourette backed up the mayors declaration the school was safe. Its overwhelming. The viral TikTok video discussing the purported cancer cluster was posted Wednesday by popular personality Dr. Joe Whittington. He said the site was vacant land until the school was built in 1967,so he believes there is little chance anything was in the ground before then, but if there is anything on site, it could have come from fill during the construction phase. Immediately I knew exactly what I was looking at. His wife was similarly diagnosed with an abnormally large AN tumor, and his sister was diagnosed with Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM), which has an incident rate of 30 out of every 1 million people, Lupiano explained in a Facebook post that he has been updating since March 7. She too died last month. The review article looked at 567 cancer cluster investigations over 20 years. 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