University cancer scare debunked

By Rick Dandes
The Daily Item

January 23, 2009 05:49 am

— SELINSGROVE -- The state Department of Health has given Susquehanna University and its environs a clean bill of health after completing its largest investigation ever, a two-year probe into reports of a high incidence of cancer among former students.
The "Susquehanna University Study," released Thursday evening, researched the health of 9,610 alumni over a period spanning 1985 to 2004. It concluded that "although the number of cancers detected exceeded the expected number, there is no evidence that this results from an environmental exposure that occurred at the university or that it is associated with university attendance."
The report confirms earlier findings by the state Department of Environmental Protection that ruled out environmental threats to student health.
"Thanks to the exhaustive work by two state agencies, we now know that nothing in the Selinsgrove environment is harming our students, past or present," said Susquehanna University President L. Jay Lemons. "We can now speak with greater confidence and certainty than any other university in the nation about the safety of our environment."
Concerns about a possible cancer cluster at Susquehanna surfaced in 2007, when the parents of students who developed cancer from 1997 to 2005 suggested that environmental contamination might have caused the disease. Subsequent testing focused on an off-campus Orange Street apartment building known as the Warehouse, which was the residence for three athletes diagnosed with cancer.
DEP tested soil and groundwater in an area near the Warehouse and found "no evidence of environmental contamination."
The follow-up Department of Health study measured the reported number of cancer cases among alumni against the number of cases for the general population of Pennsylvania.
Two types of cancer, melanoma and testicular, were more prevalent in Susquehanna alumni, but according to the report, they have no known association with environmental factors.
Melanoma and testicular cancer are on the rise in Pennsylvania and the country, said Paul Chrostowski, a Maryland-based environmental health engineer and toxicologist who was quoted in a statement released by the university.
They are also more prevalent in white populations. For the period in question, 90 percent or more of Susquehanna's alumni were white, compared with 82 percent in Pennsylvania.
"Further, these cancers are more prevalent in young people," Chrostowski said. "And one might expect higher recorded incidents among an educated population because it is more likely to have access to health care screening and detection."
The report concludes by stating the importance of prevention and early diagnosis: "Several of the cancers identified in this study are highly preventable, with relatively simple and straightforward measures like sun block for malignant melanoma and human papilloma virus vaccine for cervical cancer. Others have highly effective screening tests that can find cancer at an early and treatable stage. Examples include pap smears for cervical cancer and mammography for breast cancer."
Approximately 2,000 students attend Susquehanna University.
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