More than 100 former students at New Jersey’s Colonia High School have developed a type of brain cancer in recent decades, with contamination from a nearby uranium plant likely to blame.
Al Lupiano, 50, a former student, became suspicious after he, his wife and his sister — who all went to the 1,000-student public school in Woodbridge, New Jersey, just southwest of New York City — were diagnosed with types of brain cancer.
Brain cancer is rare, detected in about one in 15,000 Americans every year official figures show, causing this trend within one family to raise alarms.
After posting about the diagnosis online, Lupiano said his inbox was flooded with fellow students who went to the Colonia High School up to four decades ago saying they had also been diagnosed with cancer.
Brain cancer types detected include glioblastoma — detected in Lupiano’s sister —, the most deadly form of brain cancer where fewer than half of patients survive beyond a year of being diagnosed.
President Joe Biden’s son Beau died from this cancer in 2015.
Cases of acoustic neuromas were also found, a benign and slow-growing tumor which the vast majority of patients survive, were detected as well.
Being exposed to high levels of radiation and having a weakened immune system are key risk factors for brain cancers, experts say.
The school is about 11 miles from a former nuclear bomb development site, and fears are now mounting that uranium from the facility may have contaminated water or soil at the school.
A radioactive rock was also on school grounds for three decades, before being removed in the 1990s after a teacher warned it could be dangerous to kids.
‘Doctors said they had never seen my cancer before it was super rare, or only people that were exposed to nuclear radiation as a child living next to a nuclear power plant that was contaminating their water have this,’ Lupiano said.
Below is an explanation of the brain cancers detected at the school:
What is going to be done about this?