State: No cancer/toxin link found in Lisle or Downers Grove (IL)
The Chicago Daily Herald (IL) tells us of a 2005 report that was just released by the Illinois Department of Public Health:
A state report on the relationship between cancer cases in Lisle and Downers Grove and groundwater contamination found no significant disease clusters.
The study was the result of two separate pollution problems in areas of south Lisle and west Downers Grove.
In Lisle, hundreds of private wells were tainted with the solvent trichlorethylene, or TCE, due to spills at the Lockformer Co. plant on Ogden Avenue.
In Downers Grove, TCE and a related chemical, tetrachloroethylene, or PCE, were detected in the groundwater in several homes. The toxins came from the Ellsworth Industrial Park, authorities concluded.
Illinois Department of Public Health scientists compared countywide data with cancer cases in the neighborhoods where the wells were tested for toxins using statistics from the Illinois State Cancer Registry.
The study looks at 19,093 cancer cases reported between 1998 and 2002 in DuPage County. Fifty-three cases were found in neighborhoods with tainted wells.
Researchers concluded "no significant elevation of cancer incidence was found in the target area and no correlation was suggested between TCE or PCE contamination in well water and increase of cancer incidence." Read more here. Or download the report here.