Ohio child cancers confound parents, investigators

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Ohio child cancers confound parents, investigators

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Dec 30, 9:33 PM (ET)

By JOHN SEEWER

CLYDE, Ohio (AP) - Every time his kids cough, Dave Hisey's mind starts to

race. Is it cancer? Is it coming back? His oldest daughter, diagnosed with

leukemia nearly five years ago when she was 13, is in remission. His

12-year-old son has another year of chemotherapy for a different type of

leukemia. And his 9-year-old daughter is scared she'll be next.

Hisey is not alone in fearing the worst. Just about every mom and dad in

this rural northern Ohio town ge ts nervous whenever their children get a

sinus infection or a stomachache lingers. It's hard not to panic since

mysterious cancers have sickened dozens of area children in recent years.

Since 1996, 35 children have been diagnosed - and three have died - of

brain tumors, leukemia, lymphoma, and other forms of cancer - all within a

12-mile wide circle that includes two small towns and farmland just south of

Lake Erie. With many of the diagnoses coming between 2002 and 2006, state

health authorities declared it a cancer cluster, saying the number and type

of diagnoses exceed what would be expected statistically for so small a

population over that time.

" All you think about is what happened to these kids, " said Donna Hisey ,

43, the mother whose family has been devastated by cancer. " Is it gone? Or

is it still here? What is it?! "

After three years of exhaustive investigation, no cause is known.

Investigators have tested wells and public drinking water, sampled groundwater

and

air near factories and checked homes, schools and industries for radiation.

They also set up a network of air monitors across eastern Sandusky County,

finding cleaner air than in most places around Ohio, the health department

said.

Nothing unusual was detected . Not even a hint.

" From the very beginning, we've said the vast majority of childhood cancer

causes aren't known, " said Indian, the state health department's

chief of comprehensive cancer control. He'll soon release yet another

investigative report.

Without any answers as to what's attacking their children, parents are

left to question whether living within a known cancer cluster area is

endangering their kids. Perhaps surprisingly, only a handful have moved away.

" It's in the back of everybody's mind, " said Mahler, who has two

healthy young sons. " Are you going to risk your children's lives by liv ing

here? "

Eight children were diagnosed with cancer in and near Clyde between

2002-2006, nearly four times the number that state health experts figure is

normal.

Ohio health investigators converged on the town of just 6,000 people

halfway between Cleveland and Toledo and home to the Whirlpool Corp.'s largest

washing machine factory.

What they found was worse than anyone suspected. The cancers affecting

victims age 19 and younger included neighboring townships and much of the

nearby town of Fremont.

One in five of the cancer cases were related to the brain or central

nervous system, matching national rates, according to the American Cancer

Society.

The diagnoses peaked in 2006, when nine children were told they, too, had

cancer. Since then, there have been four new cases. The most recent came in

the spring this year, when a 7-year-old girl was diagnosed with

rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer of the body's connective tissues.

At first, investigators focused just on Clyde, where social calendars

revolve around school, sports and church. Most families have been here for

generations. It's the kind of place where teens can't wait to leave - only to

find they can't wait to come back to start a family.

Seeing their children afflicted by unexplained illnesses has strengthened

the bond among parents and neighbors instead of scaring them away.

" Even if it would've happened to my family, I can't imagine where else I

would go to get the support I needed, " said Overmyer, an English and

journalism teacher at Clyde High School.

" People in neighboring towns say 'I can't believe you still live there,' "

said the mother of two. " You can't pick up your life and move every time

there's something that scares you. "

Enrollment numbers at area schools haven't dropped and real estate agents

say they haven't encountered anyone who doesn't want to look for homes in

the area or is desperate to get out.

" Clyde is small enough that we would really know if that was happening, "

said City Manager Fiser.

Ohio health and environmental regulators have speculated the cause was

environmental and may have come and gone - maybe a chemical from a factory or

a dump that polluted the air or water.

Air and water samples have not revealed any concerns around the Whirlpool

plant or the Vickery Environmental waste site just out side town, where

hazardous chemicals are injected into rock a half-mile below ground.

And in September, investigators said they found no radiation from homes,

schools, or industries to link to the illnesses, ruling out the -Besse

nuclear plant, about 20 miles from Clyde, and NASA's former nuclear reactor

near Sandusky as a possible source.

Doctors also have been vigilant, making sure they're not missing any signs

or symptoms in young patients. And parents are more likely to bring their

kids in for checkups instead of waiting for an illness to go away.

" You still have to treat common things first, & qu ot; said Dr.

Herring, who has a family practice in Clyde.

" But it's definitely one of the things we worry about more. "

What's stumped investigators is the lack of any common threads among the

children - all of them don't live in the same neighborhood, go to the same

school or drink from the same water. They don't all have the same type of

cancer or even parents who work at the same factory.

State health officials have spent recent months asking the sick children

and their families dozens of questions about their homes and health

histories, hoping to find a link. A report due soon will reveal whether they

found

any conne ctions among all or some of the children, Indian said.

Some parents think it's likely that investigators will never identify a

cause.

In a way, it's not a surprise.

Pinpointing the cause of a cancer cluster rarely - if ever - happens.

During the 1960s and '70s, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention investigated 108 cancer clusters around the United States, most of

them childhood leukemia. But they found no definite causes for any of them.

< span style= " font-size:10.0pt;color:black; " >The CDC has since allowed

states to take the lead investigating almost all suspected clusters while

still offering some oversight, as the federal agency is doing in Ohio.

The outbreak around Clyde is only 50 miles north of another cluster that

Ohio health officials spent four years investigating. Beginning in the late

1990s, nine former students from River Valley High School in n were

diagnosed with leukemia.

Tests found toxic chemicals in schoolyard soil and students were relocated

to new buildings miles away. Investigators never definitively linked the

cancers to the old school site, a former World War II Army depot where

wastes and solvents were dumped and burned.

The nation's most intensive investigation ever of a cancer cluster began

nine years ago in western Nevada and remains inconclusive. Hundreds of state

and federal experts have spent millions investigating the leukemia that

sickened 17 children and killed three between 1997 and 2004.

Some parents of Clyde area's sick children question whether the state's

inquiry has been thorough enough. They point out that there's been no soil

testing or requests for experts from CDC to join the investigation.

" Why haven't they brought all minds to the table? " said Warren Brown,

whose 11-year-old daughter, a, died of br ain cancer in August 2009. " Why

not throw everything at it? "

Investigators insist they've ignored nothing. Soil testing wouldn't reveal

any answers, they said, because the sick children come from a widespread

area and all would have needed to come in contact with contaminated dirt.

Ohio Environmental Protection Agency Director Korleski said

the state has consulted with federal health officials throughout the

investigation and that they've signed off on the steps Ohio has taken.

The investigation is his top priority.

< span style= " font-size:10.0pt;color:black; " > " It is disappointing and

frustrating to not know, " said Korleski.

Brown wishes there were somebody to blame.

He's been careful not to point fingers and doesn't want the town to

suffer. But he also said he wouldn't hold back if something here was the cause.

" I'd be yelling at the top of my lungs to leave town, " he said. " I can't

do that. "

Kreider, a mother of five children, said she and her husband spent

an agonizing week and sleepless nights wondering if they were making a

mistake before buying a new home in town two years ago. In the end, leaving

didn't feel right.

" Those things don't want to make us retreat, " she said. " They bring us

together. "

The Hiseys faced the same question almost five years ago when daughter

Tyler , who's now 17, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia.

They put their house up for sale even though it had everything they

wanted: ponds for fishing, a woods for hunting and plenty of space. They're now

glad it didn't sell.

The outdoors surrounding their home has become a sanctuary for Tanner, 12,

diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia two years after his sister was

sickened.

Chemotherapy has kept him out of school most of this year so home is where

he spends much of his time. It's where he can catch catfish, watch deer

romp across the fields and still be a kid.

" Everything else has been taken away, " his father said. " We can't take

their support, their comfort and their home away from them. "

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