NEWS

State health officials discuss fears of cancer cluster in Johnson County

About 100 residents gathered Monday night in the Franklin Community High School auditorium to voice concerns.

Shari Rudavsky
IndyStar
Stethoscope

Kim Clark knows too many young people with cancer. Her niece, 14 years old. Her friend’s 11-year-old son. Another friend’s son.

Like other Johnson County residents, the Franklin woman has begun to fear that something environmental — be it the water they drink, the air they breathe or something else — lies behind what she sees as an unusually high number of children diagnosed with cancers in the area.

“It is a huge concern; there is a problem,” she said.

Clark and about 100 other residents gathered Monday night in the Franklin Community High School auditorium to voice concerns about what many think could be a potential cancer cluster in Johnson County.

But state health officials say there’s no evidence that anything out of the ordinary is occurring in Johnson County. They examined the county’s pediatric cancer rate and found that it did not exceed the normal rate of such cancers, the signature mark of a cancer cluster.

From 1999 to 2013, Johnson County saw 111 cases of cancer in people younger than 20, a rate of 19.6 cases per 100,000 population. The pediatric cancer rate in the state is 19.8.

“There is no childhood cancer cluster in Johnson County,” said Dr. Jennifer Walthall, deputy commissioner for the Indiana State Department of Health. “There is no increased risk here for this community.”

Because one would expect to see 107 cases of cancer in that time frame, Walthall said, the four additional cases are not statistically significant. In addition, Walthall said, that no science supports a link between drinking water and these cancers.

Probe: Indiana county's cancer cluster unfounded

NCAA president 'very pleased' with revisions to Indiana religious freedom law

This is the second time in recent months that state health officials have investigated a potential cancer cluster. Earlier this fall, state health officials said that despite Henry County residents’ concerns, there was no evidence to support fears of a cancer cluster causing a rare form of brain cancer in adults. Indiana has never had a cancer cluster confirmed.

However, Walthall acknowledged that the scientific evidence gathered to date has its limits.

"As with any cancer, there's a lot that we and the medical community don’t know," she said.

Because there was no unusual increase in cancer rates, the Indiana State Department of Health considers its investigation for Johnson County closed.

But the Indiana Department of Environmental Management is in the process of conducting an investigation into some areas of the county, where routine tests detected some groundwater samples contaminated with at least two chemicals, dichloroethane, or DCE, and trichloroethane, or TCE.

IDEM experts conducted a four-year investigation into the problem, from 2009 to 2013, said Amy Smith, a department spokeswoman. They think that a former tomato manufacturing plant, which has been inactive for several years, might be behind the contamination.

Although Smith said the cleanup is ongoing, she said there is no reason for residents to be concerned about their drinking water.

“We’re confident that the regulations we have in place to make sure that the drinking water is safe, that they are very protective,” Smith said. “All of the data show that the water is safe to drink, and the water was safe to drink.”

People with private wells can have their water tested if they worry about its chemical content, Smith said.

Some of the contaminated area, however, included three wells from which Indiana American Water drew water for its consumers.

The company has known since it purchased three wells in 1993 that the aquifer had an elevated level of DCE. The water company treats its drinking water with aeration and filtration, as well as disinfection. The company also routinely tests drinking water samples to ensure that the chemicals present do not exceed federal standards.

“We have always met the standard for the substance in question,” said Joe Loughmiller, a spokesman for the water company.

The company stopped using the two wells that displayed the highest levels of DCE in 2006, as they increased the capacity of wells in other areas of the county. About six years later, it stopped using the third well, Loughmiller said.

Still, residents are concerned that something has led to what they fear is an increase in cancer cases among youths and adults.

A year and a half ago, Susan Davidson’s son Zane, now 11, was diagnosed with leukemia. She knows several kids also diagnosed about the same time.

“I don’t think it’s just the water, though it could play a part in it,” said Davidson, who lives in Greenwood. “Something somewhere is causing it.”

Call Star reporter Shari Rudavsky at (317) 444-6354. Follow her on Twitter: @srudavsky.