MITRA MALEK
The Miami Herald
Palm Beach Post

The Acreage has a cluster of childhood cancer cases, the head of Palm
Beach County’s Health Department said Monday, confirming some of the
worst fears of parents who called for a state investigation last year.

Eight months of uncertainty ended Monday when state health officials
confirmed that rates of brain tumors and brain cancer among children
in the semirural community are higher than normal, especially among
girls.

But based on early results of interviews with the families, it’s
unlikely that health officials will be able to pinpoint what has
caused the spike, said Dr. Alina Alonso, director of the county’s
Health Department, a division of the state health department.

“We really don’t have one thing,” Alonso said during a monthly
conference call updating legislators on the investigation, which
started in June. “From what we’re seeing now, there is nothing that
is going to say, `Aha this is the cause of the cancer.’ ”

Health officials recently completed interviews with 12 of 13 families
with children who have been diagnosed with either brain tumors or
brain cancer from 1993 through 2008, in search of commonalities. One
of the 13 families couldn’t be located because they moved.

Until the department finishes analyzing those interviews in the next
two months, the state wouldn’t conduct any environmental tests, if at
all, to look for a potential cause, said county health department
spokesman Tim O’Connor.

Even so, O’Connor added, Alonso has said that the data available so
far are enough to label the cancer cases a cluster.

Officials plan to discuss the investigation at a public meeting from
6:30 to 8:30 p.m. Feb. 9 at Seminole Ridge High School.

Residents said they were somewhat relieved to hear there is a
cluster. But they said environmental tests are imperative.

For full article:

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/breaking-news/story/1458593.html

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